Mowing between 100's of trees

[Overtaxed]

So, I have what looks like a tree farm in my front yard, and I've tried a few things to make it easier to mow, but, somebody else must have this problem. There's got to be a good attachment to make this easy.

Total area is about 10 acres. All the trees are in rows, which makes it easy to run down the rows, but, mowing in between them is a days work with my bush hog and it's a terrible job, weaving, back and forth (backing into the trees to cut close to them). Last year, I bought a Woodmaxx mower that they don't make anymore that has a floating "disk" that bounces around and mows between the trees. However, the mower has problems, it works fine on totally flat land but my land isn't, and that means that I spend a lot of time dealing with the mower in the dirt. I thought this would be the end-all for this problem, but it's so slow because I have to go at basically <1MPH to keep the mower out of the dirt. Here's to mower to get an idea of what I have:

(DEPOSIT) FMX-6Hs PTO Finish Mower with Hydraulic Side Shift

So, what to do? I'm thinking of selling this mower and buying something else, or, alternately, figuring out a way to modify this mower to work for me. Problem is, the mower is too small; I can't get it far enough out to the side of my tractor to make it "easy" to mow (basically, I have to be <6in from the trees to get around them with the FM-60). So, I'd need to figure out a way to get the mower further outside the tire tracks, AND figure out a way to get the mower up in the air high enough to keep it out of the dirt. Might be doable, but it's not gonna be easy. I'm thinking of selling this mower and seeing if there's a better solution.

I'm eyeballing the DR trimmer mower (I know, it's a DR product, not my favorite); I like it because it's gas powered, so I could tow it behind my ATV and have another person on the tractor with the bush hog at the same time. Also, it uses strings instead of blades, which means that I wouldn't have the "in the dirt" problem as badly. However, it just doesn't look that "solid" to me. I, however, haven't seen any other self powered options that are designed for an ATV, and, of course, it's cheap, so both of them have me interested.

I've also looked at some PTO powered options, the Wright Fence mower looks really nice, but it seems to "hit hard" and, of course, now I can't run 2 machines at once.

Anyone have any good ideas? Besides a 200 gallon PTO sprayer and a lot of Roundup? I think I've seen all the options online, but would love to hear some good/bad other experiences. Any more "commercial" self powered trimmers like the DR?

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

I mow in between a large number on trees with my setup. It is brush hogged and not finish mowed.

I use my hydrostatic MFWD 4310 with power steering and a steering knob attached to the wheel. It has a 5 foot shredder which fits just right behind it. If the rear wheel goes past something the mower only sticks out maybe an inch or 2 more. I can brush past a tree on my left, and after passing it, steer the wheel hard left and then right, to bring the mower to cut the back side as I pass it.

If you want weed eater quality trimming, you will something like the DR trimmer attachment.

Good luck.

 

[civilian]

Can you move 90 degrees to the rows ancd go through the trees the other way. Jon

 

[Overtaxed]

Jon,

Yes, I can, but it more than doubles mowing time; I wind up mowing the same lawn twice to pick up the space between the trees; it's basically 2.5X as just mowing down the long rows (the other direction is short and I have a lot of turning around). I have mowed it with a zero turn too, which kind of works, but it's a tremendous amount of running in circles and the ground is really rough, so I wind up burning through a set of blades on just about every mow. I need something that lets me run the long rows (which are ~.25 miles long each, compared to the short rows with are maybe 100 yards) and cut inbetween everything in one shot. Which the FM-60 does, but it's so much work and so slow because of the issues with getting in the dirt.

I wonder if I can change the mower head on the FM-60 (on the part that floats).. Hmm. that's something I hadn't considered before. Wonder if I can find something that would work/could be adapted... Then I'd need to find some way to get the mower out more to one side, but, I'm pretty sure I could figure that out, either moving the 3pt hookup or offsetting it more on the tractor.

And there's always Roundup!

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

I'm sure you do but just to be sure... You have you current "orchard mower" on with a top&tilt setup correct?

 

[4570Man]

.

And there's always Roundup!

And chainsaws.

 

[Overtaxed]

No top and tilt (hydro top link on the way though). And that might help, but the big problem is that the mower is setup to run on 4 wheels (like a finish mower), not on the 3pt like a bush hog. But this is one of my ideas, figure out a way to get it to behave like a bush hog and raise it up. Kind of hard to describe, but this mower, because of the disc way out to the side, is really hard to control depth when it's down on the ground.

 

[Creamer]

Add a string trimmer that is spring loaded to a zero turn. Put a guard on it so that it doesn't damage the trees. I have seen this setup used in a lot of cemetaries as it goes around trees and tombstones well.

 

[Overtaxed]

Add a string trimmer that is spring loaded to a zero turn. Put a guard on it so that it doesn't damage the trees. I have seen this setup used in a lot of cemetaries as it goes around trees and tombstones well.

