Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants How do I keep the edge of my pond cut?

We are building a house that includes having dug a pond to provide dirt for the house pad. The edges of the pond were cut pretty steep to minimize the growth of weeds around the pond, but we still have a narrow strip of tall weeds and grass that I cant get to with the bush hog. Any suggestions? The only ways I know are spraying with round up or using the weedeater.

Cicle (sp) mower or hard work.. I have a guy that cuts my fields for hay.. He uses a offset mower to cut the field I have him do a lap around the pond gets alot of it but not all..

You'll probably get a stiff neck, but if the brush hog is on the 3-point you can back up and let it overhang the pond edge. LOTS of forward/back to get it all tho.

What about a sickle bar mower used to cut hay? The pitman arm units wouldn't angle down too far, but the belt drive mowing machines would lay the sickle bar down the dam a great many degrees. We did it all the time when I was a kid.

Yeah that's what I meant sorry my spelling is 4th grade tops lol

You called it BGK, no matter on the spelling....I'm just backing you up!

I put landscaping fabric and rocks down around the pond. Any cutting method that I tried put grass and weed debris in the pond. Debris=nutrients=algae.

I have the same problem. Here's my "REDNECK" solution that works pretty well.
On the back rack of my 4-wheeler strap a long metal pole 6-8 feet in length. Tie the handle bars of a push mower to it and pull it around the edge. The long pole allows for the 4-wheeler to stay on dry ground. By pulling, it throws all the cuttings on the shore instead of the water. Works for me!

Haha that's funny solution, luckily for mine once my water level became stable I paid a buddy to come in with a Harley rake on a skid steer and grade the edge so I could mow around without the tractor tipping over. Very glad I did it.

I didn't realize that some clippings in pond were bad. I will always angle out from now on. Good info.

The more organic material that is put into a pond (grass clippings, leaves, etc.) the faster muck will accumulate (or the harder bacteria has to work to keep the muck chewed up).

My biggest fear is the four horses I have up stream and the 400 pounds of fertilizer (18-18-18) I put on my field last week which also drains into my pond. Eeek

Tony, I'm shopping for a used sickle mower as we speak. My hay guy said they do angle down farther than most newer disk mowers, and they are easily handled by a smaller tractor. I've got an old John Deere sitting around that would be perfect for pond edge/dam cleaning. And, used sickle mowers with good hydraulics are going for $800 to $1,500 at auction around here.

I use a high-wheel trimmer and I have two. One is Craftsman and the other is echo bearcat:
http://www.sears.com/craftsman-6.75-torq...mp;blockType=G1
http://www.bearcatproducts.com/products/wheeled_trimmers/wt190t/

The echo bearcat costs about $600 but you can replace the string trimmer with a huge circular saw blade to cut trees and brush up to 6" thick.

We still have one of the old DR Trimmers, and we use it all the time as well.

We just bought a DR high wheel trimmer when they had the $100 off sale this spring. My grandsons really appreciate it. We have lots of trimming around the farm sheds and grain bins on three different farm sites and now our pond. Oldest grandson told me one area that took him 3 hours before he did in one hour with the DR (we have a big gas powered straight shank Stihl plus some lighter models). Needless to say, we like the DR trimmer (he likes the less work and I like the less wages to pay )

I have toyed with the idea of making a bracket and extension arm for the DR and attach it to the side of the loader bucket on my small 36 hp JD tractor. Extend it about 4' to the left of the tractor, use the main loader cylinders to change height and a single cylinder to tilt it (have aux hyd on tractor). Then drive the hydrostat tractor around the edge of the pond to trim. DR actually makes a tractor mounted trimmer that would be the cats meow........... but goodness the price.

Another "project" to get to. Not gonna happen this summer though.

Just wait until you have to order parts for the DR Trimmer. No parts list online, so you have to call them directly. Just give them your name, and they pull up the parts based on your original purchase. I was skeptical at first, but it's really nice not to have to find a serial number on a mud caked trimmer when ordering a cable or pulley.

I'm still doing my trimming on my ponds with a weed whacker.

I had a DR string trimmer/mower, with the offset feature, but it didn't do much better than a regular lawn mower. To get close to the water, I still ended up with the mower in the water. Or, I had to go back and forth. Thus, the weed whacker was quicker and less work.

My brushhog is about 6-inches wider than the outside my tractor tires, but it is just to dangerous to use close to the deep/steep edges of my pond.

