Stump Removal

[Frodo]

If you try and jerk it out with the truck. you will tear the truck up
the chain fall is the key

 

[phideaux]

@joel Is this the nasty little thing that plagues you? If so it's "Solanum carolinense aka horse nettle"...

It's in the nightshade family along with "tomatillo's" used in mexican dishes and a dozen or so toxic plants including jimson weed...

Getting rid of it? It's been in my old garden over 50 years... It never really goes away... It's a matter of controlling it. NEVER let the seeds mature and you can keep it to a minimum, sometimes... It mainly spreads via the roots.

View attachment 37964View attachment 37965View attachment 37966

Funny thing ...I have not seen any of that on my place. I do remember it on my Gramps farm as a kid.
My biggest culprit here is that stinking Johnson grass. Roundup kills it for about 2 months...then it comes right back.
It's everywhere.

I hate it. I believe it's roots grow to China.

Jim

 

[Weedygarden]

If you try and jerk it out with the truck. you will tear the truck up
the chain fall is the key

At least, not until all the roots are loosened up. I had a big stump, loosened in a deep hole on my property by a hired person of the tree of hell. In order to get these trees to stop growing and sending up shoots, you have to dig deep. They have multiple smaller roots. The hole was so deep that I looked over the edge to see the man in the hole. I think he worked this job more than was necessary, but the stump is gone and freed up prime real estate on my property. When the stump was freed up, the man brought a vehicle, chained up the stump and pulled it out. That took some doing. Stump was drug away, left in the alley, and disappeared in a couple days. Shoots came up for a few years in that area of my property. I kept digging them out. I have not seen any sign of those for a number of years now.

 

[joel]

I made a few of them, did not film them.
My old Ford 1979 would work & remove many stumps. I doubt the new models can handle the job. Snowflake trucks get good mpg & are nice ride but do not work well with others.

 

[joel]

Funny thing ...I have not seen any of that on my place. I do remember it on my Gramps farm as a kid.
My biggest culprit here is that stinking Johnson grass. Roundup kills it for about 2 months...then it comes right back.
It's everywhere.

I hate it. I believe it's roots grow to China.

Jim

We had Johnson grass year ago.
I can seed you some horse nettle seeds if you need some?

 

[phideaux]

We had Johnson grass year ago.
I can seed you some horse nettle seeds if you need some?

No thanks , I remember it from when I was a kid.
Step on it barefooted.

Jim

 

[Peanut]

@joel plowing 3 or 4 times a year does a pretty good job on horse nettle. But you have to go back with a hoe and pull it out of turned earth... Again, it mainly spreads through the roots. Even it you plow it up but leave soil coverening part of it, that "cutting" will sprout and grow. Between that and never letting the fruits mature you can get it under control fairly quickly, within 2 to 3 years... Even then, where there is a will there is a way, It'll always be at the edges of cultivated soils just waiting for the chance to jump back in!

@phideaux What I hated was when grandpa would turn out a row of potatoes with a flat bottom plow. We'd dig the potatoes out with bare hands... Grabbing a hidden handful of horse nettle will wake you up in the morning... Seems like there was always at least one kid crying and having the stickers pulled out of their hands.

Hence it's local name here..."Tator Briars"

 

[zoomzoom]

A large commercial stump grinder will take care of those in a day. They also grind well below ground level so you can plow/disk the area without issue.

 

[joel]

I have a berm type rasied bed full of the tator briars & no way to plow the short, 25 ft beds that are surrounded with fruit trees & herbal plants.
This is permculture & I am beginning to think it was a waste of time, one: my sandyloam does not need better drainage & I double dug the beds, so no hard pan. Two: the fruit trees are growing in to the crop beds & something has to give. This is why I am setting up new beds out in the big field. Why beds in the big field instead of rows, asparagus needs at least 60 inch width to maintain a good growth cycle & I can plant strawberries on the surface, the big plus is the composting mycelium & wine cap mushrooms will be doing double duty, more importing is that a perennial bed will last 25 year once it is established, with only mulch to feed the mycelium & surpress weeds. Also removing old mother strawberry plants every 36 months, with young daugther plants to keep the fruiting on the patch at maxuim. I know it is so easy to talk about, but do a whole nother ball of wax, which brings me back to stumps. I am ordering Potassium Nitrate & going to survey the field to see where the least stumps are & start there, then it will be big equipment time.

 

[joel]

A large commercial stump grinder will take care of those in a day. They also grind well below ground level so you can plow/disk the area without issue.

I will disk 4 inches deep, then turn 8 inches deep, then disk 4 inches again, to get 8 inches of soft ground across the field. So removal is a must, grinding will not work. If I need to use a deep chisel plow then I will need to break the ground to 12 to 14 inches, that will cost alot, because I do not have a gran hammie or chisel plow. However, if nothing else works, I may rent a grinder & cut up the stump so I cam remove the large roots one at a time.
Then there is $60.00 or more an hour for a back hoe, doser is even more, but quicker & messer.

 

[Peanut]

I have a berm type rasied bed full of the tator briars & no way to plow the short, 25 ft beds that are surrounded with fruit trees & herbal plants.

That's a tough row to hoe (pardon the pun). I see no way to get them out that isn't going to cause some damage to good plants and require a lot of physical work.

One idea is a Grub Hoe - They usually come with blades either 4" or 6" wide. I have one with a 4 inch blade. If you know a local blacksmith who could make one with a 2.5" or 3" blade and smaller and lighter overall so you could use it with one hand... such a grub hoe could do major damage to tator briars. It would cut straight down and deep for cutting the root 3 or 4 inches below grade. Every time they pop up through the surface cut them again. Eventually the root systems will start to die off.

Thats about the best idea I have. Let me know what you come up with!

 

[joel]

I have standard hoe, concrete hoe with the 2 holes in it, but we use a Grab rake 4 or 5 tines, about 4 to 7 inches long, mostly to remove grasses.
But that will get the job done.

 

[Cnsper]

Ha ha, we called those clam rakes because they are great for digging up butter clams