How to Plow Up a Small Tree

If you have a small tree on your property and want to remove it, you can do so by plowing it up. This is a large task but one made more easy with a tractor. Plowing a tree doesn't require extensive land clearing experience, and you can spare the expense of hiring an arborist. Within an afternoon, the small tree will be felled and the roots unearthed to make way for sod or other landscaping.

Safety glasses
Chainsaw
Gloves
Shovel
Tractor
Plow
Tow straps

Instructions

- 1
  Put on safety glasses to protect your eyes.
- 2
  Make a horizontal "V" cut into the side of the tree on the same side you want it to fall toward using a chainsaw. Make the face notch-cut about 70 to 80 percent deep into the tree trunk, approximately 2 to 3 feet off the ground.
- 3
  Walk around to the other side of the tree and use the chainsaw to make a back-cut at a downward angle about 20 to 30 percent deep into the trunk, just shy of the face notch-cut.
- 4
  Quickly step perpendicularly away from the tree and let it fall to the ground. Cut up the trunk and branches with your chainsaw.
- 5
  Put on gloves and dig up the earth next to the trunk to expose the root ball. Excavate enough ground to see most or all of the root ball.
- 6
  Drive a tractor with a plow attached up to the trunk. Place the tractor in the lowest gear and push against the tree trunk steadily -- the root ball should start coming loose. Keep inching forward with the plow uprooting the root ball.
- 7
  Wrap tow straps around the trunk and connect the tow straps to the tractor. Pull the root ball completely out of the ground to finish.

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