Mechanical harvesting of Melaleuca quinquenervia in Lake Okeechobee, Florida

Abstract

A John Deere™ Tree Harvester with Rome™ cutting head was used to cut and pile stands of melaleuca ( Melaleuca quinquenervia (Cav.) Blake) at Lake Okeechobee, FL, USA. The operator had no difficulty moving the machine over the sandy substrate, including areas with shallow (0.2 m) water. The width of the island (15 m) allowed removal of all trees without backtracking, and no difficulties were encountered in shearing the melaleuca. Mean time required for complete cutting and stacking of melaleuca was 53 s/tree, which yields a calculated mean of 14.3 h of actual harvesting time to clear each hectare of tree island (mean of 970 trees/ha; 44 cm mean diameter at cutting height). Time required to cut each tree was closely correlated with the number of cuts ( r=0.99) required and with diameter at cutting height ( r=0.97); however, diameter at cutting height can be estimated prior to treatment much more easily than number of cuts required. Operational cost for the machine and operator was approximately $125.00/h. Four months after the cutting, 66% of the cut stumps had resprouted. Correlation was high between number of resprouts and stump height ( r=0.90) and between the number of resprouts and diameter at cut height ( r=0.89), although peak percentage of stumps resprouting occurred with the shortest and tallest stumps.