I keep thinking about a getting another sicklebar mower. Unfortunately, everytime I think about one, I think about my friends and relatives with less than 10 fingers who regularly worked on them. I grew up with them. They do take a reasonable amount of maintenance, but they do a great job of off-set mowing.

With most 25-50 hp Cat 1 tractors, the 7-foot arm will cut at least a foot beyond the outside width of the tires,but by adjusting the arms of the three point hitch, you can get nearly two feet of cutting beyond the tires -- but the hitch has to be kept very tight to prevent nicking or cutting the tires.

As old as they might be, my favorite has always been the Ford 501. A gazillion of them were built. They are just plain tough, and parts are still readily available.

At auction, I see them regularly sell for between $100 and $500.

Mine actually came with a broken wheel. I imagine a fork truck hit the edge of the box where the wheel was. Called them. No problem, sent out a wheel no cost to me. No need to return the old wheel. If customer service stays that good, I'm sold. Not the cheapest thing on the market, but seems like built decent for the price I paid and lots of good reviews on their usage and long life.

Is it possible to design this problem out of the equation before digging the pond? Any suggestions ?

Large volumes of concrete?????

LOL I'm sure that would work

If the pond water level stays relatively static, then a slope of 4:1 - 6:1 will allow easy mowing to the waters edge. You can go to 3:1, but the butt gets tired of staying puckered to keep suction forces in play for the operator to reliably stay in the seat.....

http://www.maine.gov/dep/land/erosion/escbmps/escsectionc1.pdf


If the pond water level will vary a couple of feet from Spring to winter, then all bets are off. It's just too hard to keep wheeled machinery stable once you dip into the pond basin, even if it's 6:1. Once a machine starts sliding in the mud, not much will stop it from continuing into the water..........

I've put a riding mower into 4' of water by getting too close to the edge of a pond where the slope was greater than 2:1, and I remember seeing pictures of Ken's tractor taking a drink from the pond when it was thirsty.

I originally bought a DR string trimmer because a friend used one around his pond but I never used mine for that because I decided I wanted my banks to have vegetation. However I did buy a large saw blade accessory for it to cut small trees down that looks interesting.

Butt pucker suction in play.....Classic!

I seen Bruce posted or liked this somewhere a while back. I was rolling.
http://youtu.be/0G-KYpjItcQ

[quote=http://youtu.be/0G-KYpjItcQ[/quote]

Thats the ticket right there LMBO

Nice article Esshup, thanks for the info. I'm hoping my water level stays the same most of the year. If not, I will make it stay the same with my water well LOL... I'm going to have my digger make the slopes at least 4:1 if not more.

I use a Stihl sickle bar weed eater. Just like a weed eater but has an 18" sickle bar at the end. I walk slowly counter clockwise around the pond and everything just falls by the edge and nothing goes in the pond.

Tim,
will that cut small brush, say 1/2" thick? If so, sounds perfect for me.

I like the 'organic' method George...considering trying that myself!

I currently maintain my pond banks the more mechanical way...

Yes, it cuts through stuff that thick. I tried a Ryobi one from home depot first but it didn't do the job. The sthil one is much more powerful. I trim my driveway hedges and lots of other stuff with it too. Very good tool.

Timinator how's that do for thick grass? I never thought of this idea but I have a stihl kombi motor and that's an attachment I might have too look into..

Tim,

That is funny you said that. After your first post, I bought the Ryobi one attachment as I already have the power head and am waiting on delivery so I can try it out. I shouldn't be surprised it doesn't work as well as the Stihl though.

Goats will do the job.

We have rip rap all the way around out pond so I just give it a shot of roundup twice a year. Lawn mower cuts right to the rip rap.

Cheers Don.

Looks good Dono.. you got enough extra to knock out a 4 acre pond?

Here was my solution I shared a while back. I have made some modifications since the video and pics. The best improvement was a chute that attaches to the rear discharge where the bagger normally goes that directs the clippings away from the pond and under the tractor. I am on my fourth year of using it and still going strong.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=303020

Just when you think you've seen it all.....
This makes Drumz's setup look hi-tech!

I thought about doing something like that with my DR walk behind string trimmer. I was thinking on putting it on an arm attached to my loader bucket so I could change both height and tilt with the loader. Also be out front instead of behind the tractor.

Looks like what you did works pretty well. Beats dragging it up and down the bank by hand.

DR makes a tractor attachment 3pt string trimmer, but it is very pricey.

The truck crane and zero turn mower looks like one of those "hold my beer and watch this" type deals.

