# How to clear brush?



## Joe in MO (Jan 31, 2003)

I started clearing brush along our hillside last Fall. It was overgrown with brush, stickers, tree sapplings, etc. It looked real cluttered. The area was really looking good until this Spring, when the trees dropped their seedlings and with the rain, well...it looks like I haven't done a thing to it because it is overgrown.
Does anyone have any good ideas for clearing brush and tree sapplings and to prevent them from coming back? 
Thanks in advance,
Joe


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## comfortablynumb (Nov 18, 2003)

fire.


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## Oilpatch197 (Apr 18, 2004)

a "controlled burn"


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## Joe in MO (Jan 31, 2003)

Fire won't work because:
It will burn my trees that I want to save
The hill is rocky so the fire will not spread very quickly
The brush and tree sapplings will continue to grow back.
But thanks for the suggestions though


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## BCR (Jun 24, 2002)

It sounds like it was pretty wild and not maintained for a while. So go in there and clear it again and then mow it several times this spring/summer. Us a brushhog if it's that tough or, after cutting it all down, your mower/weedwhacker. 

But the wind is always gonna blow seed pods and even clearing will let some dormant seeds come to life. What is it you are trying to achieve? Manicured look or just a less prickly pleasant to walk through place or...?

Of course, someone is bound to suggest goats which I have no experience with.


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## Ken in Maine (May 10, 2002)

Goats!


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## Hip_Shot_Hanna (Apr 2, 2005)

I too would suggest goats - they like what you want to get rid of better than fine pasture! An additional help would be a couple of pigs as they will root up and thus reduce the growback problem. Of course, it will then have to be maintained, but you'd be surprised how much the goats and pigs can do for you - and reduce YOUR workload.


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## NWSneaky (Feb 22, 2005)

All of those are good ideas but also talk to your ag supplier for chemical sprays for regrowth and new sprouts. Forget the organic thing on this problem.


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## agmantoo (May 23, 2003)

Mix these 2 herbicides using 2 pints of Grazon P+D and 1 pint of Remedy rate per acre and spray no later than May. Two sprayings at one year intervals should wipe out the problem.


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## big rockpile (Feb 24, 2003)

If you Cut them or Burn them,four or five will come up in their place.Put Goats on there heavy for three years,cut the bigger stuff out of the way.

If you put some Grass seed on it to help out all the better.But in three years the sprouts will be dead and not come back.

big rockpile


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## kate (Jul 4, 2002)

each time you cut one, put squirt of tordan on stump, it will not come back up. hard on the back, but def. worth it.......i have used it in mo on all the stuff and it works, only takes a little tiny bit............k.


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## comfortablynumb (Nov 18, 2003)

lowes sells a nifty poison its bright orange and it sticks to everything like glue...
i call it agent orange it really upsets the lowes people...

its thick enoguh to be a selective spray, so buy a few gal and spray it on what you want dead.

agent orange.... its a good thing.


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## caberjim (Feb 19, 2004)

The answer is simple and old - scythe with a brush blade. A heavy brush blade will take down saplings up to an inch thick or more. Repeat a couple times and it will stop growing back. Got mine here - http://www.scythesource.com/ - very good and knowledgable guy.

Scythe gets you in where you can really get a good look at the land, it's relaxing and very good exercise. I've just finished clearing an acre of briar bushes 8 feet tall. Scythe goes thru them like butter. And it will go places a brush hog can only dream - anywhere you can step, a scythe will go. Plus, no poisoning the land and everything on it. The classic homesteading answer - low cost, lots of elbow grease, low tech.


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## Ana Bluebird (Dec 8, 2002)

I was going to say, goats, too. They do an excellent job of brush clearing if you have fences, plus the children love them.


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## Don Armstrong (May 8, 2002)

I agree that goats are a good answer *IF* you've got the fences to hold them. However, they are getting ahead of the brush for the good reason that you're overstocking - you have deliberately got more goats than the land can sustain on a permanent basis. That means you'd better have a plan for disposing of the surplus goats when the job's done. There's often a market for "brush goats". Alternatively, you can eat them. 

However, you in the USA have goat diseases which will more-or-less permanently infect the land, so you may need to spend heaps on getting clean healthy goats - amounts inconsistent with scrubby old brush goats.


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## Oilpatch197 (Apr 18, 2004)

Joe in MO said:


> I started clearing brush along our hillside last Fall. It was overgrown with brush, stickers, tree sapplings, etc. It looked real cluttered. The area was really looking good until this Spring, when the trees dropped their seedlings and with the rain, well...it looks like I haven't done a thing to it because it is overgrown.
> Does anyone have any good ideas for clearing brush and tree sapplings and to prevent them from coming back?
> Thanks in advance,
> Joe


:haha: GO TO THE BARBER!!!!! :HAHA:


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## gilberte (Sep 25, 2004)

Joe, I think that if you're into animals at all, goats have been the best answer so far. If you don't care for the goat idea, maybe the bushhog would work for you if the terrain will handle it. As someone else said, it depends on what you are trying to achieve here.

