Weeds by the short and curly
Eradicating weeds by taking their roots from the soil
August 18, 2013
January 14, 2013
AUSSIE BUSH
As you likes it
Euan McLean Cambooya
Landcare
There’s lantana and there’s LANTANA! And being able to
recognise what method / tool system is best suited to “eradicate / have it out
by the roots” is what makes “you the human and it the plant”!
Any plant that has a foliage height less than your eye level
is able to be “dispatched” by you using Root Blade. Just get in close to the
stem / stems, place the mouth / nose of the Root Blade close to the stem and
give Root Blade a good stamp. A fair dinkum stamp should bury the mouth / nose
beneath the plant, cutting roots in the process. Lever the Root Blade down and
the upthrust should bring the plant above the surface. If not, put more stamps
around the plant and lever! You’ll find that the plant is now “above ground”
and you can cut the engaging roots free, the “body” of the plant is now “at
your mercy”.
That’s okay for plants whose “stems you can brush aside”!
But lantana gets to a size and will soon tell you who pushes who! This is where
“you the human” have the advantage, change the method!
The winch rope method
Plants / lantana that intermingle and grow above 3 meters
can easily be taken by using the winch rope method.
Learn to recognise “stands of lantana / vegetation” that can
be “grouped into a manageable bunch”, then one needs some restraining points /
trees to anchor the winch rope. I / we have 30 meters of 5 / 6 mm dia 6x19
fibre core wire rope in 3 only separate lengths, so “imagine” a circle / area
in the lantana of say 10 meters diameter, hitch up the wire rope and winch
device / fence strainer. If “restraining trees” are scarce one could tie back
to the original tree but I’m suggesting a tree on the “other side” to the
winch. (That bloke with the Eureka moment prophesied that this method “doubles”
the pull! So I’m all for it)
So in the case of this photo can you make out 2 only red and
white ranging poles standing either side of the vegetation / bunched? That’s
the target area! Okay you know the fence strainer is restrained behind and the
other end is hitched to that tree standing to the right and behind the “bunch”.
Well I’ll admit to “equipment problems” at this time, and of not reading the
process properly so this took much longer than I had anticipated so be prepared
for hiccups! see photo
“The idea” of the winch rope method is to take the stems of
the lantana “away” from its root base so you can walk around / over and “take
them” with Root Blade or whatever! In this particular case I did not “see” that
I was engaging a fair sized privet, see stem at right of bunch, I should have
put the rope much higher up this stem to bend it over! But despite this
oversight see how the the rope “gathers it into a bunch”!
Now one can “lean in” with Tower Power and make short work
of them! To my memory I took that privet at the edge of the photo before with
Root Blade, but it could have been!
So let’s look at more of the winch rope method
Well one can buy these type in many places, this one has 5
meters of strap, 3 only gear reductions 1 : 5 : 10 / 1 Disadvantages are 1) too
much winding 2) keeping the strap “flat” 3) changing gears 4) when it meets
resistance it can only “increase” / change gears. With the fence strainer you
get a “pulse / on off” effect that vegetation does not “like”, besides a fence
strainer properly restrained can deliver say 300 Kgs line pull, much more that
I’d trust to this winch.
So let’s look at the fence strainer again
There are “other” modifications now, but it’s still a fence
strainer! It delivers “pulse / pull”! The carpenters stand is good, it’s the
right height, weight and stable (and usually you can leave it at the job for
next time, well?)
Well all this bending / winding / stroking the fence
strainer has a bloke thinking!
So here is an answer to “motorise” the method!
Get yourself a Post Hole Auger, that’s a Homelite HPHD 43
and it’s just on the “light side”! Just build a drum for the regular 5 mm wire
rope to reel in at 1 meter per second. Just unhitch the auger and replace with
the winch drum. A “regular” 10 meter bite will generally stall the motor which
is not good for it, so if you think this idea worthwhile, go for a bigger auger
motor! And let’s know how you get on!
But this one!
A 5HP Honda drives through a 6:1 gearbox c/w centripetal
clutch through a chain drive to the winch drum which can be isolated by a Hercus
jaw clutch. Just wheel it into the paddock, chain to a tree and there is more
grunt there than any lantana bush could resist! Refinements are underway to
make it more portable and to enhance control of the rope.
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