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Brush Pulling instead of Cutting

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auerbach
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 2168 West of Toronto
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2008-11-28          158191

Seem to spend half my summers cutting and spraying brush because it just returns. Or pulling it with a chain that half the time rides up. Just saw an ad for the $60 "Brush Grubber." Its maker's site, "Gempler's," shows it working. Its self-tightening teeth grab a stump or trunk "up to 3 inches"; attach a chain and pull. Too good to be true? Anybody tried one?

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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2008-11-28          158193

It's nothing more than a set of "pallet tongs" with a different set of teeth installed.

IMHO, the only thing they will effectively clear is $60 out of your wallet.

We do a lot of brush grubbing, we use one of two methods depending on the site, a "brush brute" or a dozer with a brush rake.

You can make, or have made, a simple device that will clear stuff way faster and you get to stay in the seat for not much money if you have a quick-tatch bucket on your FEL.

Best of luck. ....

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auerbach
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 2168 West of Toronto
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2008-11-28          158195

That's what it is, which doesn't mean it won't work. Don't have a dozer. Couldn't find a photo of a Brush Brute but from commentary I gather it's a set of digging teeth for bigger tractors than mine and with removable buckets.

The Brush Grubber is in the new Princess catalogue (C$65). Half the things sold at Princess are great value and work fine. The other half, well, are not. Not sure which half this would fall into. ....

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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2008-11-28          158196

Quote:
Originally Posted by auerbach | view 158195
Couldn't find a photo of a Brush Brute but from commentary I gather it's a set of digging teeth for bigger tractors than mine and with removable buckets.


It's even made not far from your neck of the woods, sort of, in Shelburne, On.

They come as small as 52" and will work fine on machines as small as 25hp.

I don't know if they've changed, but they used to be made such that you didn't need to do anything but pull the pins and slip the bucket off. It is a PITA though.

A simple quick-tatch setup is also very easy to make, not much money at all either.

Best of luck. ....

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earthwrks
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 3853 Home Office in Flat Rock, Michigan
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2008-11-28          158200

I use my box scraper with one scarifier tooth dropped all the way. I have removed many a 6"-caliper stump this way. And the nice thing about using the BS is when I'm done digging I clean up the hole and then tote the stump away on the back. Having a hyd. toplink really helps but not necessary. Driving backward (with the tooth raised) turns the BS into a dozer that does exceptionally well piling up the brush and cleaning up the site without bringing a lot of dirt along due to the geometry of it tending to ride up and roll the brush over. The hyd. top link is used to tilt the rear of BS down to prevent riding up (better attack angle).

....

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hardwood
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 3583 iowa
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2008-11-28          158203

Unless the stumps are going to be in ther way of something just a shot of Tordon on the fresh cut stump and they are dead in their tracks. ....

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auerbach
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 2168 West of Toronto
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2008-11-29          158209

Looked up Tordon and seems to be what I want but I've not seen it in Ontario. Is in on garden-supply shelves in the US? ....

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hardwood
Join Date: Dec 2002
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2008-11-29          158210

Last I bought was at a farm supply store, no applicators license needed that I know of. Frank. ....

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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2008-12-01          158247

Tordon is made by Dow Agriscience in Canada.

It is generically known as "picloram" or more commonly just as "2,4-D".

Go to any farm supply (not garden center) and ask for it as "2,4-D", it's not sold for retail, and in large quantities you need an applicators license in Ontario, but I believe that's just to buy concentrate, you can buy premixed product over the counter.

Best of luck. ....

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hardwood
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 3583 iowa
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2008-12-01          158251

Tordon RTU, which I think stands for "Ready to Use??", comes in quart plastic squirt bottles here at any farm supply store. I'ts been a while since I bought any as a bottle will do a lot of stumps, so I can't recall what it cost either, but it wasn't too bad for what it will do. ....

