Farming / preparing land question

[Eugene]

I can't burn.

The term "burn down", although it may be a local thing here, does not refer to actual burning with flame. It means to apply an herbicide to kill all the existing vegetation down to bare ground.

There are available herbicides that not only kill the above ground portion of the weed/brush but the roots. Roundup or generic Roundup works well for me. The generic Roundup is about 1/2 the price of the original product.

1/2 acre. For around $200-, $250- you can get an ATV sprayer with boom and a couple gallons of generic Roundup.

Since it's near mid July, I would burn down/herbicide the entire 1/2 acre. Wait 2 weeks, then sow forage radish. Forage radish seed is inexpensive and the radish root bores holes in the soil, some 18" deep. I use forage radish because of this area's clay content in the soil and the radish provide a winter cover crop as well as green manure.

There other crops that might work better than forage radish for a fall/winter cover crop for your area.

Any way, I would burn down the 1/2 acre and kill the plants to their roots. Let the roots rot off. Small roots, most should be rotted withing a year.

Actually, it's hard to believe that you have been trying to clear the 1/2 acre plot for 4 years.

[FLOPGUY]

[/quote] A disc should work but it will take several passes. Don't expect perfection in a single pass. First, plenty of weight, second, you need an adjustable angle disc like the Cub 23A and start off with the discs straight ahead. Once they start cutting in a little bit then you can start angling them.[/quote]
Maybe I will heap more weight on the disc and make several passes in multiple directions.

[FLOPGUY]

A Subsoiler (also called a ripper) can probably rip through the roots. If you run this every foot or two, it rips up the mess of roots and then they won't tangle up so bad on the plow.
Here's a 3-point version available at most farm stores.
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/countyline-subsoiler
I doubt that a cub has enough horsepower, torque, and traction to do the job when dealing with tree roots.

Yeah thats what I was kinda think of, but my cub has a drawer and no 3 point hitch. I am confident the tree roots are rotted, the stumps were ground 4 years ago. The roots I am dealing with are blue berries they are about 1/4" but dense like a fish net. They grow so naturally in my area that I would consider them invasive.

[Scrivet]

........... The roots I am dealing with are blue berries they are about 1/4" but dense like a fish net. They grow so naturally in my area that I would consider them invasive.

In the "if you can't beat em join em" line of thought; How about raising blueberries???? Seems a lot less work involved. And look how far ahead you are as a blueberry farmer!

[FLOPGUY]

........... The roots I am dealing with are blue berries they are about 1/4" but dense like a fish net. They grow so naturally in my area that I would consider them invasive.

In the "if you can't beat em join em" line of thought; How about raising blueberries???? Seems a lot less work involved. And look how far ahead you are as a blueberry farmer!

Yeah, I maintain about 1/2 - 1 acre of trees that has wild blueberries and I do have 5 huge bushes 8 ft tall that are huge producers we pick about 50 lbs a year, but would like to grow other stuff.. I am about 10 miles from NJ's huge blueberry farms as well as cranberry bogs.. few realize that NJ is a huge producer of both.

[tmays]

I’d give a cub disc plow a shot.