Plot in Lumber trails

[Vern]

Good morning

I closed on 24 acres in Southampton County VA on Friday. The pines had been thinned earlier in the year but they left one heck of a mess. The trailes are piled with cuttings and needles and they left stumps up a couple inches.

To be able to plant a small food plot this spring I need to get the stumps out (6 to 12" diameter) and the cutting up.

I am going to make a brush fork for the FEL but any suggesations on the stumps?

Vern

 

[nybirdman]

Back-hoe........rent if you have too.Better plan on limeing...high acid soil with all the pines.If they had left the stumps high you may have been able to pull with a tractor.

 

[Western]

Back-hoe........rent if you have too.Better plan on limeing...high acid soil with all the pines.If they had left the stumps high you may have been able to pull with a tractor.

+1 on the backhoe:thumbsup: unless there is only a few, like 2!!

I have dug out stumps (Oak) with my tractor and it is a labor of "love" for sure. Backhoe is 100 times faster. Use your tractor to do the "finishing", filling holes and smoothing.

 

[Vern]

I am looking at possibly 20 to 30 stumps in the first area. I would like to take them all but thats hundreds.

 

[Combustix]

excavator, probably don't need a real big one somewhere around 12000 lbs for that size stump. Will make short work of it. get the largest one with a blade you can dig and smooth all at once

 

[forgeblast]

You could use the stumps as fencing too, puting them around the property to control where the deer can enter your property.

 

[hrcarver]

The lowest pH I've ever seen came from 30 miles from you. Came back at 4.2! Needed a ridiculous amount of lime, especially for a sandy soil.

Cant emphasize a soil test enough, nothing will grow that low.

 

[foggy1111]

I have used a stump grinder to remove over 1200 stumps from my land. First I used a rental grinder(s)....and took about 200 per day of pine stumps. Later I bought a 3 Point Woods Grinder for my tractor and have taken about 600 stumps with the tractor.

For 30 stumps.....I'd rent a 25 HP Raygo or Vermeer self propelled.....and have them gone in a few hours. :thumbsup:

 

[Brushhill dave]

If you are renting a mini exc. get one with a thumb it's the only way to go

 

[buck12]

If it were me I would plant around the stumps and wait for them to rot. Pine stumps usually rot within four years.

 

[Vern]

4 years? not sure I can wait that long....hopefully the tractor will be done soon and once the cuttings are gone I can see what I am dealing with

 

[jpm1]

Rent a Mini-excavator with a thumb, lot smoother than a wheel backhoe and more fun too! . . .John

 

[foggy1111]

If it were me I would plant around the stumps and wait for them to rot. Pine stumps usually rot within four years.

They may rot that fast in Missisippi.....but in our sandy soil they will last a long time. Maybe a decade or more. For Pine stumps......grinding is the best way for me...... much faster.......and when your done you dont have stumps to bury or burn or haul. :thumbsup:

 

[Lineman North Florida]

If it were me I would plant around the stumps and wait for them to rot. Pine stumps usually rot within four years.

Same here in Florida, termites will see to it, and if you want to speed up the process throw a little dirt on top of the stumps.

 

[buck12]

Same here in Florida, termites will see to it, and if you want to speed up the process throw a little dirt on top of the stumps.

Here you will see what looks like a solid pine stump and its only a shell. You can step on it and the stump will fall apart.

 

[forgeblast]

I did that in one of my bottom fields, the problem was the yellow jackets that turned it into a home hated me kicking their roof in. Only stung 3 times, it could have been worse.

 

[Carl_NH]

I concur with others you can rent a stump grinder and get 20-30 6-12" size in a day maybe more.

Grind them 4-6" below grade then disc the area once you have all the bigger brush cleaned up will level it out and cut up the needles/leftover branches into a finer mulch mixed with the chips. Then a lot of lime some fertilizer and seed of choice.

Depending on your soil if its rocky stumping will leave you with a big mess of roots and rocks to clean up plus I have found 10 years after stumping the ground settles more vs where the stumps were ground down. These were big pine 30-40" across the stump at ground level so when you dig one of these out they are 5-6' in diameter and weigh 1000+lbs due dirt and rocks embedded.

 

[foggy1111]

Here's another pic of our trails that wind through the woods....and a rental grinder I used before buying my Woods 3 point grinder. Also a pic of liming my trails / plots.

I paid about $150 per day (plus fuel) to rent the self propelled 25 HP grinders as shown. I could grind up to 200 pine stumps per day with one of these machines. Most of my stumps were sheared off a few inches above ground and were 12 to 14" diameter. Your results may vary.

 

[Vern]

Your trails look great, exactly what I am going to do. Ginding just seems like such a slow way of going. I have used a similar grinder but it was on some pretty big stumps 30 inch diameter. I have some time coming in March I will have to see about renting one.

Thanks