Any videos or manufacturers that you've ever seen of this setup? This is kind of what I'm thinking, and also kind of what the DR trimmer is, a big weedwacker that tows behind an ATV or tractor that's spring loaded. But if there are other options, particularly some that are designed to be used in conjunction with a mower, I'd love to see them!

Thank you!

 

[daugen]

Overtaxed, I would buy DR's heaviest duty string trimmer and give it a try, as long as you can return it.
I bought their lightweight model and it was complete junk on my white plastic fence posts, still had to go back and manually
weed eat. I gave the unit away to a friend, always wondered how the best model would have worked.

Are you doing pecans? What kind of trees and how low are the branches?

 

[Overtaxed]

Nope, not pecans, red oak trees planted for privacy. They are about 25-30 ft tall, the branches are high enough up that I can get my cabbed tractor under them, so probably 8/9ft or so. I can easily move around the trees, problem is, I don't want to, running in and out of that many trees with a tractor or ZTM is a ton of work; I know, I've done both. It's an all day job where you do nothing but spin the wheel back and forth as fast as you can. Hence, the reason I continue to search for a better option.

 

[pmsmechanic]

So would not mowing under the trees at all be an option? That would be my first choice.

You say the ground is rough. Rent a Harley rake and smooth it off enough so that your present mower works. Build an offset attachment for between the three point arms and the attaching point on the mower deck to move the mower over enough to cover your wheel tracks. To run the pto shaft six inches or more offset isn't going to hurt it as it's probably already offset slightly. You might have to buy a longer pto shaft.

How handy are you at fabricating? Buy a good rear finish mower and develop your own string trimmer to attach to it. If it was me I wouldn't use the string trimmer idea. I would just attach a shielded mower blade to the deck in the same way the DR trimmer works.

 

[oosik]

Well - if you don't want to use your tractor or a ZTM then its - - chop down every other tree or get a commercial weed whacker. I have a big Stihl 450 weed whacker that I easily "whack" a clear circle around all my trees. Then I mow with my riding mower.

I see no solution that involves at attachment to your tractor. I think you will have to dismount and "hoof it" with some form of gas powered weed whacker.

 

[mark02tj]

Just curious - how often do you have to mow? I would think that the grass would grow pretty slowly with all of the shade that a fairly mature oak tree would produce. It's hard to come up with a solution without a clear picture of your conditions. I'm betting that the picture I have in my mind probably doesn't match what you are actually dealing with.

Have you considered letting sheep graze in that area?

 

[Z-Michigan]

Similar question - what's your goal for this? Manicured putting-green grass probably isn't realistic or worth the time. If it were mine I would probably mow N-S one week, then mow E-W at the next mowing, at least one week later if not several. It won't be a putting green but will keep the grass and weeds to an acceptable height.

Also, what about mulching around the base of each tree out for several feet, so you don't have to worry about mowing close to trunks or under branches?

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Goats???

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

Goats???

Sheep

 

[3Lfarms]

What about an offset ditch/bank flail mower?
Ditch Bank Offset Flail Mowers

Your tractor is just big enough. You would need two sets of rear remotes, but you can hydraulically retract it when you come to a tree. It’s not going to be very fast depending on how far apart your trees are, but it would allow mowing up to 6’ to the right of your tractor, then slide it in behind the tractor as you approach a tree on the fly, or you can just tilt it up vertical to get by the tree.
I bought a used Berti flail for $500 from the county. I had to have new hoses made up for it, but Everything else in it worked great. New, those are like $7k.

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

I know nothing about them but this company makes a bunch of Orchard mowers. The link below is for one that, I think, mounts on to your brush hog and is hydraulically driven. Good luck.

SZA - Solo-Swing attachment - Perfect - Van Wamel B.V.

 

[bigtiller]

Nope, not pecans, red oak trees planted for privacy. They are about 25-30 ft tall, the branches are high enough up that I can get my cabbed tractor under them, so probably 8/9ft or so. I can easily move around the trees, problem is, I don't want to, running in and out of that many trees with a tractor or ZTM is a ton of work; I know, I've done both. It's an all day job where you do nothing but spin the wheel back and forth as fast as you can. Hence, the reason I continue to search for a better option.

I used to have the same problem. My windbreak is 600 feet long with 4 rows of spruce trees. When they were young I would mow around them, all 130 of them. I was dizzy enough it nearly made me sick. So I started weaving in & out from tree to tree, but as you said, that is a LOT of work.

I stopped mowing and started spraying for broadleaf weeds. When my grass got tall, it bent over and kept a fairly even height. If I kept the weeds out, it looked pretty good.

It took me an hour and 15 minutes to mow that area. No more of that for me.