I just finished helping with a full rebuild on a old worn out Ford 515 sickle mower for our shop owner to use on his levees. We tried it in a field yesterday and it had no problem laying down 24-36" tall bahaia with plenty of trash grass mixed in. Im sure he will try it on a levee this weekend.

Be careful getting it too far forward your front wheels. As you go over bumps or dips it will amplify the movement of the tractor being that far out will likely slam the cutter into the ground unless you take it very slow and work the bucket controls constantly. The ideal setup would be mounted center between the wheels like a belly mower but off to the side.



It works better than the video. I did some tuning with the offset and chain settings so it floats and follows the slope better. I should be using it this weekend and will try to catch a video. If i had a remote on my smaller tractor I would have a hydraulic ram where the chain is to control the angle.

here are a few options if someone were to buy a setup new:

http://www.bushhog.com/catalog/landscape...tch-bank-mower/

http://www.servis-rhino.com/products/boom-mowers/hydraulic-ditchback

http://capmowers.com/flailmowers.html

http://www.ferri-america.com/slope-mowers/slope-mower-zte-2300/

http://www.wikco.com/offsetcutter.html

Good point on the amplification of the front wheel movement. In my case I have a pretty smooth rocked road all the way around the pond. I just traded small tractor this spring and the new one has a remote outlet so I can use an external cylinder if needed.

Here are a couple of other options, if money is little object.

Tractor mounted DR trimmer

ATV tow behind trimmer

The problem I see with both of them is they are made for flat ground. No provision for tilting the cutter head to match the slope of the bank.

We have three 15' flex wing mowers for bigger tractors, but it is a bit of overkill and a person has to try and control the wing laying over the bank with the wing cylinders.

I like the idea of the tractor mounted one. It does have provisions to angle the cutter downward.

"The pivoting deck is ideal for roadsides, pond banks, and any other areas with uneven ground. It allows the trimmer head to follow the contours of the turf, leaving it trimmed and tidy. "

Take a look at the video and it shows it.

The only problem with it is it doesnt reach out very far. If your tractor is heavy, banks are wet and/or steep, your tractor may take a dip trying to get to the water line.

Be careful getting it too far forward your front wheels. As you go over bumps or dips it will amplify the movement of the tractor being that far out will likely slam the cutter into the ground unless you take it very slow and work the bucket controls constantly. The ideal setup would be mounted center between the wheels like a belly mower but off to the side.

[quote]

If the bucket has a "float" setting, it will automatically adjust up and down with the pressure of it on the ground.

The tractor mounted mower is an idea I had too. I'm stoked to see somebody built one. The chains are a great idea. I was thinking of welding a 2" hitch receiver to the top of the bucket then build out from there.

I never thought about the increased movement from mounting it up front though.

If I can get this to work from a 2" hitch, then I can also use it with the hitch on the back of my golf cart.

I would be afraid that when putting it in float mode the weigh of the bucket bucket would possibly bend the attachment point of the mower or bust the wheels. I may be wrong though.

Mine plugs into a 2" hitch that is on a 'trailer mover' I built for the three point hitch on my tractor. My original thought was to use my four wheeler to pull the mower behind it. Since my slope angles vary and bank to water distance is not constant, I quickly realized the need to have a means of lifting the mower. This feature is very handy for hovering the mower out over the water to take the top off grass growing in standing water.

However you go about it, try and build it in such a way that the mower supports just its own weight when in use. And along that line, try and utilize a mower that has actual ball bearings in the wheels.....those that make do with just the plastic wheel as a bearing surface will probably not hold up very long. Definitely not if they're holding up additional structure/metal arms.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/LYKg0gbRFns?rel=0

Heres a way you could trim the banks. They use this up here to clear the edges of roads for hydro lines and new building lots that you do not want to clear all the trees.

Cheers Don.

Wow, That tool would do land clearing, stump grinding and so much more. I'll plan to get one when I get my first trackhoe! hehe.

Whoa. I could get my property cleared up in a snap! All I had was a 22" push mower when I moved in, so a few things have gotten out of hand.

That thing would clear the pond edge, aerate, AND create a lot of fish meal!

I would hate to be the guy who has to sharpen those blades....But I want one.......

They are most likely carbide inserts. No sharpening - replace the inserts.

Fecon makes similar equipment. Same thing, different machine powering it. They work great for clearing brushy areas.

http://www.fecon.com/applications/view/?productapplicationid=4