Removing tiny stumps

[joecoin]

I have 1,002 tiny stumps I need to remove. The largest would be 2 inches in diameter. Looking for the best way to get rid of them.

Thinking about using a chain saw with de-barker on it. Has anyone here tried this?

 

[pmsmechanic]

The best way to remove them would be that they were still attached to the tree. Since that isn't an option...

How much is still sticking out of the ground? It's an important detail. I would just be tempted to use a large hammer and push the remains into the ground where they can easily rot away. Soaking the ground would make the "stumps" easier to pound down.

 

[skipperbrown]

Toothbar on a FEL? Just pop them up.

 

[Creamer]

Depends on where they are. If you can live with remains I would take a bush how and cut them off shattering them all the way to ground level - the shattered remains will rot quickly. They will gone in a year.

If you need to get the roots out a single shank subsoiler should rip them right out and would be extremely easy if they are in rows you could just drive down the row and pop them out then scoop them up - with a scoop or easier with a grapple or toothbar.

I mowed off an area with many hardwood trees with my bushhog and two years later the only stumps I could find were the few I chainsawed off at ground level that were over 3" diameter. there were a lot more than a thousand. I went out with an axe and splintered the top of the the larger ones and in another couple of years they were gone. the power of nature can be very helpful.

 

[PILOON]

I had a situation like that.
Foreseeing the challenge I quickly welded up a 'clamp on tooth' that I attached to my FEL.

My 'tooth' was an old axel shaft about 1 inch in diameter by about 16" long with a sharpened point and it clamped on with 2 5/8" bolts.
I clamped it center on my FEL bucket.*
Method was to attack the tree root at a downwards angle and push the 'tooth' under the root ball and then to curl my bucket with the heel on the ground.
Worked like a charm each and every time. Bonus was that soil rarely came with the roots as the were effectively 'pulled out'.
Most saplings were about 6-8 ft tall and varied from cedar to maples.

The job was to remove all trees that had grown in a compacted abandoned road bed.
Once extracted a simple grading returned the road back to useable.

*I basically copied the idea of clamp on trailer hitches or skid shoes often offered by various venders.

 

[joecoin]

Thanks for all the responses. So far no one seems to have attempted my idea of using a debarker.

I'm nor certain what sort of plants these "trees" were/are. The tallest ones are maybe 15 feet high, most are 10 feet or less. They propagate by sending out shallow root runners, they grow very close to each other. Quite often there are 2 or three sharing the same roots. The area they are in was farm field about 35 years ago.

I had use of a mini excavator for a week last year. I did pull out hundreds using the backhoe and thumb.

My riding tractor is a Steiner 420 with 20 hp gas engine. I pulled maybe a dozen trees using it, but that was a slow go and I think it was pretty hard on the tractor.

I have a 2 wheeled tractor that I have cut a lot of them, using the brush hog attachment. Those stumps are shattered and I can usually just step on them and snap them well enough that I believe they won't be a problem anymore.

It's the ones that I cut using a chain saw that I need to remove.

I will try the sledge hammer method suggested by pmsmechanic.

Failing that I'll see about putting a ripper on the back of the Steiner (no FEL on it).

Unless someone comes along and tells me they used a debarker and it wasn't a pita.

 

[Creamer]

Since you are just a couple of hours almost straight east of me I am betting you had the same growth I did - were they a dark red smooth barked tree? they were thick where I mowed through them using my loader to knock them down as the tractor went over them before the bushhog chewed them off. There were many that were over 15' tall and they were thick and there were some clumps that tossed my tractor around pretty good even though I was going slow - even those smaller trees have some spring force in them especially in numbers. Most of them had less than a six inch spacing so the mower was chewing on many at the same time.

I mowed them down one June and 15 months later I mowed the area with my lawn mower and didn't find the stumps.

I have also knocked down a bunch of cottonwood and willows with a sickle bar mower up to 2.5" diameter and then went back over a few months later with a bushhog to mangle the stumps and a year later it was hard to find the stumps.

 

[Thomas]

Grapple or thumb setup best way to go more so if stumps are year old plus.

 

[joecoin]

Since you are just a couple of hours almost straight east of me I am betting you had the same growth I did - were they a dark red smooth barked tree? they were thick where I mowed through them using my loader to knock them down as the tractor went over them before the bushhog chewed them off. There were many that were over 15' tall and they were thick and there were some clumps that tossed my tractor around pretty good even though I was going slow - even those smaller trees have some spring force in them especially in numbers. Most of them had less than a six inch spacing so the mower was chewing on many at the same time.

