Clearing ground for pasture

[ponytug]

Sounds like you have worked out a solution.

You could also try disking it from different angles. Dragging a piece of chain link fence with some pieces of pipe or just dragging some medium sized logs can do an ok job of leveling things out. I know some folks who drag the chain link behind their disk cultivator, but it really depends on your soil conditions and tractor HP.

All the best,

Peter

 

[paulsharvey]

Sounds like you have worked out a solution.

You could also try disking it from different angles. Dragging a piece of chain link fence with some pieces of pipe or just dragging some medium sized logs can do an ok job of leveling things out. I know some folks who drag the chain link behind their disk cultivator, but it really depends on your soil conditions and tractor HP.

All the best,

Peter

Springs from a burnt mattress work on clean ground too.

 

[oosik]

I have a two acre field that I cleared. Started with a disk setup. NO joy. Moved to my box blade with scarifiers. Worked better but still had buried roots.

In the mean time I upgraded to my Kubota M6040. Stripped my single bottom moldboard plow to just a bare single shank. Happy Days. This setup resolved all the problems. Neighbors root rake and my M6040 cleaned up the entire mess.

 

[paulsharvey]

Hi - I’ve been running a seven or eight foot disk over for a couple weekends now. I’m surprised by how soft it is now that it is “opened up”. Still having a lot of sticks, etc but not fowling the disk nearly as often now that I’ve added ~200lbs weight on top it. Got it opened up enough that I think it will take the lime better. I’m looking for a piece of railroad rail or something similar to drag it and hopefully knock down the highest spots. I did have a local dirt works guy look at it to root rake and level (really needs some slopes pulled back and a lot of dirt pushed around to get the run off / grade correct). I’m going to get it as clean as I can by just picking up sticks etc. and as I lime it disc it a few more times before seeding. Thanks for all the feed back

How has smoothing/leveling the area gone after disking?

 

[LDR812]

How has smoothing/leveling the area gone after disking?

Hi Paul - I’m only out here on weekends- last weekend was working on the new to me dump bed k3500 - there is so much roots and such that are in these fields and a bunch of dirt etc that needs to be moved etc that I bought a old Gainesville city truck. Today I made 1 pass longways loading the bed with debrei - then had to take over mowing xyz from the wife. It was a hot day! I think I’m just going to roll that old truck around and pick the roots etc that the disk dragged up - and next will be spreading lime. I’m in SE Alachua - I shore wish I could find a place to get a lime buggy - otherwise I’m going to use the broadcast spreader on the MF 165 and hopefully load it with the NH 33 loader. IFAS saws 1 ton an acre - I am thinking I’ll hit this first 5 acre with about 1k lbs an acre and then run the disk again wait a bit - then lime it again- and hopefully be able to broadcast sun hemp for this season - it’s getting late in the rain season so I hope it works out. The first disking (maybe 3-4 passes in the same direction) made a huge difference. I’m thinking after I lime it first time I’ll disk it more and hopefully figure a good drag - we’ll see how it goes

 

[paulsharvey]

Hi Paul - I’m only out here on weekends- last weekend was working on the new to me dump bed k3500 - there is so much roots and such that are in these fields and a bunch of dirt etc that needs to be moved etc that I bought a old Gainesville city truck. Today I made 1 pass longways loading the bed with debrei - then had to take over mowing xyz from the wife. It was a hot day! I think I’m just going to roll that old truck around and pick the roots etc that the disk dragged up - and next will be spreading lime. I’m in SE Alachua - I shore wish I could find a place to get a lime buggy - otherwise I’m going to use the broadcast spreader on the MF 165 and hopefully load it with the NH 33 loader. IFAS saws 1 ton an acre - I am thinking I’ll hit this first 5 acre with about 1k lbs an acre and then run the disk again wait a bit - then lime it again- and hopefully be able to broadcast sun hemp for this season - it’s getting late in the rain season so I hope it works out. The first disking (maybe 3-4 passes in the same direction) made a huge difference. I’m thinking after I lime it first time I’ll disk it more and hopefully figure a good drag - we’ll see how it goes

Check with GRU about getting water plant lime, if they still sell it; or from City of Alachua, they have their own water-sewer department as well.

Edit: You mean SE Alachua County, I thought you meant the City of Alachua. Also, check with City of Hawthorne.

 

[paulsharvey]

See this from Yesterday's Tractor. Looks like Southern States in Anthony, can't be far from you. They very well might rent a spreader.

 

[LDR812]

Yes - I’m south of Hawthorne. I asked the folks at Sparr in Anthony and tried to find them online - no luck. I had seen the post you forwarded and did not get an answer at that number. A few weeks ago I was in Williston and saw a buggy being towed down the road- I was towing the MF 165 on a trailer behind so I couldn’t get over and ask where he got it

 

[paulsharvey]

Yes - I’m south of Hawthorne. I asked the folks at Sparr in Anthony and tried to find them online - no luck. I had seen the post you forwarded and did not get an answer at that number. A few weeks ago I was in Williston and saw a buggy being towed down the road- I was towing the MF 165 on a trailer behind so I couldn’t get over and ask where he got it

Try Diamond R in East Palatka?

