[AT] Osages to maples
Dean Vinson
dean at vinsonfarm.net
Wed Nov 6 17:57:24 PST 2019
I don't have box elder here, at least that I've recognized, but there's no
shortage of honeysuckle. There's a little bit of black cherry but I
generally leave it alone since it's a "nice" woods tree as opposed to the
masses of honeysuckle and osage orange.
Osage, in my experience at least, is in a class by itself. As Mike
mentioned it makes outstanding firewood (if throwing sparks isn't a
problem). I think I read somewhere it has the highest BTU content per unit
volume of any hardwood in the eastern half of the country. It also
practically never rots so it makes excellent fenceposts, and I've given a
little to a guy who wanted to make archery bows. But it makes you work darn
hard for every last piece. The young trees are covered with wicked thorns;
the old ones are twisted and sprawled out and interlocked with their
neighbors. Mighty little of it is long enough, straight enough, and free
enough of suckers and side branches to make for easy working even after the
tree is on the ground.
My general approach has been as Carl described, chainsaw and big burn piles.
But with osage, you have to paint the outer edge of the cut stump with a
herbicide or next year you'll have the thorniest nastiest bush you can
imagine, which will flatten your tractor tires when you bush hog it and then
will grow back anyway. Taking a shovel and digging all around the stump
helps me cut the stump at or below ground level while hopefully keeping the
chainsaw out of the dirt, but adds to the work. The wood is so hard I've
taken to only using carbide chains, since the regular ones just get
worthless dull way too fast.
The only roots I ever pull are the ones that have surfaced enough to be in
my way or were right where I wanted to plant one of the new maples. I
usually use the Super M, but the 620 and I think the Ford 3600 have had a
few turns at it also. And I'm talking about one individual root, maybe 2"
to 6" in diameter. I don't think any of those tractors would pull out a
complete osage tree or stump, if the tree were any bigger than about 2"
diameter.
For stumps that are too big for me to feasibly just cut off at ground level,
I burn them out. Works better if I dig out around all sides first, but
that is work with a capital W (see attached photo from this past March).
Cut the tree, cut and haul off any firewood I want, dig around the stump,
load up the stump with big logs, pile on the small stuff, fire it up.
Sometimes I take the chainsaw and cut slots down into the stump, but that
risks getting the chain in the dirt. Once in a while the stump will catch
fire below ground and burn down like a seam of coal, and I'm always happy
when that happens.
All of the above makes no sense if time is important, and honestly I'm not
sure I'd have tackled the big hedgerow if I'd really understood beforehand
how much work it would be. Hiring somebody with a serious dozer would be
the practical way to do it.
Dean Vinson
Saint Paris, Ohio
From: AT [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Mike M
Sent: Wednesday, November 6, 2019 6:35 PM
To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
Subject: Re: [AT] Osages to maples
I have tons of Box Elder, total crap trees, might try to cable them high and
pull them out with my neighbors 4440, if mine won't do it.
Mike M
On 11/6/2019 5:37 PM, Carl Gogol wrote:
After bush hogging the smaller stuff I have cleared acres of scrub brush by
chainsaw and big burn piles. Cutting the stumps level to the ground has
been hard on chains, but leaves no holes in the ground. Works well for
pasture.
Grass perks right up after the shade is removed. Species encountered are
Hawthorne, Honeysuckle, Black Cherry, ash and Box Elder. Some stumps are
cut a second time a year or so later as they miraculously rise a few inches
out of the ground. Quite a bit of work, but no dozer required.
Carl
Manlius,NY
From: AT <mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com>
<at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com> On Behalf Of Mike M
Sent: Wednesday, November 6, 2019 2:12 PM
To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com <mailto:at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Subject: Re: [AT] Osages to maples
Wow Dean, that's impressive! I suspect the trees you left will really thrive
now that they get their full sun and nutrients. Question for you, I have an
area of property that i would like to clear. It's thick like a jungle just
to the right of your M. How did you remove the roots? Did you cut the brush
first, and then tackle the roots, or were you able to pull out clumps at a
time.
Thanks,
Mike M
On 11/6/2019 4:02 AM, Dean Vinson wrote:
Hi Mike, sorry about that. Both of the photos I'd previously attached were
looking generally southward but from different vantage points.
Here's a collage of Google aerial photos to hopefully help explain a little
better. My earlier 2014 picture was taken from down near where the big
walnut tree is, but the 2019 picture was taken from way up close to the
house (farther north than the osage bramble had ever been).
Dean
From: AT [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Mike M
Sent: Tuesday, November 5, 2019 9:52 PM
To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com <mailto:at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Subject: Re: [AT] Osages to maples
Hi Dean, could you clarify what direction we're looking in, were the two
larger trees buried in the brambles? I'm terrible at deciphering
directions. Where is the Farmall parked in comparison to the old and new
picture?
Thanks,
Mike M
On 11/5/2019 6:52 PM, Dean Vinson wrote:
About five years ago I started clearing out an old osage orange hedgerow,
maybe 150 yards long, that hadn't been tended in many decades. Lots of
time with the chainsaw, lots of bonfires, lots of work with the Super M
dragging logs and pulling roots and hauling firewood, lots of work with the
JD 620 and rear blade grading and smoothing. Yesterday I had a crew plant
eight new red maple trees on the same line where the osage trees had been,
and this afternoon I got the Super M out again to haul trashcans full of
water back to them.
The top half of the attached photo is the 2014 view, showing one of my first
bonfires as I began clearing out the osage and honeysuckle and briars. My
goal back then was just to clear out some breathing space around a nice
mature walnut tree that I'd discovered earlier that year after noticing its
top sticking up above the canopy of the older but shorter osage trees.
It's not visible in the photo but it'd be to the right of the bonfire.
After a couple of years of occasional trimming and cleanup and thinning out,
I set my sights on removing the hedgerow completely. (There's also another
one, but I'm just cleaning it up and will keep many of the big trees).
The bottom half of the attached photo is the view from a few hours ago.
The mass of trees and brambles from the top photo had been just to the left
of the little gravel lane behind where the tractor is now sitting. The
tall trees behind the tractor had all managed to survive despite being
engulfed by the sprawling osages; the dark one in the middle is the big
walnut I'd first started clearing out around five years earlier.
Interesting that those trees all lean slightly away from where the osages
had been. The new maples, hardly visible since they're small, are dead on
the centerline of the original hedgerow.
Will be interesting to see how the new trees do over time. It's been fun,
sort of, plugging away at that scraggly old hedgerow over the years, and
darn nice to have a couple old tractors to help.
Dean Vinson
Saint Paris, Ohio
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