I use a simple teeter totter. I put a jack stand close to the T post to be pulled. Then take a long 1-1/2 inch pipe and lay it on the jack stand. I take a small 1/4 inch chain and fasten it to the pipe and to the fence post. Then push down on the pipe and the t post will pop out of the ground.
If I don’t have a pipe or jack stand handy, I’ve used an extra t post in place of the pipe and a short log in place of the jack stand. You still need a short piece of chain. Sometimes if the t post is really stuck in the ground it will bend the t post you are using as the lever. That’s why I prefer an 1-1/2 inch pipe for the lever.
Unfortunately in my soil I cannot use a pipe or t-post as my teeter totter, they would undoubtedly bend. The clay soil reacts with the steel, and the two fuse. I have to use a heavy tamper bar, the wedge end. I use a perfectly shaped rock as my fulcrum. Sometimes even this fails, and I end up using chains, vise grips and tractor hydraulics. I’ve used nylon chokers, but damaged them.
When we farmed we pulled posts all the time. We used an S bar. It was heavy and five feet long . There was a crook on each end , one pointed and one with a chisel end. You could jam the chisel end down in the ground and hang a bump on the post a pry it right out
I suppose it would depend on the wall thickness of the pipe. I can’t imagine someone bending the pipe we use, but I have bent t-posts.
If we have a lot of posts to pull, we also use the tractor. What really works good for us is to use our post hole auger, but take off the gear box (held by one pin). What you have left after you remove the gear box and auger is an arm which raises up and down on the three point. We put a long pin in the end of the long arm, affix a chain to it and use it to pull posts out.
Lol, I’ll take your word Bamboo a modern day Iron Man, but the pipe I use might even be too much for him (Now that I think about it, I think the pipe I use is probably 2".)
Of course the “strength” of any piece of steel is partly a function of how much leverage you can put on it (length, where the fulcrum is placed, etc) but a good piece of steel is awful strong.
Here’s an interesting (to me) video of some of the heaviest powerlifting lifts. The bars used are 1" solid in dia. X 7’ long. I’ve seen a guy bend a cheap 7’ powerlifting bar, but the ones in used in this video seem to snap back pretty good.
Oh Hillbillyhort is exaggerating it does depend on the pipe in question. I just immediately thought of all the pipes we have around here, none of which would stand up to my abuse. I’m sure you use one of considerable diameter and wall thickness. I actually misspoke earlier, my dad corrected me. It’s a giant (7 ish feet) crow bar that I use, which is a much harder steel than the tamper bar. I have used the tamper bar and there are some bends in it (my dad wasn’t too happy about that).
I have an upper tier apple branch with a narrow crotch with included bark. If I do a flat Bench or Dutch cut back near the base, will the resulting new branch also be compromised? The included bark would not be pruned off in the Dutch cut- it clearly will remain so not sure the new branch solves the problem.
Creating a new branch as you described wont solve the problem. Best you can hope for is to cut back to the collar and hope a new bud in the area becomes active.
I’m used to seeing things like this on M111, but I don’t remember seeing this when I got these Geneva rootstocks last year… actually there were hardly any roots either.
I expect it is fine, but just wanted to check. Is there any chance this is a bad thing? I’m actually planting it where 2 other trees failed, so hoping it makes it.
@TurkeyCreekTrees That’s what I meant by Dutch Cut is exactly what you say: “cut back to the collar and hope a new bud becomes active.” I’ve never done one before.
So if a new bud does grow out near the collar the union with the trunk could be strong/normal?
New question:
Set-up: I have a VdB fig in a pot 'cuz it barely made it through its first Winter so I dug it up and ‘grew’ it (didn’t do much) in the pot for a year. This year I brought it into the garage for the Winter. I an wondering if I can bring it into the house now (mid-Feb) to wake it up and get it growing very early so it will gain some height and bulk before it goes out. Neither the pot nor the fig are very big. I’m thinking if it grew substantially I could put it in the ground this year. I’m not sure the main stem even made it through the Winter in the garage, and we’ve had a warm Winter. Now it does have two big suckers that look healthy.
Here it is at its full size last summer.
Hmmm… I just planted the tree this morning. I guess I should have waited. It is in a dense planting with an pear about 3 feet away on one side and another apple about 3 feet away on the other side. It sounds like the gall isn’t fatal and may not impact the tree too much, but if if might effect the other trees maybe I should dig it out and remove all the dirt around it as well.
If it is crown gall it might have been infected before you got the rootstock. IN that case removing it might make a difference. If it’s already in your soil and was infected at your place removing it won’t matter.
