What Tools do you bring when collecting?

[aml1014]

I take a:
Folding saw
Loppers
Large shovel
Small shovel
Bypass shears
Some water
And a garbage bag or grow bag with handkes if I have one

Aaron

 

[BrianBay9]

You need to define where you're collecting and what kind of topography you're dealing with. Rocks, mountains, swamps, farm land all will have different requirements. Different tools for different settings.

 

[sorce]

Toilet Paper.

Sorce

 

[jferrier]

#1- prybar
Also, shovel, chainsaw, burlap, roughly 50% pumice mixed w/ 50% sphagnum, water, lunch, come along (if I get stuck in snow), rope safety harness, loppers, twine, garden spade and fork, pick axe, and tp. I collect as far into the Cascade mountains as I can go till snow stops me, and usually around late April and early May.

 

[mattspinniken]

saw, shovel, burlap, twine, and pruners.

 

[markyscott]

When I go, it's usually to the swamps or to ranch land. I don't need much - a reciprocating saw w/extra batteries a handsaw, a hand axe and a shovel - which I think have all been mentioned above. One thing that I always bring that hasn't been mentioned is large stretch wrap film like this:



So I can do this:


Indispensable.

 

[Underdog]

Love the plastic wrap Marky.
How you guys carry all this stuff??? I take this, a cut down shovel, hand pruners and toss them in the cooler but, I'm learning.

 

[markyscott]

Love the plastic wrap Marky.
How you guys carry all this stuff???

On the ranch or in the swamp, I never get too far from the truck or boat. Very bad if you do. That's where the cooler is. In Texas it's illegal to be more than an arms length away from beer.

 

[wireme]

My basic kit here, I have to go light as possible cause I go deep and steep sometimes, pry bar would be nice but..,

Missing from the kit are bags and moistened burlap or bedsheets, they're still wrapped around some roots.
Also missing are hand pruners that took a dive into a rock crevice on Sunday. Small first aid kit also missing, possibly in the truck.
The misting bottle and lots of refill water are absolutely critical, need a new one now.
The shovel kicks ass.
I have a couple other highly classified top secret weapons for select trees.

 

[wireme]

The stretchy plastic and moistened fabric are nice to wrap rootballs for sure.

 

[sorce]

possibly in the truck.

Lol.....

After rolling down from steep and deep...
Knocking a noggin on a badass later collected rock....
And impaling self with the shovel...
(it does look strong BTW)

Not a good place for the First Aid Kit.!

But I picture you dragging yourself over to the truck to perform surgery on yourself whilst being gnawed on by a wolf!

Nice!

Sorce

 

[rockm]

On the ranch or in the swamp, I never get too far from the truck or boat. Very bad if you do. That's where the cooler is. In Texas it's illegal to be more than an arms length away from beer.

The beer also keeps your mind off the fire ants...

 

[PaulH]

Depending on the conditions where I'm digging I take all or some of these:

Backpack
Bungies
Handheld Gps
Gloves
Kneepads
Milwaukee Hackzall

lopper
folding silky saw
Handheld pick/mattock

digging bar
Sharpened shovel
stretchwrap and old towels to wrap roots.

Food, water, sunscreen, bugspray, First aid kit, raingear, smartphone

 

[wireme]

Lol.....

After rolling down from steep and deep...
Knocking a noggin on a badass later collected rock....
And impaling self with the shovel...
(it does look strong BTW)

Not a good place for the First Aid Kit.!

But I picture you dragging yourself over to the truck to perform surgery on yourself whilst being gnawed on by a wolf!

Nice!

Sorce

When that happens I just ride the wolf back to the truck.

 

[M. Frary]

Shovel,saw and a bucket.

 

[jcrossett]

Okay m I crazy I use a hand ax on the cottonwood I collected have a 6-8 in base and the tap root was axed out. Then I trimmed after I got it out. Also used a plastic trash can as a pot that I drilled at shit ton of holes in. I'll see if I can find pictures later. Don't have it anymore and not sure if cotton wood would make a good bonsai.

 

[Shima]

Those are called ground breaking bars where I came from. Used in a lot of different trades, Landscape, Construction, Fencing, and more. The heavier ones with the chisel ends break stone in the ground nicely when dropped on it.

Grimmy

Here they are called o'o bar

 

[Timbo]

Only been collecting for a year but my reciprocating saw does 90% of the work. 12 inch carbide blades are nice!
A trench shovel if I really need a moat.
Loppers to save batteries! I ALWAYS run out of battery packs before i'm done.
Root rake to lose the heavy bottom sand.
Seeing as I bare root or semi bare root all but conifers I just use burlap, the plastic wrap looks nice, maybe I will try that for conifers but I put conifers in the ground so I just burlap and dig a hole. I use burlap over and over.
Pull cart, best purchase I made. It beats a backpack and I can collect 5-7 trees before I lug it back to the car. Makes yard work and bags of soil so much easier! (I get fatigued)
Seeing as how rocks are few and far between here a pry-bar does nothing for me but sink in the sand/muck.
It gets easier the more I do it, I've learned most trees up here you can bare root and leave a few inches of roots so you don't have to do root work again next year and they will grow fine.
I did an emergency dig of 5 'stumps' from 2" to 5" trunk in about 45 min- 1 hour the other day. 2 had big taproots.

 

[PiñonJ]

As has been stated, it depends on your collecting area. Around here, where a lot of sites have very hard dirt, the pick mattock with the extra-large trenching blade is the most useful digging tool. This photo is from a couple of years ago. On my most recent trip, I used 8" stretch wrap instead of burlap - much easier to use! I also used a small shovel. I've since bought a cordless reciprocating saw, which I'll take on my next outing. I also took an old external frame backpack, which I didn't use. If I did need it, a lot of the tools would stay in the car.

 

[M. Frary]

I like to take a camera for when I spot a Squatch.