Kill stump

[Higgs Boson]

I am having two large evergreen bushes removed. They were standing on each side of my front walk. I intend to put large decorative pots in their place with appropriate plants. (Suggestions welcome -mini-climate is So. Calif coastal)

What's the fastest way to kill the stumps (approx 10-12" diameter)?

Last time I dealt with a stump, decades ago, one was supposed to buy a chemical and introduce it via holes bored in the stump.

Gardener just told me to use gasoline.

Any information out there on (a) fastest and (b) most effective, and maybe (c) least expensive way. (though that's not the deciding factor ).

Persephone

[despen]

For B and C, dig it out.

It may not be the fastest way but it builds muscles. Time well spent.

[EVP MAN]

Take an auger and drill some good size holes in the stump and fill them with rock salt. In no time the stump will rot and you can use a crow bar and bust it up. As for using the gasoline method, maybe if you set it on fire it would work pretty quick :) Just a thought!

Rich

[David Hare-Scott]

Fastest is hire a bloke with a stump grinder. In half an hour they will be turned into shavings that you can use as mulch. Stay out of the way these are fearsome beasties.

Medium, drill the stumps and pour straight glyphosate into the holes. But then once they are dead what will you do with the dead stumps?

Is the gasoline supposed to burn them up or poison them? I don't see it being very effective in either mode with a thick stump.

David

[George]

That is how I am getting rid of a !!dead!! stump. Drill it & fill with salts & let moisture do the rest. I also built a compost hap over mine to speed deterioration. Its working fine. You could build boxing round it & fill with mluch as a 'garden' until such time as stump is gone. The idea of a stump grinder is by far the quickest & least fuss however.

rob

[brooklyn1]

HAVING them removed or they WERE removed, which?

Whichever, whoever removes the bushes needs to grind the stumps too. Depends what kind of evergreen bushes, if softwood they will decompose relatively rapidly (5-10 years), if hardwood (cedar, cyprus, etc.) they won't decompose for like 20-30 years or more so have them ground deeply. Or simply dig them out.

[Doug Houseman]

compost start - a bacterial mixture available at many garden stores (not big boxes) poured into 3/4 inch in diameter holes with a bit of your favorite - liquid fertilizer added will normally start a fast rot on the stump. Drill the holes so them run at least 3 or 4 inches below the ground. Wait 12 to 16 weeks and us a large bar to break apart the pieces. Works every time for me. I have over 700 pine trees on the property and have to remove 4 or 5 stumps every year - some as big as 20 inches in diameter (They take a year to break down).

If the stumps are big enough drill your holes in an "X" pattern so it will come apart into easy pieces. If you don't go deep enough, the top of the remainder will be above the ground.

Gasoline and holes - only results in charing the stump, which slows decomp.

[Bill who putters]

I had two well established Korean hollies that were wonderful but they happened to get the most of the rare sun here. I cut them off. Drove in a few copper nails. Still every year I get to kill the suckers by cutting. It has been about ten years and the sucker growth appears to be slowing. But somehow if I am remiss the hollies will be back I¹d guess with a vengence.

Bill

[brooklyn1]

When I moved here there were two huge hollies blocking the view at my rear deck (over 15 feet tall and nearly as wide). I started to prune them back but ended up cutting them down and it was no biggie to dig up the stumps... there was no tap root and the side roots were not too big to lop off, was just light digging, they never grew back. I would suggest that if you remove the central root portion your hollies will not grow back.

[Phisherman]

One time I saw a man blast a large stump with a shotgun, so maybe you're not alone. Have a fire permit?

[sockiescat]

- I am having two large evergreen bushes removed. They were standing on each side of my front walk. I intend to put large decorative pots in their place with appropriate plants. (Suggestions welcome -mini-climate is So. Calif coastal)

What's the fastest way to kill the stumps (approx 10-12" diameter)?

Last time I dealt with a stump, decades ago, one was supposed to buy a chemical and introduce it via holes bored in the stump.

Gardener just told me to use gasoline.

Any information out there on (a) fastest and (b) most effective, and maybe (c) least expensive way. (though that's not the deciding factor ).

Persephone-

One time I saw a man blast a large stump with a shotgun, so maybe you're not alone. Have a fire permit?

just a thought but it might look nice if u got the stumps cut down, put a small bed around them, grew ivy to grow over the stumps and put your flower pots on top of them.

cyaaaaaaaaaa, sockiescat ;).

[Dave_s]

Group,

Here is my experience with gasoline/oil mixture to kill an ELM tree stump. Does not work! Please see below.

sockiescat wrote:

When the tree removal workers removed a 55 foot high ELM tree (15 inch diameter), they cut deep grooves into the stump surface. Next they poured chainsaw oil/gas mixture into the grooves. This gas and oil mix did nothing to kill the tree stump. Numerous times every year, thousands of new shoots grow from this stump. The new shoots grow from the outer bark, not where the grooves and gas was poured. I have repeated the gas/oil treatment quite a few times. Nothing helps. The stump is very much alive.

Regards, Dave_S

[Pavel314]

Why not just set the pots on the stumps? My wife started hiding/ decorating a couple of stumps that way, then it expanded to pots on upright logs of various heights. Illustration at:

[Higgs Boson]

M tree (15 inch

Paul, somehow my reply to you didn't make it to the NG.

I had said your wife's creation was very beautiful and imaginative. However, the two stumps I'll be dealing with are too small to support the big pots I'll be using. (I originally said 10-12" diameter, but they are actually smaller).

Thanks for the suggestion; I'll keep it in mind for another area in the future.

[Dave_s]

Paul, putting pots with colorful annuals sure looks nice at your Rainbow Farm. Thanks for your suggestions.

This stump grows new shoots so rapidly, that the annuals in a pot on this stump would repeatedly be surrounded by tall new shoots. I'm wondering how you keep those new shoots from growing rapidly from your tree stumps. Do they periodically become taller than the annual plants in the pots?

See my very actively growing ELM tree stump at

and

This tree, removed 2 years ago, was 55 feet tall with an 14inch diameter trunk. The stump looks like it will live forever.

Dave_S

[Pavel314]

The three original stumps we had were from an oak, a sweetgum and a hickory, which grew within a couple of yards from each other. As I recall, they put out shoots for a while but we just cut them off until they gave up. Maybe elms are more persistant. A few ideas spring to mind, none of which I've actually tried: 1, make a solution of copper sulphate and pour it on the top of the stump every few days to kill it; 2, remove all the bark from the stump; 3, put rock salt around the stump.

Paul