Frequently Asked Questions
It's a damn curse is what it is. Of course you probably know what it is being an introduced species that's turned into a weed of national significance that devalues land, is a massive fire risk, provides habitat for feral species like rabbits, foxes, feral cats & dogs, rodents etc. I won't bore you with information about gorse as there's plenty of information online about it. What you want to know is how to get rid of it so read on.
The Victorian Gorse Taskforce is an excellent resource for all things Gorse! vicgorsetaskforce.com.au
As with most weeds we pull them out of the ground and get rid of them. I've researched Gorse control methods extensively and the best method to control Gorse is to pull it out. When Gorse has gotten old enough to produce seeds it produces tens of thousands of seeds per square metre. According to Australian research as many as 6 million seeds per hectare is produced by a thicket of Gorse. Follow up poisoning of Gorse re-growth is essential because Gorse seeds like crazy and the seeds stay viable in the ground for decades.
There are several methods of attempting to control Gorse. There's burning, mowing & slashing, mulching, scything, poisoning and physical removal by hand or with heavy machinery. The Gorsinator uses lighter machinery so it has a less damaging impact on your land than other physical removal methods such as bull dozers and excavators.
Each method has it's good and bad traits which you can read more about below.
Mulching of gorse has it's place and it is popular and expensive. It quickly minces the gorse above the ground so it makes you feel that the job is done. It also leaves all the root system in the ground which is still alive and it starts growing again so your ground, which is your land, is still as useless as it was when it was infested with a gorse thicket. With all those roots cut off at ground level what can you actually do with your land? You can't put horses or livestock on the land because what will they be walking on. Nothing else will be able to grow for years and your land will be covered in mulched gorse with many thousands of seeds in it. Is that the solution you want?
The wonder blade does a great job of cutting off the Gorse above the ground and it poisons the roots so the Gorse, hopefully, won't regrow. Well new Gorse will grow but the old Gorse root system is still in the ground so the same problems as the mulching process exists, your ground is still useless.
Everything looks nice after it's been mowed and if you want a nice carpet of Gorse for the next million years just keep mowing it. From my field observations Gorse that has been slashed over the years grows a large root base which gets bigger with each slashing. This large root base grows new shoots and stems which break off when extraction is attempted. The end result is a nightmare that only heavy machinery can rip out of the ground.
Burning a thicket of Gorse has proven to not be very successful as well as potentially dangerous. Gorse burns extremely hot because it has oil in it similar to the way eucalyptus trees do. Burning a thicket also damages the biodiversity of the soil so it's not a good Gorse control method. Go to this page here to see the new seedlings that grow after burning a thicket of Gorse.
From my own observations of Gorse thickets that have been burnt, under every Gorse shrub location there is a circle the diameter of the pre-existing shrub of new Gorse seedlings that sprout a few months later. There are thousands of them!
Burning of Gorse thickets creates more new growth from what I've witnessed compared to an area of extracted Gorse.
When extracted Gorse is burnt in concentrated piles as I advocate there are hardly any new seedlings sprouting because of the higher heat generated by the concentrated fire.
Herbicide control of Gorse is costly and probably not great from an environmental perspective. You're also left with a paddock of dead brown dry ugly Gorse for the next 5 years instead of green and sometimes pretty yellow prickly ugly live Gorse. Dead Gorse is a massive fire risk. If you do have dead Gorse this is where the Gorsinator shines because you can pull it out then arrange it in piles to burn under safe and controllable conditions. Always adhere to safe fire practices for your locality and confer with your local fire authorities for advice with safe burning practices.
Herbicide to kill new Gorse growth is the easiest way to eliminate a new thicket of Gorse combined with pulling it out with the Gorsinator. Always adhere to the correct practices as advised with any form of poison. Along water ways and near dams be especially careful to use the correct type of herbicide that's friendly to our frogs and other critters.
When the Gorsinator pulls Gorse out of the ground the upper part of the root structure is also removed. In this upper region of the roots there is a system of biological cells called the Meristem. Think of this as the stem cells of the plant which can generate new growth. For this reason with the Meristem removed Gorse will not regrow from the deeper roots that are left behind.
Pulling out Gorse gives you your land back to use how you want to. Cultivate the soil, sow a grass of some sort to feed your animals and always poison the new Gorse that grows or pull it out with the Gorsinator.