Essentially this area was overgrown with 5-10 yr old honeysuckle and other tree varieties. We used skid steers with mulchers to clear it out but still have large root systems underneath.
I have a woods ght72 tiller I can borrow but wasnt sure what was too big of a root for this unit.
Shoe is size 12 for reference to the root size, thanks!
by Informal_Tank8804
7 Comments
What do you want it to be? Native plants? A forest? Pasture for animals?
Pasture as in for animals to graze? if the root is not attached to a tree anymore I would probably leave it. depending on the type, it will rot in place. if it tries to sprout, let it put a ton of energy into sprouts but dont let it get leaves. it will spend energy on sprouts, no leaves and it can die.
i had large 100 year old ash trees removed and the stumps kept pumping water from the ground for weeks.
then over time the roots shrunk and i had to fill in large “trenches” where the roots used to be and the ground sunk.
just my limited experience.
Since it’s pasture and you’re not trying to till it for veggies, the roots aren’t the problem, the suckers that will resprout in spring are the problem. If it were me I’d overseed with whatever grass mixture I planned on using and then once the suckers start to sprout I’d either plan to get in there and mow every few weeks, or I’d make several applications of a broadleaf only herbicide like Crossbow or 24D if you’re not afraid of chemicals. Honeysuckle will resprout even if you till up the roots. Just spend a year treating it like a lawn and then plant your fruit trees next year.
We had a few acres of dense multi flora rose. Took a bit of time to cut and burn it out. Then we used weed killer and layed out a 15’x15′ grid. Where they intersected we planted a tree. But use a 5-6′ tree tube due to deer. The second biggest loss will be through voles. So burry the tube a bit.
We did butternut, black walnut hickory, pin oak, sugar maple a few enterprise and gold rush apples due to their resistance.
In swampy areas we did swamp white oaks.
This was to do a CREP planting and after 15 years we have reclaimed a nice chunk of eroding property and created a place to hunt early season archery.
Get it seeded and fertilized and mow it to prevent regrowth of undesirables.
I’d seed it and then graze goats on it for a while. You can put wire around fruit trees to keep them alive. Nothing knocks down suckers like a flock of goats- 2-3 years of goats and most of those old root systems will die back and rot.
Fire