openspaceman

One of those old Tarrup or better Kidd double chop silage harvesters set a foot above the ground might do better. I do not know which way the allelopathy works, whether the chemical is actively given off or it is produced as the fronds brown off but the composting would need to deactivate it. It will be high in potassium. I would favour carbonisation and produce a biochar to be used off site, this would preserve potassium but phosphorus would probably volatilise. Dealing with bracken on a boulder strewn hillside is a bigger problem altogether.

I had a similar sort of problem with a ms181C which @bmp01 diagnosed as an air leak past the accelerator pump (as I recall), he plugged the thing as a least cost repair and the saw was returned to its owner, still running last I saw it.

Yes that is for maximum translocation in order to kill the rhizomes. Trouble is that by this stage the bracken has completely shaded out any heathland species and it then has some sort of allelopathic effect that prevents other species germinating. Clumps expand by 8ft a year because the rhizomes continue to extend all the time the soil remains warm enough. Okay with grassland you can kill everything and reseed but on heathland conservation we have several dilemmas, A lot here is SSSI and the powers that be forbid any work March to September, because of bird nesting. The result is an overall loss of heather, tufted grasses etc. The net effect is to diminish the habitat that the birds breed in. IMO a triage system is needed, those bits of wall to wall bracken need treating (and I prefer cultural methods and carting off site), those bits with no bracken by June should not be walked through and then you have the bits in between that just need the bracken stems cut below the lowest frond while the stem is still soft. Here the aim is to stop bracken forming a canopy. BTW I was unaware that JKW did not set viable seed, of course himalayan balsam the other big invader does. The specification for burying soil contaminated with JKW on a big development was to bury it in plastic lined cells 4 metre deep, I never liked that but we knew the smallest piece of the plant was able to produce viable growth.

The old folk ditty was: "one year's seeding, nine years weeding"

No the purge bulb sucks fuel through the carb and returns it to tank

Yes expensive but I now carry these 10" one in my bag, replacing the Bahco adjustable as they fit then grip.

When I first came across 12 tonne 360 machines , Hymac 580 IIRC, we were felling elms and the driver would tension the rope and drop the bucket on the rope to do just this.

My big winch is a 6 tonne Farmi, all manual, so I would have been envious of your uniforest. Thing is modern kit seems so expensive to someone who has been out of the sharp end for over 15 years, I think I gave £1500 for the Farmi.

Yes and factor in getting the tractor to site. The Eder winch pulls up to two tonnes, fairly slowly, but if the hinge is sound it gets there. Fair more sensible than a Tirfor. Once you are in the realms of a single rope pull of a leaning tree with a tractor winch the art is in judging just how high to mount the rope. You want the winch to give the tree sufficient impetus such that the risk of the hinge cracking out sideways is overcome. The hinge only directs for the first 10 degrees of movement then gravity and momentum take over. Put the rope too high and the winch never keeps up with the initial movement and goes slack before the tree has speed in the right direction. As I got older and less confident I took to having a 5tonne tirfor as a stay wire off to the side where the main pull was not 180 degrees back over the lean.

I can only remember the last two lines of the rhyme my mother used to say about them ...come July away I fly August away I must

as pleasant says; likley to be uneconomic. I am less than ten miles north of Honey Bros and could take a look

The brazenness of this amazes me. A 50 year old biker was killed last week locally by a white van, similarly uninsured and unlicensed driver.

I always developed a headache on days I used it, from the anxiety I suppose. Can't say it was humane way of killing but a lot better than phostoxin. I didn't like strychnine much, watching the worms squirm and die as you dipped them in it before sticking them in a mole run. However these are simple, albeit highly reactive, chemicals that were fairly soon neutralised in the environment. Now I mustn't confuse cause and effect but the rise of glyphosate and auxin mimicking complex organic molecules seems to match the decline in insect populations. Look at the time it took to show DDT in our fat or dieldrin as a cause for loss of raptors.

Just a wild thought; have you checked the starter pulley for cracks. A long time ago, and I can no longer remember which saw, I had a saw that you could pull over slowly but when you tried to start it the pulley would jam. What was happening was that as soon as the cord met some resistance it would sink beside the next turn and because the pulley was cracked around the boss the pulley sides were forced out and jammed against the starter cover.

I used to use a kelly kettle on top of woodchips burning top down but latterly with a surplus of electricity I use that. I still think a steam injection would be useful to kill off deep rooted rhizomes, I advocated this for JKW.

I use boiling water but my garden is mostly weeds

Sodium chlorate was banned because of its toxicity as well as being a powerful oxidant but I have a horrible feeling the organic compounds that replaced "simple" herbicides will have far longer term deleterious effects from use and production.

Worse than that, motor good, battery good but control unit banjaxed and not available, all for the sake of a 10 quid control board. I may make a generator from the motor from one of the many mowers I have. Cells from the battery to be repurposed as a starter pack when I get revved up to do it.

Whereas fitting a pushalong ex battery electric deck with a motor from a rusted out Honda was straightforward, 3 bolts with holes aligned.

I didn't remember it was that late. Back before then you could buy all the bits from Indespension, bolt it together and use it. If it grossed less than 750kg then it didn't need brakes but I thought it did need suspension if it went over 20mph. I'm just scrapping my pre 1986 Bateson tipper because you can't get tyres for it anymore and it would need an IVA if I changed the wheels and axles.

I will be interested to hear about what is new from this tour, especially about sooty bark disease. I have just learned that a house in Aldershot is to be evacuated whilst three diseased sycamores are felled because of the danger from spores. When I was working on diseased trees in the hot summer of 76 the only precautions we took was to disinfect the tools with Jeyes fluid so I wonder what the advice is now and has there been an increase of infected trees and any incidences of human health problems?

Wasn't there a 2006 cut off date? If in use before then and lawful then exempt

Picture looks like it came from my era, the sixties, great shot classic natural beauty, lovely.

Which bit? There is quite old case law about removing overhanging branches (without notice) dating back nearly 200 years. As to the debate about whether a TPO can be ignored in the case of an actionable nuisance has been tested in court yet, I didn't think so but the barrister who wrote "Law of Trees, Forests and Hedges" appeared to suggest it was so. I can't afford the book let alone the legal costs if he is wrong 😉

Well you can waste your time trying to disabuse him of that view, or do it anyway. Yes the right to cut anything overhanging your land trumps all else, except statutory protections.