For every labour intensive task there seems to be clever folk among us who will conjure up a new tool to make the job easier. As more people tackle weeds and take on bush regeneration projects, so too, more new tools are dreamed up and developed in the sheds of Australia.
The ‘Prong’ series is a range of five robust metal digging tools that rely on leverage principles to take the heavy lifting out of digging. Similar to the ‘Tree Popper’ these tools come in a range of sizes to suit different applications and the size of the user.
While the largest ‘Long Prong’ (5.3kg) is not specifically designed for weed removal it is quite effective at removing woody weeds at the sapling stage. It provides a non-chemical alternative for shrub species such as Ochna, Brazilian Cherry and Mock Orange and saplings of tree weeds such as Camphor Laurel, privets and Chinese Celtis.
As with all manual weed removal methods the best results are achieved when there is a reasonable amount of soil moisture as the roots are less likely to snap. The Long Prong is a versatile garden/property tool and is suited to digging holes for tree planting in heavy or compacted soil and in areas with lots of rocks. Other applications include digging up and levering out clumping weed grasses or for dividing and transplanting lomandras.
The much lighter and smaller ‘Weeder Prong’ (0.9kg) is geared more towards garden applications but is handy for levering out herbaceous weeds with tap roots without the need for kneeling or bending right over. Developed in south-east Queensland by Peter Nicol, these well-made, durable tools are lightweight given their strength and are reasonably priced. For more information see www.prong.com.au.
The ‘Wonder Lopper’ is a great weed control innovation that has been developed by Jeff Rayner, a bush regeneration business owner and Land for Wildlife member from Maleny. Anyone who has spent time cutting and painting large quantities of woody weed stems will immediately recognise the benefit of this tool. Cutting and painting has always involved carrying a cutting tool such as saw, loppers or secateurs as well as a herbicide container and sometimes a separate applicator such as a brush. This can involve at least two to three hands, lots of kneeling, bending, putting down and picking up and the risk of herbicide spills. Jeff’s Wonder Lopper allows the task to be undertaken with one device and removes the need to kneel as well.
The Wonder Lopper is essentially a set of long-handled loppers, connected to a light weight (2.5 litre) backpack. You cut your woody weed stem with the loppers as per normal and then press the primer bulb to apply the herbicide, which is administered via an attached 4mm tube that runs across and down the cutting blade onto the cut-stump.
If you are dealing with larger trees and employing the ‘drill and fill’ technique, the loppers can be detached and a herbicide application gun with nozzle can be attached for filling the drilled holes. This gun can be calibrated and is adjustable up to 3ml per application and is also used for scrape and paint applications.
Jeff and his staff have been using Wonder Loppers for a number of years and its design has been gradually refined and improved over this time. For landholders that have large quanties of woody weeds this tool could save you a considerable amount of time and effort. It will also reduce the amount of herbicide used, reduce non-target damage and offers a safer application system for both the operator and the environment. For more information you can contact Jeff at [email protected].
Article by Nick Clancy
Conservation Partnerships Officer, Sunshine Coast Council
I’m trying to find where you buy the loppers with herbicide applicator from?
Hi Luke. There is an email for Jeff and his Wonder Loppers in the article – [email protected]. Hope that helps!
After reinventing the wheel, that is constructing my own Mark 1 device to lop and apply herbicide exactly along these lines, a friend sent me this link. I was delighted in part because it provided clear proof of principle and helped me improve my own comparable clumsier device along the same lines which I want to use for small jobs – as against this impressive ‘industrial’ scale weed killer which this looks conceptually perfect. Some important points/refinements my own fiddling showed which may not be evident to everyone reading this but are if you try and build your own you will appreciate.
– Lots of safety arrangements including the use of dye which will tell you if you are being exposed as well telling you where you are placing the weed killer.
– I love that little dosing button. Where does it come from?? That is a critical feature which must help the ergonomics of herbicide application but whose source I need to identify still. It appears you can press it while keeping your hands on the lever. Brilliant Without it you risk dripping and wasting much herbicide which is a no no.
– The fixing system securing the tubing looks excellent.
– In summary its brilliant and deserves to be produced and publicized more widely and commercially as a kit.
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But if you must it looks to be possible to build something with stuff from Bunnings and Woolworths which is what I am exploring.
– Firstly the red dye…… I just bought some from Woolworths – ‘food colouring’ which means it has been selected for low toxicity and probably degradability. So hopefully this will suffice.
– For smaller jobs it looks like you can use a small spray bottle (about 250 mL capacity) attached to the handle according to whether you are right or left handed. Provided its small it doesnt change the balance on the shears to any significant extent. The main disadvantage is you have to move one of your hands to squeeze the bottle’s trigger. But for smaller jobs that may be enough.
– For fixing and securing cable ties look to be fine. The only exception is down by the blade where a metal connector fixed to the side of the cutting blade is necessary to stabilize the nozzle.
– For tubing you can get rolls of this 3 mm pvc tubing from Bunnings as well as larger diameter tubing connectors to link to any bottle which also allow easy maintenance. The amount dispensed doesnt seem to be excessive and you can control it to a degree.
– For the application point I tried sponge material at first – waste of time as it dripped all over the place. So inspired by this I tried squirting from the 3 mm tube. This leaked too much so I added an irrigation tap. This isnt perfect but the principle is ok. The
– If you are wondering why my enthusiasm…. one word…. privet…..
In conclusion many thanks Jeff for this great piece of kit. It deserves a lot more recognition.