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Clearing pine stumps

southernman13

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May 13, 2008
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1,114
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Florida,Ga,Tn
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Retired
So we have 50 acres of cutover planted pines to stump. Has some trash trees and bushes as well but mostly stumps. They’re in rows so easy to follow. I normally like to have few burn piles and feed them with the loader. Just looking for the most efficient way so I don’t have to move material more than necessary. There are a few logging decks I’ve piled stuff on as well. We’ve been stumping mostly and haven’t really done any pushing or piling much to speak of. I don’t think wind rowing would allow them to burn very well. I can push them up into piles here and there pretty quickly with the dozer but I can carry stuff with the loader. Looking for opinions. Thanks
 

Pixie

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2011
Messages
373
Location
NH
Occupation
remodeling
Guess it would depend on what you are going to do with the land next ?

If trees, why bother to dig stumps?

If field, hire a mulcher or put a root rake on your dozer.

Burning removes the possibility of adding nutrients to the soil.

Things are done differently around the country. We don't burn much up here.
 

treemuncher

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2006
Messages
733
Location
West TN
Occupation
eatin' trees, poopin' chips
Guess it would depend on what you are going to do with the land next ?

First thing I need to know from customers: what is your plan for the land?

If it's just pasture or food plots, mulch everything to grade or just under then throw down grass seed and go. Some of my customers that have done this put their cattle out 2 months after I finished my part. A few years back I did a small pine plantation job on 8' x 8' spacing. 5 acres of fresh cut small pine (8"-14" at cut) to be converted to food plots and maintainable ground was knocked out in a long day with my big machine.

If they plan to row crop, stumps need to be processed one way or another. Excavate, grind, root rake or blade them out. You can mulch them after removal, burn them off or direct burial. A lot of the decision comes down to stump size and efficiency. I've worked them most any way and burial would be my last resort. If burning, I would suggest digging a burn pit first to make the operation as clean and neat as possible. If the stumps are reasonably small, mulching them first, then root raking and a finish mulch pass could be fastest. You won't get it done with a skid steer mulcher, though. It takes hp to get that kind of work done in a timely manner. Stumps that are cut flush to grade will split out easier and often speed removal if you know the techniques.

If pine stumps have 2 years to soften, there will be much less work to get them processed. There are also soil tillers that could handle such a job with ease IF they have enough hp and sized according to the material to be processed. From what little I know about these, you will need to be close to 500 hp or larger to be efficient.
 

southernman13

Senior Member
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May 13, 2008
Messages
1,114
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Florida,Ga,Tn
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Retired
Planting pecan trees afterwards. These are probably 20/25 yr old tree stumps. We have a 290 Volvo excavator w a stumper and thumb to extract them with and a 850 Deere with a hang on blade rake. Also a Komatsu WA270 with a grapple rake. We’re very familiar with this work and what to do. This is just bigger area than what we normally do. Wanted to be as efficient as possible on the raking and burning aspect. We’ll just make individual burn piles as we normally do and let er rip!
 

treemuncher

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Dec 31, 2006
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733
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West TN
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eatin' trees, poopin' chips
Now knowing more about your job and the way you will approach it, if it was me, I would pre-plan my job on paper for efficiency. I'm sure you know to always work with gravity and never against it so plan to push everything downhill when possible. Depending on how the job lays, whether long and narrow or straight out rectangular, you could pre-plan to minimize push distances and number of burn piles. That WA270 is obviously the legs of your operation so you can push further, faster and minimize your number of piles.

My cleanest and hottest burns were always with lots and lots of oxygen. I've tried fans with some success but a better built fire is my key to success to complete incineration. My best method is to box crib the base with logs to elevate the burn material and let that air be drawn in as fast as possible with clean stumps and very little dirt. Stack that pile as high as you can reach and once started, keep it fed as fast as you can to keep it at full burn. Start the fire above the crib and keep that structure as long as possible and you will be amazed at how much hotter and faster a fire will burn. Build up the air intake at least 4'-6' or more and watch it rip. Start the pile with a diesel Molotov cocktail from the top for best results.

During wet periods, my best fire starter was a stick of 20' 1/2" black iron pipe adapted down at the end to accept a metal agricultural spray tip that would atomize the diesel into a fine spray. You can usually punch this wand deep into most any brush pile to start the burn from the center. Use a 40 psi or higher pressure 12 volt electric fuel pump to supply the fuel. A backpack blower will be a real asset to maximize your burn when starting or punching a fire back to life. An old metal culvert works good to add oxygen to the center and can be pulled with a hoe when no longer needed. More oxygen at all times sped things up for me.
 

southernman13

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May 13, 2008
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Florida,Ga,Tn
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Retired
Good stuff! Much of what we do and know to do. I’ve never tried to lay it out on paper. Normally go with what fits the job. Seems to just make sense when I’m doing it. Clean piles are definitely the best start!
 

JamesL

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Joined
Nov 4, 2020
Messages
7
Location
Baton Rouge, LA
Occupation
Maritime Deck Hand
I second the tannerite idea lol

But down here in Louisiana we typically just burn them down then rip out what is left and haul away if they are too big to burn or we are in a time crunch.
 

treemuncher

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2006
Messages
733
Location
West TN
Occupation
eatin' trees, poopin' chips
@treemuncher that is one of the greatest things I've ever read. My pyro wife may even need to read it!

I'll bet you would like one of my weenie roast fires when I pull out the old T-Vac blower (used to be a city leaf vacuum with a 6 cyl ford engine) on the back of the Kubota M120. That really gets the fires hot enough to forge something. Keeps things burning down, fast. It's a lot more efficient than the backpack leaf blower.
 
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