Removing invasive shrubs/brush

[Mad Professor]

I have a forest management plan that includes mechanical/cutting with follow up chemical treatment.

I have a lot of barberry, burning bush, bittersweet etc......... Looking for something to pull up the small stuff.

I came across this :

shrub clump grubber

Anybody used these or something similar? I even considered making one up if I can find chain material.

 

[ATH]

How big are they? I'm not a big fan of pulling too many invasives because that is a lot of unnecessary soil disturbance.

I have used a puller with moderate success. Not something I want to carry around the woods all day and not fun to pull on all day.

Cutting and treating the stumps or cutting and letting them sprout so you can treat next year are better options for bigger shrubs. Just foliar spray before they go dormant in the next couple of weeks is a great way to go after smaller shrubs.

 

[Mad Professor]

How big are they? I'm not a big fan of pulling too many invasives because that is a lot of unnecessary soil disturbance.

I have used a puller with moderate success. Not something I want to carry around the woods all day and not fun to pull on all day.

Cutting and treating the stumps or cutting and letting them sprout so you can treat next year are better options for bigger shrubs. Just foliar spray before they go dormant in the next couple of weeks is a great way to go after smaller shrubs.

Check out the link. This is something like a mini choker chain you can wrap around a clump of brush/invasives. Then I 'd hook it up to the tractor 3-pt H and yank with a chain.

It seems to be more suited than a choker chain, that would probably slip off smaller brush. I'm thinking about clumps of bayberry.

 

[ATH]

Oh sorry, I was thinking nod the hand pullers. Then I like it even less - because of more soil disturbance. The more you expose soil, the more invasive plants you will get.

Spray it cut and treat. The clearing saw does wonders on stuff that size...

 

[Mad Professor]

Oh sorry, I was thinking nod the hand pullers. Then I like it even less - because of more soil disturbance. The more you expose soil, the more invasive plants you will get.

Spray it cut and treat. The clearing saw does wonders on stuff that size...

Really not disturbing much soil, and most of the invasives I'm removing resprout from residual roots. Less roots less resprouts.

These are small clumps of plants just getting a good foothold to expand, I'm not ripping up trees or large sections of brushy invasives.

 

[Franny K]

11/32 is larger than 5/16. The link says for atv, utv, lawn tractor. Might write them and ask if 1/4 grade 70 chain will deform or break before their device.

Two wraps of chain and a slipper hook generally either pulls up roots or breaks off at ground level. A heavy ring works too and throws well,. Won't come unhooked.

A lot of variation to amount of soil disruption depending on time of year and such. There are battery concrete vibrators now that might aid dramatically under certain conditions.

 

[ElevatorGuy]

I use a brush grubber with my tractor. It works great and I’ve pulled 4” trees out with it. Traction is the limiting factor.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I have a forest management plan that includes mechanical/cutting with follow up chemical treatment.

I have a lot of barberry, burning bush, bittersweet etc......... Looking for something to pull up the small stuff.

I came across this :

shrub clump grubber

Anybody used these or something similar? I even considered making one up if I can find chain material.

Set in the 1940s with their shipping for some reason. There's absolutely no reason to not ship a small, fairly light item to all 50 states.


I had no idea burning bush was invasive. My parents planted a bunch on their land many years ago.

 

[Mad Professor]

Set in the 1940s with their shipping for some reason. There's absolutely no reason to not ship a small, fairly light item to all 50 states.


i had no idea urning bush was invasive. My parents planted a bunch on their land many years ago.

Burning bush is invasive. After a few seasons it starts to seed , which the birds love. They crap the seeds all over. Same with a lot of other invasives (poison ivy, bayberry, buckthorn, bittersweet, honersuckle,...). Kill the invasives before they have children!!!!

 

[Mad Professor]

11/32 is larger than 5/16. The link says for atv, utv, lawn tractor. Might write them and ask if 1/4 grade 70 chain will deform or break before their device.

Two wraps of chain and a slipper hook generally either pulls up roots or breaks off at ground level. A heavy ring works too and throws well,. Won't come unhooked.

A lot of variation to amount of soil disruption depending on time of year and such. There are battery concrete vibrators now that might aid dramatically under certain conditions.

I'll use a 3/8" logging chain to the tractor, a 9N Ford. A 9N is a 1940s "ATV"!

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Burning bush is invasive. After a few seasons it starts to seed , which the birds love. They crap the seeds all over. Same with a lot of other invasives (poison ivy, bayberry, buckthorn, bittersweet, honersuckle,...). Kill the invasives before they have children!!!!

They planted it as a ~50ft long hedge row about 25 years ago.
I'll have to ask if they are still there. I know it didn't handle winters all that well. The mice would make tunnels in the snow to them and feed on them.

 

[kyle1!]

MP, What was the result of your efforts? I have a couple of 50-100ft long dogwood rows that have become infested with silver maple, junk elm, and mulberry. I would like to bring an excavator in and tear it all our but have other trees (white oak, sugar maple etc) close by that would be killed with such action. If one cuts them all down and treat with chemical how do deal with the clumps of small stumps? Can these clumps be ground away with a stump grinder?