Pesky Saplings Question

[Lily left the valley]

This may not help with your bigger problems, but I bought this tool a couple of years ago:
https://www.extractigator.com/
It will fit up to about a 3" diameter trunk and pulls it right out of the ground (if you're holding your mouth right). It relies heavily on your body weight and doesn't really take a lot of upper body strength to push down on--just make sure you are bracing yourself for when it gives way!

As I said, it may not work for your many-times-pruned stumps, or the ones close to the foundation, but for stray volunteers, it seems to work quite well.

Does this work with impacted soil as well, or does it need to be loose/wet? I watched the video, and the close ups don't seem to show impacted soil, so I'm wondering.

[phil]

since we have this coninual issue with willows usually i rent a big trimmer with a blade and that's ok for some of them. we have also been experimenting with an old gravely tractor.. like the one on the right of this photo.
http://www.briggsplanet.com/news/presco ... -show-004/

i happened upon some huge carbide sawblades and they work but it is quite a scary contraption to run.. it drives itself but it isn't so easy to move it forward as slowly as you want to especially with rocks on the ground etc..

It did seem to work well to keep things down once I had whacked all the big ones down.. the trimmer can do up to about 1 or maybe 2 inches but over that it's chainsaw..

we have a rid on garden mower but the stuff just springs underneath and doesn't really get cut too well unless we are maintaining the same area and can pass over it more often.. in that case it works.

the Graveley ones are neat. they came with a bunch of available options so they can convert to gang mowers, rototillers etc.. you can get a sickle attachment. Getting rid of all the brush is another matter.. once the stuff in front is cut you have to clear that in order to keep cutting near ground level.
If nothign else they are super neat machines to work on , so rugged and simple.

we have an old early 50's front end loader. It wont' cut them, the bucket just can't handle the hard ground. it's too hard. It'll just spin the already worn out tracks until it wears out. I suspect that puller thing wouldn't work for us, at most you'd break them and they'd continue to grow, but it might work in softer soil.

Phil

[awomanwithahammer]

[/quote]Does this work with impacted soil as well, or does it need to be loose/wet? I watched the video, and the close ups don't seem to show impacted soil, so I'm wondering.[/quote]

I've found that if you saturate the soil around the sapling, it works better. And you might want to place a board under the fulcrum so it doesn't sink into the soil as you're pushing down. Get the jaws around the trunk as close to the ground as possible, clamp it and push down slowly. If you try to go too fast, sometimes it will break the trunk off instead of pulling it out by the roots.

[Lily left the valley]

I've found that if you saturate the soil around the sapling, it works better. And you might want to place a board under the fulcrum so it doesn't sink into the soil as you're pushing down. Get the jaws around the trunk as close to the ground as possible, clamp it and push down slowly. If you try to go too fast, sometimes it will break the trunk off instead of pulling it out by the roots.

Thanks. I had wondered about possible break offs too. Interesting tool, to be certain.

[phil]

I keep wanting to make a little tool out of a hydraulic cylinder and a couple of planer blades about 1/4" thick. I think it could have big notch for the trunk and then the cylinder would shift them and shear it at near ground level. It would have a button to shear and return. They would still grow again but getting rid of the bulk would reduce the issue. The tree trimmer works but when you get to 1 and 2 inch ones it takes a while and of course the blades dull when cutting at ground level and that slows things. once they are all ground level and the mower can pass over it can be kept down more easily..
I was up there over easter but the tics are a bit of a concern. right now if you go in there you get tics and as long as you check carefully at the end of the day you are usually ok.. maybe a hair net would help. I found a couple in my hair every day.

[Willa]

The fertile mystery bush has revealed itself to be a Box Elder aka Manitoba Maple, and has many, many, many sprouting kin all over the place. Plus goldenrod everywhere. With those 30" long rhizome roots.