Getting rid of autumn olive trees-tools?

[Birdhunter1]

I have found the best way to remove them is a 6000+ lbs excavator with a 24" bucket and a thumb. Rip the out, pick them up, drop them in a windrow, eventually push the brush windrow into a pile with a tractor and use the excavator to pile them and you really have to pack them tight together to get them to burn. Since you have a backhoe on your tractor I would add a thumb and put a brush grapple on the front and you would have the ideal tool to take them on. I hate them things and they don't burn very well.

 

[JDgreen227]

I have found the best way to remove them is a 6000+ lbs excavator with a 24" bucket and a thumb. Rip the out, pick them up, drop them in a windrow, eventually push the brush windrow into a pile with a tractor and use the excavator to pile them and you really have to pack them tight together to get them to burn. Since you have a backhoe on your tractor I would add a thumb and put a brush grapple on the front and you would have the ideal tool to take them on. I hate them things and they don't burn very well.

I went online a few years ago and found a few places where you could actually BUY those censored trees ready to plant...heck if somebody wants to dig some up here they are more than welcome to take all they want. Most ugly, useless tree I can imagine. The only thing I think they might be good for is to plant in front of a window to keep away Peeping Toms and burglars.....:laughing:

 

[IslandTractor]

I have found the best way to remove them is a 6000+ lbs excavator with a 24" bucket and a thumb. Rip the out, pick them up, drop them in a windrow, eventually push the brush windrow into a pile with a tractor and use the excavator to pile them and you really have to pack them tight together to get them to burn. Since you have a backhoe on your tractor I would add a thumb and put a brush grapple on the front and you would have the ideal tool to take them on. I hate them things and they don't burn very well.

yep, that is the best way to do it. Short of a big excavator though it is possible to rig a backhoe on a CUT to be a pretty efficient ripping machine. I agree completely with the grapple on the FEL too. In fact, I don't even use my BH thumb but just rip the roots on four sides (move the tractor once 90degrees) then push it over with the FEL/grapple and haul it off. Very efficient operation that depends on having a reasonably heavy tractor (to push), a grapple (to carry trash) and of course the ripper on the BH.

 

[lhfarm]

I went online a few years ago and found a few places where you could actually BUY those censored trees ready to plant...heck if somebody wants to dig some up here they are more than welcome to take all they want. Most ugly, useless tree I can imagine. The only thing I think they might be good for is to plant in front of a window to keep away Peeping Toms and burglars.....:laughing:

Like many things done with good intentions, the a few of the trees where planted by my late FIL on recommendations from the state game folks - good bird feed. I'm going to be traveling most of next month, so I'm hoping we have some rain while I'm gone. I'm sure all the methods will work better in softer ground. Right now the clay is hard as rocks. I figure I will do a few trees at a time and work my way around the property.

I do have a thumb (manual) for my BH. I suspect with some practice (lots of opportunities) I could get good at popping them. But it will be fun to look for new tools too.

 

[IslandTractor]

I do have a thumb (manual) for my BH. I suspect with some practice (lots of opportunities) I could get good at popping them. But it will be fun to look for new tools too.

Unless you have an excavator, you will have trouble "popping" these trees out. Excavators have ten plus times the breakout force that our cute little TLB backhoes have. You're going to have to break/rip the lateral roots in order to knock'em down I'm afraid.

 

[Kays Supply]

The one positive thing about working trees in the dry, is that more dirt falls off while you are working them out. If it isn't just soggy the wet clay stays on the root ball forever it seems like.

 

[JDgreen227]

Like many things done with good intentions, the a few of the trees where planted by my late FIL on recommendations from the state game folks - good bird feed. I'm going to be traveling most of next month, so I'm hoping we have some rain while I'm gone. I'm sure all the methods will work better in softer ground. Right now the clay is hard as rocks. I figure I will do a few trees at a time and work my way around the property.

I do have a thumb (manual) for my BH. I suspect with some practice (lots of opportunities) I could get good at popping them. But it will be fun to look for new tools too.

Bird feed.....yeah, right....I know they love to feast on those berries and I am sure you know where the seeds end up after going through the birds....:laughing: and that is why the trees are such an invasive species. Thankfully in most of my property I can reach them on all four sides to cut the roots away with my ugly ripper, one problem, though:

The poison ivy growing wild in my back 5 acres along with those worthless trees is spreading almost as fast, someday I am going to have to level the entire field and start all over again...

 

[forgeblast]

I found a few this year under the power lines from the birds. I chopped them down, they grew back fast. I cut and sprayed them this time i hope it works.

 

[lhfarm]

Just a quick update. Mounted the BH with a 12" bucket. I'm still trying to justify the ripper. Actually fun getting some time with the BH. I'll try to take some pictures later.

Thanks,

 

[SpiritFilled]

My experience with Autumn Olive trees goes back to 1977 when the state of Michigan Soil Conservation department offered these shrubs/trees for sale. I bought 25 and planted them along a fence. It wasn't too many years before my neighbors dormant property all around me were covered in AO. I ended up cutting mine down (along with all the Russian Olives, and Washington Hawthorne trees I bought). A couple years ago I bought the property next door. That included 2 1/2 acres completely covered with AO. The first year, during late fall and early winter I cut down nearly every AO on the property with nothing but a hand Samurai saw. I cut 100+ and left all the branches right where they fell. The next summer I burned several but still have a lot left to burn. I bought an old BH to dig out the stumps and that part was easy. I would also hook a chain to the FEL and to the stump and just lifted the stump out of the ground. It worked better than digging except for the really big stumps. The worst part of using a BH is with my soft ground I ruined the terrain wherever I went due to the weight. Also I didn't want to clear cut the whole parcel; there were some plants/trees I wanted to save. That was hard to do with a BH. A neighbor brought his JD 33hp TL with pallet forks and a Bush Hog and made a heck of a pile of debris. He didn't have any trouble cutting even 4 inch stumps. He tried the PF and they worked well on smaller trees but the Bush hog worked really well until he got too rambunctious and bent one of his blades. But I was impressed with how the Bush hog just pulverized those entire huge bushes. I have several left to deal with on the property line. I've had some luck with killing them with high concentration glyphosate (weed & grass killer), but you have to spray the foilage a few times and then apply it to the stump. The other invasive problem is Buckthorn trees now that I've eliminated the AO in some areas. Add to that the Virginia Creeper vines that are running wild and I've got my hands full. BTW - after pulling dozens of VC vines off the ground with no issues, I grabbed hold of a dormant vine to yank it out with no gloves on, and 5 days later had a case of an itchy rash, very similar to poison ivy, from head to toe, that lasted two weeks. I googled "vines of Michigan" and found that others had the same thing happen. Now we have another invasive species in our state: Phragmites !! They are usually found near drainage ditches and wet areas and are really hard to eliminate. People confuse them with cattails.