I mowed them down one June and 15 months later I mowed the area with my lawn mower and didn't find the stumps.

I have also knocked down a bunch of cottonwood and willows with a sickle bar mower up to 2.5" diameter and then went back over a few months later with a bushhog to mangle the stumps and a year later it was hard to find the stumps.

I wouldn't call these smooth barked, but maybe they are?

They produce a white waxy berry in late summer, the turkeys eat those.

Birds do not nest in these things. I cut some down 4 yeas ago and they are growing back from the stumps.

 

[joecoin]

Update on my stump removal:

I tried pmsmechanic's suggestion to hit them with a sledge hammer. That worked on a lot of the smaller stumps, but after a couple dozen my 60 year old back was feeling it.

I'm going to continue this method but I'm also going to try running my small rotor tiller in circles around some of them, to see if that loosens them up enough to pull them out.

 

[bigtiller]

Update on my stump removal:

I tried pmsmechanic's suggestion to hit them with a sledge hammer. That worked on a lot of the smaller stumps, but after a couple dozen my 60 year old back was feeling it.

I'm going to continue this method but I'm also going to try running my small rotor tiller in circles around some of them, to see if that loosens them up enough to pull them out.

Have you read my signature line? It may be helpful.

 

[Code54]

Rent a Mini Ex for the weekend and just drive along yanking them out...

A three to 4 ton unit should take care of those little stumps easily.

 

[WVH1977]

I could be wrong but it sounds like you have a type of invasive tree growing. If that is the case you need to make sure you get all the roots up. I had this problem with an invasive tree called "tree of heaven". It was a pain getting rid of them. When I rented a mini-ex to clean up some of my property I dug everyone of those suckers out of the ground and burned them. Their roots stretched way out through the ground and would shoot up everywhere. After that I kept cutting the grass/weeds around the cleaned up area to keep them from coming back up.

You might want to check with your local forester or local Co-Op and see if they can tell you what kind of tree it is and if it is invasive. They can usually give you info on how to eradicate them.

 

[joecoin]

Have you read my signature line? It may be helpful.

That's good advice, but I'm not plowing. I use a large chunk of my land for a disc golf course. Tiny stumps are trip hazards.

 

[joecoin]

I could be wrong but it sounds like you have a type of invasive tree growing. If that is the case you need to make sure you get all the roots up. I had this problem with an invasive tree called "tree of heaven". It was a pain getting rid of them. When I rented a mini-ex to clean up some of my property I dug everyone of those suckers out of the ground and burned them. Their roots stretched way out through the ground and would shoot up everywhere. After that I kept cutting the grass/weeds around the cleaned up area to keep them from coming back up.

You might want to check with your local forester or local Co-Op and see if they can tell you what kind of tree it is and if it is invasive. They can usually give you info on how to eradicate them.

Once I cut them down I keep the land mowed so they don't have a chance to grow back.

 

[joecoin]

Rent a Mini Ex for the weekend and just drive along yanking them out...

A three to 4 ton unit should take care of those little stumps easily.

Well now you want me to spend money. Geez.

 

[pmsmechanic]

Hmm I didn't think about 60 year old backs.

How much is sticking out of the ground. Could you shred them with a rough cut mower and then use a finish mower set low to further shred them. Just some more ideas.

1002 stumps to rototill around doesn't sound like fun either.

 

[Buxus]

What I do for small stumps is leave them about 12 inches tall so I don't pop a tire on them. Then I spray with Garlon. In 6 mos roots and stump are dead and brittle. They break off at ground level by hand easily. Nothing hard and sharp to puncture my tires. That's what I would do with your short stumps, spray now and then just kick them over in November.

 

[BoylermanCT]

I use a Brush Grabber to pull out small stumps. Works best if you have a helper to hook up the grabber to the stump and release it when pulled and on to the next stump. The heavier the tractor the better.

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/t...MInInmxsj32gIVBFmGCh0cbASkEAQYBSABEgJdifD_BwE

 

[k0ua]

I would use my grapple brush grabber attachment to grab and flip them out. If there is enough left to grab onto. Maybe 3 inches or so.



http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...ush-grabber.html?highlight=grapple+attachment