I really hope you don't resort to using chemicals. From your post number I assume you are fairly new here so I'll tell you the Mr. NW Sneaky is probably just being contrary with his suggestion and trying to "stir the pot." Comfortablynumb is, of course, being facititious.


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## NWSneaky (Feb 22, 2005)

gilberte said:


> Joe, I think that if you're into animals at all, goats have been the best answer so far. If you don't care for the goat idea, maybe the bushhog would work for you if the terrain will handle it. As someone else said, it depends on what you are trying to achieve here.
> 
> I really hope you don't resort to using chemicals. From your post number I assume you are fairly new here so I'll tell you the Mr. NW Sneaky is probably just being contrary with his suggestion and trying to "stir the pot." Comfortablynumb is, of course, being facititious.


Why call out individuals? I bet you are a PETA supporter. I speak from sixty-plus years of experience in the country. I have no need to agitate as I am very peaceful, happy and totally satisfied with my current life; sounds as if the same may not hold true for you.


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## Joe in MO (Jan 31, 2003)

Another question: How can cutting down the tree sapplings and brush for 1-3 years make it not come back after that???
I like caberjim's idea. Has anyone else ever used one? 
Thanks for the help,
Joe


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## caberjim (Feb 19, 2004)

Joe in MO said:


> Another question: How can cutting down the tree sapplings and brush for 1-3 years make it not come back after that???
> I like caberjim's idea. Has anyone else ever used one?
> Thanks for the help,
> Joe


Saplings and brush need leaves for energy and growth. Deny them that and the roots will eventually wither and die.


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## Mary in MO (Oct 8, 2004)

I'm doing the same thing. Spent yesterday cutting out saplings. Weed-eater (heavy duty commercial one) with a brush attachment will do it pretty easily. No leaves, no plants. You'll have to go at it a few times during each season, every year or they'll get ahead of you. I know of no way to escape it other than to remove the soil till you hit the rocks ;-) which in a lot of MO is not too far down. The agent orange sounds interesting but we try very hard to stay organic.
Mary


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## Snakeoil (Mar 13, 2005)

I agree with goat answer to your long term problem.


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## BCR (Jun 24, 2002)

NWSneaky...PETA? What the heck? Don't know where that comes from.

But I will say, I have not been as lucky as Comfortablynumb, and have had no success with backyard chemicals when I have resorted to using them (bamboo eradication, and a pro's recommendation). I do not apply the chemicals wholesale anyhow, as I want to keep pollutants on my land down. this lets me expose myself and others to less chemicals. I like the idea of one that works. I'll have to look into agent orange.

A farmer friend bulldozes the multi-flora rose and burns the piles.


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## RMShepp (Nov 6, 2004)

If you spray a little "roundup" on the stump of whatever you've cut. It generally won't come back.


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## big rockpile (Feb 24, 2003)

Ok never owned one but yo might look into DR.Brush Mower.Might be better than putting up fence dealing with Goats,right size to get between trees your wanting to keep.

big rockpile


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## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

"roundup"? thats what i use on the wild roses that grow all over my place and get tangled up with my dogs.


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## SouthernThunder (Jun 3, 2004)

Salt. Its cheap. Lasts forever. Worked for the Romans... When was the last time you heard of the bustling farmlands of Carthage?


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## twstanley (Sep 23, 2004)

SouthernThunder said:


> Salt. Its cheap. Lasts forever. Worked for the Romans... When was the last time you heard of the bustling farmlands of Carthage?


The brush hog ( rotary cutter ) works great for me on saplings or weeds in our pastures. Just keep them cut every 2 or 3 weeks and seed some grass on to the bare patches and rake it in a bit and the grass will soon gain strength and choke out the weeds. 

The saplings and brush you will just have to keep cutting. 

If you deny the plants a chance to make a stalk/stem/trunk, leaf out, and produce seed, you take away the chance for them to grow and reproduce. They will then die out.


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## cowboy joe (Sep 14, 2003)

I'm with Caberjim on this one...old - scythe with a brush blade works well. I recently cleared a fallow field the same way. I still have some saplings to pull but gotta wait for the poison ivy to subside...itch, itch, itch. :bash: Read that as you might want to wear a long sleeve shirt and long pants while you're out working in the field.


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## deberosa (Dec 14, 2003)

I cleared about a half acre with loppers - the larger saplings I pulled out by roots with the truck, the smaller ones I cut off at ground level with loppers if small enough or with a saws all with a brush cutting attachment. The sawsall worked well for cutting below the dirt line.. I have a very few things coming back up - but I also put free range chickens on it and they scratch and eat any seedlings. The piles of brush created I burned as piles, not standing as brush as most of it covered the end of the old barn here! I would get a 4-5 foot pile going and then piling on as it burned down.

It looked like a big task to start with, but working at it a little every weekend it gradually disappeared. I also threw down old carpet and covered it with bark for the walk ways - no mud either!


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## jacksun (May 16, 2004)

you dont need alot of goats or fences just buy a portable round pen put the goats in it and when they have done their job on that section move it to the next spot you would only need about 4 goats to do this and very little labor or expense


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