removing 100's of small saplings and bushes

[Redbug]

I think I would spray them with Roundup when they leaf out in the spring. After they die, I would use a root grapple to clear them out. The ones that did not die from the first spraying, I would cut them down and brush on undiluted Roundup on the stumps and that will kill the root. Pile them all up and burn them.

 

[Dave5264]

Dave 5264
You must identify these trees you are calling "pin cherry",we have what THOUGHT was pin cherrry and it turned out to be Common Buckthorn.Very evasive and TOXIC.Please look up this up and identify.
I am in northern NY and we started seeing these about 20 years ago and they have spread greatly.
These are small trees ,shiney bark,purple berries.
THEY ARE VERY DEEP ROOTED AND YOU WILL NOT PULL EVEN WITH A 50 HORSE TRACTOR.

Our's are "Choke Cherries" very TOXIC to horses

dont know how deep rooted thay are as yet, but ill find out in due course.

oddly, local folks collect them and make Jam from choke cherries. apparently the jam is quite tasty, but the raw berries are the most horrible things Ive tasted (folks eat 'em off the bush raw too), they suck the mositure right out of your mouth and leave a horrbible taste.

 

[Dave5264]

I think I would spray them with Roundup when they leaf out in the spring. After they die, I would use a root grapple to clear them out. The ones that did not die from the first spraying, I would cut them down and brush on undiluted Roundup on the stumps and that will kill the root. Pile them all up and burn them.

good idea Dave, i have a big container of roundup I just bought, will put it to use.

 

[Dave5264]

I'd mow it with heavy duty brush cutter. Go very slowly and collect the large rocks in your front end loader as you go. If the land is to be pasture, you'll want to remove the rocks anyway.
Mike

Will be able to collect some of the smaller rocks for sure (smaller = stuff size of a pumpkin or smaller), our hill has these rocks that stick out of the ground in some places and its like an iceberg, 10% above ground 90% below ground

I cleared a small spot with the brush hog in the fall and hit what i thought was a small rock. Grabbed the shovel to dig it out, but never found the end of it...probably the size of a Volkswagen. :laughing:

the horses are icelandics, theyre are very sure footed, so they have no problem climbing on rocks. Although it is a bit worrying to see them running in the fields in the winter when its all ice and/or snow.

this small hill im aiming to reclaim is the only area in our "paddock" or Pasture zone that has this soil consistency, the rest is pure blue clay with 4" of topsoil, not a rock to be seen.

 

[Ranger Rick]

You might want to get some Garlon 4 and later this winter if there is not any snow on the ground you could go ahead and use a basal bark treatment and kill the trees before spring. I have had real good luck with it controlling the invasive tree of heaven by spraying them between February and April down here. It is quite effective, spring comes and the trees started to leaf out and then the leaves stop growing and the tree dies.

It would give you something else to do this winter once the snow is gone.
Rick

 

[jimgerken]

How about goats? Can they tolerate the plants?

 

[jdw96flstc]

In 2009 I had about 5 acres cleared for a cabin site. Caterpillar brush cutter and a D3 to push into piles. I then burned the piles.

before and after pics

http://s257.photobucket.com/albums/hh236/jdw96flstc/


Link to Cat cutter in action.

YouTube - Caterpillar 248 B Brush Cutter

jdw

 

[slaveToHorses]

Been there, done that, got the scars....

Anything that deals with them individually is a looser, unless they are pretty big.
In my case I had tons of alder and maple saplings amongst blackberries so thick it stalled out the Case 450 dozer I rented.
So I called in a D8 to scrape it first. Many of the saplings actually survived that. The next step was crisscrossing the field with a subsoiler which did a great job of tearing up the roots.

I then followed with a landscape rake fitted with gage wheels. That cleared out everything left from the scraping.

At which point I would just seed it with a hearty grass. Anything that wanted to sneak back in would have to compete with the grass. Plus it keeps the dust down. When you put the horses on it, they will have fun with the grass and after it is gone you can dump on a layer of hog fuel.

Using this method you could have the horses on it the same year.

The rocks left over from the D8 you would probably want to just leave and work around. You could then attack the plants that were hiding in those rocks with the herbicide.

 

[forester2]

I'm with Ranger Rick. Spray basally w/ Garlon. Much easier than foliar spraying and can be done now. Dead trees can be eaiser to remove and lower chance of sprouting from stumps or remaining roots.

 

[art]

I've tried dozers on brush and wound up having to dig a lot more soil and more work then what I bargined for as some just bent over and didn't come out.

The thing that works here I never thought of till a customer came back in and told me what happened while he was picking stone with a rock bucket!!!! He opened up his hedge rows by up to twenty feet on some of his rented fields!!!

This would be two fold for you!

When driving with the teeth into the ground a few inches they will pull up light rooted tree's and brush as well as stone! Then when you have the stuff in piles have your bon-fire!

They make them with skid steer quick attach so they can go on any loader or they can be with the pin on. Most farm machinery dealers have them available! Don't go to wide as they are heavy on there own compared to a normal bucket. The normal tine spacing is two to three inch spacing and they leave the dirt where it was so you won't have big holes to re-grade.