Mulching Palmetto

[pgflrob]

Has anyone ever used a bush hog or even more powerful tool to mulch palmetto down to the ground or in dirty piles?

 

[MrJimi]

I have always heard the only to get rid of them is to pull roots and all. Can you imagine if they spread like cactus? YIKES
And I live in Florida and we have it here
Jim

 

[VistanTN]

Back when I lived in FL -- Cocoa area on 5 acres -- I brush-hogged the Palmetto, sort of. AC 5020 with a 5' hog -- working slowly you could chop the tops fairly easily, but once you dug a root loose, all **** broke loose. With a lot of 3pt and throttle work you could kill off some of it. I think the only thing that will totally destroy palmetto is a tactical nuclear weapon -- .5 kiloton or higher. Haven't tried it, but the darn stuff may grow back even after that.

 

[Brad_Blazer]

When I went through AF tech school doing survival at Hurlburt Field / Eglin, we were taught how to cut open the heart of the palmetto and eat it. It was pretty good, especially in comparison to the anoles the made us eat.

I would think a loader with tooth bar would pop them out nicely. I have wicked rose briars here in NC that I battled fruitlessly until I got my loader tractor.
When I lived in Oviedo, FL I only had 1/2 acre. I just grabbed the stalks with my bare hands and yanked them out! (LOL I wish) Of course you have to eat a lot of palmetto berries to gain that kind of grip. Why do they call it saw palmetto anyhow?

Brad

 

[DCS]

I have brush hogged 3 acres of it. You have to go real slow and real low and then go over it again about half the time. The land owner that I mowed for was thinking about spraying them with something like Round up. Good luck.

 

[sandman2234]

Palmetto bushes are tougher than a Duetz 30-06 bush hog drive line. I found that out the hard way. Did a quick job for cash with a borrowed tractor. Didn't loose too much, since the guy paid me anyway. Just enough to pay for the drive shaft.
Learned myself a valuable lesson that day, about borrowing other peoples bush hogs.
David from jax

 

[randydupree]

if you keep mowing them,they will die! mow them short!i hear saw palmetto is protected now,is that true?
randy

 

[sandman2234]

The only thing I ever saw protecting palmettos was a rattlesnake. I got him with the mower, so I guess they aren't protected anymore...
David from jax

 

[VistanTN]

Getting a bit more serious, developers along the Space Coast clear lots of palmetto for new housing. Their "normal" attack is D-8 (or larger) Caterpiller with a three-shank ripper. That goes deep enough to get all the roots, but even then small bits will re-root and sprout -- but at that size, Round-up will kill em. Most of the stuff on my property had lateral root-trunks that were 4-6" in diameter. There probably is a quantity and concentration of Round-up that would kill those, but I couldn't afford it. I had pretty good success working it very slowly with the bush hog and then clearing the chunks with a landscape rake. Ended up moving a lot of dirt around, but I couldn't find anything else that worked. BTW I had some that had its roots intertwined in live oak roots (and I didn't want to kill the oaks!) so it just kept coming back.
VistanTN
ex-VistanFL