 

[LDR812]

I think I saw them on the internet- I have not tried to contact them. I am curious about the water works lime you told me about. How would a guy spread that? Broadcast maybe mixed with sand?

 

[paulsharvey]

I think I saw them on the internet- I have not tried to contact them. I am curious about the water works lime you told me about. How would a guy spread that? Broadcast maybe mixed with sand?

That's what I'm not sure about. I thought it kinda came as a semi wet mass, but im not sure; never worked on the 'plant' side of water or sewer.

 

[two_bit_score]

Pine stumps can go two ways. Some can rot quickly and some can become hard as rock.

 

[LDR812]

Thanks for all the good information

 

[paulsharvey]

For you lime amendment. If you have a local quarry or masonry company you can often get the price considerably cheaper then buying pelletized but you will need either a drop spreader or a lime buggy that can be rented to spread it.
.

He is within 30 or 40 miles of maybe 3 or 4 limerock mines; MJ Stavola (northern edge of Ocala); MFM (Reddick); and what used to be SCI/Magnum Materials (northern Ocala); but my only dealings with their material was been the limerock roadbase; don't know if they sell a processed Ag lime.

 

[ponytug]

You might want to double check what you are thinking of as lime. Are you adding it to raise the pH or as a source of calcium? It makes a difference. The water plant material is likely CaCO3, calcium carbonate from lime soda water softening, and always wet. Lime, or slaked lime, is calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide, much stronger alkaline material for raising the pH.

Good luck!

All the best,

Peter

 

[paulsharvey]

Spoke with a guy from Putnam Co water/sewer at a meeting this morning; they are reverse osmosis, so no lime. He did say, to the best of his knowledge, City of Ocala still uses lime at their water plants. He said the product does dry rapidly, but it does have to dry before spreading. I think it's roughly half as effective at raising PH per pound as ag lime, but it may be free, if you can haul.

 

[LDR812]

Thank you vey much Paul! I've been on the lookout for a manure spreader and I was thinking that might work well to spread the damp lime (mixed with some manure / shavings etc.). It feels like I'm running out of time - rainy season is just a few weeks away and I sure wanted to get some seed in before the rains. I know the lime is slow acting - I was hoping the ag lime would disk in and maybe not inhibit any seed sprout (leaning towards sun hemp for a legume / green manure crop). Any thoughts on that?

 

[LDR812]

You might want to double check what you are thinking of as lime. Are you adding it to raise the pH or as a source of calcium? It makes a difference. The water plant material is likely CaCO3, calcium carbonate from lime soda water softening, and always wet. Lime, or slaked lime, is calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide, much stronger alkaline material for raising the pH.

Good luck!

All the best,

Peter

I actually need it for both. The soil report indicated allot of magnesium so don't need dolomite. I do need to look into the chemistry - I never really gave it much thought - just knew that adding a base raises PH but exactly what that process is? Some of the folks I've spoke to that are in the same stage of renovating fields told me that 6 or 7 months after they spread lime (mostly pelletized) that they haven't seen as much change in PH as they were looking for before planting.

 

[ponytug]

Ok, brief chemistry overview. CaO, calcium oxide, "lime", is extremely alkaline. If you add one molecule of water (H2O) to calcium oxide, you get "slaked lime", aka calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2. Most people use slacked lime because it is less corrosive and somewhat easier (safer) to handle. If you run the water plant over at, say Ocala, you would probably add CaO to hard water (that contains calcium and carbonate) that makes the water alkaline, and the solubility of the calcium carbonate goes to almost zero, and it falls out of solution as a powder or sludge that is almost pure calcium carbonate, CaCO3. Calcium carbonate is a source of calcium for fields, but it is not very alkaline.

That is actually the trouble with calcium salts. They are generally very insoluble at neutral to basic pH. So, they don't go very far in soils. So while applying pelletized "lime" is easy, the alkalinity effects do not migrate very far from the pellet, especially if the "lime" pellet is calcium carbonate, rather than slaked lime or lime.

In an ideal world, you probably want to apply lime/slacked lime powder to your field, then disk it in to disperse it, and repeat until you get the soil chemistry to where you want it to be. The details of whether you will hit enough calcium or the correct pH first will depend on the details of your soil chemistry and which of the calcium products that you apply. Your county agent probably can advise you on the desired ratios of lime/slaked lime/calcium carbonate for your fields. It may be a bit iterative, depending on your soil chemistry, so I would be prepared for a few cycles. You are doing it at the best time because you can work the calcium deep into the soil, and neutralize a larger volume of your soil for a more lasting effect.

My fertilizer spreader came with a "anti-caking" rod that extends up into the hopper specifically to breakup clumps of lime/slaked lime powder. Not all spreaders have them, but my guess is that in Florida, it is a necessity.

Does that help?

All the best,

Peter

 

[LDR812]

That all makes sense. Thank you