Sagebrush Has to go. Whats the easiest way to clear 10 acres?

lowriderb · Mar 29, 2018

Sorry my wife says its "Sagebrush". Not scotchbroom. We have our Branson 4720H and have tried our landscaping rake and Bucket edge with no luck. We have ALOT of acres to clear in eastern Washington and fire seasons coming. Last year a fire came within 2 miles of our house. I see the Piranha teeth edge but at 376.00 shipped but we're in new implement territory at that price.. Does anyone have experience with this stuff? Thanks

Silvic · Mar 29, 2018

Re: Scotchbroom Has to go. Whats the easiest way to clear 10 acres?

Mulch it. Then spray any new growth with something like Triclopyr ester. You can also easily mow any regrowth with any mower, if you don't let it get ahead of you. If you don't want to use chemicals it does require mowing several times a years. Never let it reseed and wait for the 20 year seed reserve to expire.

If it is under 3 inch diameter and you have a real heavy duty brush hog and are careful you can mow it with that but it is hard on the equipment and can result in earlier equipment replacement.

Depending upon where you are in eastern WA there are several folks that can be contacted for their services. There are times that it is a DIY project and there are times it is not. The equipment you have and time you have to do it or the equipment and time you don't have are the driving factors. Scotch broom seeds have a survival time of up to 20 years so you can't just do it and forget. It is a long term project that you have to stay on top of.

That is why it is classified as an invasive species.

flingwing1969 · Mar 29, 2018

Re: Scotchbroom Has to go. Whats the easiest way to clear 10 acres?

lowriderb said:
We have our Branson 4720H and have tried our landscaping rake and Bucket edge with no luck. We have ALOT of acres to clear in eastern Washington and fire seasons coming. Last year a fire came within 2 miles of our house. I see the Piranha teeth edge but at 376.00 shipped were in new implement territory. Does anyone have experience with this stuff? Thanks

The Piranha is what I would suggest. I had 40+ acres in the Santa Cruz Mountains in the southern bay area of CA with quite a problem with French Broom - similar in some ways to Scotch Broom but more invasive - more seed and more shade tolerant. I had a couple of areas so dense that I could not wiggle my way in and when I did it was so dark that nothing was growing under the broom.

I could not use my tractor at all, however, due to being on mountainous land and the broom growing frequently on very, very steep slopes. The only way I found to handle it was with a hedge trimmer on a pole, used like a sickle bar mower just walking the slopes and cutting the stuff down, hauling it and burning it. About a quarter of the broom would resprout from the roots and I got to do it again in a few years, but much reduced. Once the ground was subject to sunlight, the seeds would sprout (50 year seed viability) but I could go back and pull the seedlings by hand. Over all a very pleasant (not) activity.

If I had level ground I would not hesitate to spend the bucks on the Piranha for a second. If it works like I'm told it does, it should yank that broom out by the roots easy as could be. There is an added benefit there as the seeds are exposed and will sprout, then you could go back and skim the area and get rid of them - in a few years the broom should be gone.

mapper · Mar 29, 2018

Re: Scotchbroom Has to go. Whats the easiest way to clear 10 acres?

Scotchbroom is really hard to eradicate. It's seeds will remain viable for 40 years in the soil and it sprouts from the stumps if cut. The best way I have found to control it is to pull the plants, it is not hard to pull either with the tractor bucket and a chain or by hand with a scotchbroom puller. After that annual mowing will tend to suppress the new seedlings.
Fort Lewis near us has been fighting the battle for a long time. They tried herbicide about ten or more years ago, didn't do anything to the scotchbroom but did nearly wipe out the native camus lilly(which is only in the last couple of years started to recover). More recently they have been burning the prairies every year or so which seems to be somewhat more effective.
In any case you are in for a years long battle to reclaim your land from that noxious weed.

lowriderb · Mar 29, 2018

Re: Scotchbroom Has to go. Whats the easiest way to clear 10 acres?

I was told you cant mow sagebrush with a brushhog I was told my our rental outfit over here. There stringy/dry trees up to 5" in diameter.

Silvic · Mar 29, 2018

Re: Scotchbroom Has to go. Whats the easiest way to clear 10 acres?

lowriderb said:
I was told you cant mow sagebrush with a brushhog I was told my our rental outfit over here. There stringy/dry trees up to 5" in diameter.

Sagebrush at 5" is larger sagebrush than I have seen.
Do you have any close up photos?
At that diameter you are looking at mulching as I suggested or scraping/pulling with all the soil disturbance problems that are created by that. Area burning in your region would not go over well at all unless you have a spare $20M for reparations and fines I would guess.

bkrgi · Mar 29, 2018

I would say forestry mulcher and or into a soil pulverizer and lots of follow up
Def way past brush hogging at 5" stuff and be a long process of ripping out each shrub with a loader.

Oldoak · Mar 29, 2018

No experience with sagebrush, but I think a forestry mulcher would be the best option.

Edit: bkrgi already suggested it as I was typing.

flingwing1969 · Mar 29, 2018

Sagebrush is easier then broom. Won't come back as quickly. It come out really easily but is brittle so often will break off at the ground level. I like the smell when working with it but some hate it. Again, I would bite the bullet and get the Piranha for the job. If you wanted to, you could hire someone with a masticator and make short work of it, but you'd be reaching into your back pocket pretty deep. And, it leaves a lot of debris to clean up afterwards.