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kwschumm
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 5764 NW Oregon
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2008-12-01          158253

I think Tordon is basically the same as Crossbow, which is available everywhere around here. Crossbow is 2,4-d with triclopyr (not sure what that does) but it works great for this purpose (and for Scotch Broom, my perennial nemesis) ....

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kthompson
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 5275 South Carolina
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2008-12-01          158255

AB, this probably is more than you want to spend but is a combo of cutter and sprayer. So I wonder, could you put a spray nozzle on the rear of your cutter and get the same result?

Depending on how much or selective you are trying to be, talk to people who keep roadways (train also) right of ways clear. They use product that will do the job but understand very hard to get permit for. You might be able to hire them.

....


Link:   Diamond wet blade cutter

 
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earthwrks
Join Date: Dec 2003
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2008-12-01          158257

I'm reluctant to use any chemical that will totally destroy vegetation wholesale. Case in point, I was asked to remediate (Kenny that means fix or remedy) a detention "pond" that was really a 1500' long x 25' wide x 6' deep ditch that snaked through a property. The former property manager had sprayed a total-vegetation killer on the embankments 5 years prior. Nothing would grow on it. And that was the problem; the embankments were eroding and filling the bottom. Even the neighbor's fence and posts were caving into the ditch. Long story short, it was going to cost over $40K to fix it and the property was sold before the work was approved. ....

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kwschumm
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 5764 NW Oregon
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2008-12-01          158258

I don't think 2,4-D will sterilize the soil. I sprayed a bunch of scotch broom and blackberry early last spring and those areas are pretty green with grass now. Now that Triox stuff I used in Phoenix in the mid-80's is another story. Don't know if they even make that stuff anymore. ....

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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2008-12-01          158261

Quote:
Originally Posted by hardwood | view 158203
Unless the stumps are going to be in ther way of something just a shot of Tordon on the fresh cut stump and they are dead in their tracks.


Considering Franks comment above it sounds like a very safe and responsible way of doing it to me.

Tordon, or generically, 2,4-D is a member of the pyridine/phenoxy family of chemicals.

It is NOT a 'sterilizer' but according to my guide it is for "Weed and brush (including conifer) control in non-crop locations, industrial sites and rights-of-way." and goes on to say "Degradation is most rapid under warm, humid conditions.".

We use hundreds of gallons of it every year, no problem.

Best of luck. ....

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hardwood
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 3583 iowa
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2008-12-01          158262

I have and still do on occasion use a product called "Spike", I don't recall which chemical company makes it. I would consider it to be a soil sterilizer, it comes in small dry pellets with a little dose measureing do-dad on the top of the can. You sprinkle some of the pellets around the base of any size tree, wait a year and it is dead. I also learned the hard way that if a heavy rain comes soon after you apply the pellets tha they will wash along with the runoff and kill everything they soak into, lawns, gardens, field crops, etc. Anymore when I use Spike I dig a few shallow holes around the base of the tree to put the pellets in, that eliminated the problem with them washing onto other non target crops. I think it is still available at farm supply stores without a permit. Frank. ....

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kthompson
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 5275 South Carolina
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2008-12-01          158263

hardwood, call me lazy (EW, that means like you rather have someone else do it for me) but I did not find the chemical Spike. Are you sure that is how it is spelled?

I did use a chemical that acted sort of as this one does but it was a wetable powder. It killed pine trees up to about a foot in diameter junk yard dog dead. It did not kill the grass. It was designed to clear fence line of brush. Sure would like to find that chemical again. ....

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hardwood
Join Date: Dec 2002
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2008-12-01          158265

Yup, Spike it is. I still have a couple cans I bought two or three years ago, perhaps it isn't made anymore? ....

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hardwood
Join Date: Dec 2002
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2008-12-01          158267

I just found Spike on Google, so it must still exist. ....

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kthompson
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 5275 South Carolina
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2008-12-02          158275

hardwood, found it when I put herbicde into the search also. Thank you. kt ....

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