Competition After Windrowing or Single-Roller Chopping For Site Preparation in the Southern Piedmont

Abstract

For two years, post-treatment regrowth of herbaceous and woody species was sampled on two adjoining areas in the southern Piedmont where they had been either sheared and piled into windrows or chopped by a single pass of a single-drum roller-chopper. Windrowing yielded 55% less total standing crop of woody trees, shrubs, and vines after 2 years than chopping did. But shearing and windrowing with a KG-blade gave no additional control of sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua L.) and blackgum (Nyssa sylvatica Marsh.). No differences between treatments were found in the standing crop of grasses and forbs. Legumes were more abundant on the windrowed site. Sheet and rill erosion, resulting in topsoil loss, persisted after 2 years on the windrowed area but not on the chopped area. Windrowing treatments should be restricted to gentle slopes and level sites; for sloping terrain chopping is more advisable.

Citation

Miller, James H. 1980. Competition After Windrowing or Single-Roller Chopping For Site Preparation in the Southern Piedmont. Proc. South Weed Sci. Soc. 33:139-145. 1980.