I have a 36" diameter stump that is about 18" above ground level I need to remove. I have read in other sites about drilling holes in the top and using kerosene prior to burning. Anything to add to that idea or other suggestions? I thought about a stump grinder but I haven't found out if the local rental place delivers equipment. [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]
Just thoughts:
I assume that digging out the stump is not in your plans.
If burning the soaking with kerosene or diesel in as many holes as possible should work. I'd think about 3 or 4 soaks to get as much wood saturated as possible. Also think about drilling in a few horizontal holes on the perimeter that will connect to a vertical hole. Other hrizontal holes will also help later as the fire gets going. This will allow plenty of air to feed the fire and produce very hot coals to help dry out and burn the below ground portion. Should be jets of flame coming out of the holes when it gets going.
Have also read where you can hollow out a little bowl in the top then light some charcoal briquets in it and just let them burn. I'd imagine you'd have to keep adding as they burned down but seems like it would work at a minimum of effort. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
I have burned about a half dozen 36inch stumps and it takes
a BIG fire burning along time to make these things go away.
By big fire I mean 20-30 feet long 15 feet or so wide and
maybe 6-8 feet tall. Even then I have some left overs....
This fire burned for well over 24 hours before I "put" it out.
I buried the pile with dirt which turned out to be more mulch
than dirt. That think smouldered for TWO WEEKS even after
days of heavy rain. Did I mention I still have stump parts.
[img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]
To be fair the stump that where in the fire from the start
disappeared but the ones on the edge of the fire still remained
after 24 hours.
The idea with the charcol might worked. I know my wifes
granddaddy used to pile up wood over stumps and burn them
out that way. But there was still quite a bit of the stump
left it did not remove all of the wood.
Good Luck and let us know what you do.
Dan McCarty
Lots of ideas about how to get rid of stumps, and nearly all of them work . . . sometimes. I think it depends on how old the stump is, what kind of tree, and maybe even what kind of soil, how much moisture, etc.
I had two stumps that I cut off very near the ground when the trees died; each about 10" diameter and I don't know what kind of trees they were, some kind that kept little green leaves year round until they died (presumably from a drought that we had, but don't really know about that either). With a wood bit, I drilled 8 to 10 holes in each 6" to 8" deep. Then I filled the holes with diesel and let it soak, a couple of days later, I filled them with diesel again and lit them and let them burn. When the fire went out (same day), I filled them with diesel again and re-lit the fire. A month or so later, I tried again, and the next spring I did it again a couple of times. And after two years, they were finally rotten enough that I was able to break them up with an ax and dig them out; never did burn enough to amount to much. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]
My brother had a an oak tree die right in front of his front door and we cut it down as close to the ground as possible; left a stump about 2' in diameter. So he drilled holes in it and tried the diesel treatment and fire a half dozen times. The follwoing summer, someone told him to get a barrel with both ends cut out to use for a fire ring around the stump, pile on charcoal, and burn the stump. That worked; only had to keep the fire going every day for about two weeks [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img] before it was burned down below ground level enough that he filled in the "hole" with dirt and planted grass seed.
In each case, we got rid of our stumps in about 2 years. [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]
I have a piece of steel culvert pipe, 4' x 4', that I use to burn out stumps. Cut the tree, harvest the firewood, pile the tops and knotty chunks nearby, then the next year burn out the stump using the brushpile. I've yet to have one take more than 8 hours to cook below ground level.
If you don't want to burn or can't burn, I've been told that if you drill four or five holes at downward angles around the trunk and a couple straight down on the top and fill them with rock salt and keep them filled for a couple weeks you shuld have a dead stump you can push over with a tractor in 4-6 months. I haven't tried it yet but as dry as it already is I probably will. Another option would be to dig around the stump and use an old chain saw to cut it off below ground, pour some turloc on it and cover it with dirt.
<font color="blue"> if you drill four or five holes at downward angles around the trunk and a couple straight down on the top and fill them with rock salt </font color>
I hadn't heard the rock salt thing, but I've done this using Roundup. Kills the stump and all the roots but good, then the tractor can break 'em out. I should try rock salt - cheaper than Roundup.
Salt will preserve the stump, and the subject is "removal" of the stump. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Salt may "kill" the stump and keep it from sending out new shoots, but beyond that, it likely will not help much.
Depending on what species it is (Iowa it may be cottonwood, which will decay fairly rapidly), the stump could take years (see Bird's note on oak) to "decay". Best to keep it moist and full of bacteria and air to get them to decay. Salt is however a preservative and will defeat the decay process.
Cutting just below grade and covering with dirt will likely cause it to decay as fast as anything. But hope it isn't something like walnut, which takes forever to decay. Some people like to dig out walnut stumps and make craft-type things from the figured wood.
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