ning
Elite Member
I've got a number of scrub oak that I need to clear out of an area, and I'd prefer to yank them out rather than just cut them short as they sprout suckers madly and I prefer to avoid poisons.
I've managed to pull out smaller specimens with my tractor using a chain - up to a few inches in diameter - but when they get bigger than this it's not doable, as these scrub oak have crazy strong roots. these aren't anything like a pine tree, which while it's got a tap root there's not a lot else and they come out readily just being pushed over (besides, cutting those is permanent)
I've seen people use an old wheel so that there's an initial upwards pull, and I have questions before trying to find a reasonable wheel for this -
1 - I'm guessing the bigger the wheel, the better? I tried using a piece of steel I-beam I had, but it was too unstable and fell over to the side before I could get enough tension on it (working solo) to have it do any good
2 - has anyone had luck with this wheel method pulling scrub oak or something with similarly obnoxious roots?
There's way too many of them to dig out with the backhoe.
I've managed to pull out smaller specimens with my tractor using a chain - up to a few inches in diameter - but when they get bigger than this it's not doable, as these scrub oak have crazy strong roots. these aren't anything like a pine tree, which while it's got a tap root there's not a lot else and they come out readily just being pushed over (besides, cutting those is permanent)
I've seen people use an old wheel so that there's an initial upwards pull, and I have questions before trying to find a reasonable wheel for this -
1 - I'm guessing the bigger the wheel, the better? I tried using a piece of steel I-beam I had, but it was too unstable and fell over to the side before I could get enough tension on it (working solo) to have it do any good
2 - has anyone had luck with this wheel method pulling scrub oak or something with similarly obnoxious roots?
There's way too many of them to dig out with the backhoe.