I took down some saplings last year (about 2-3" diameter) that were on a relatively steep hill in our front yard.
Is there any simple/cheap way to speed their decomposition? It probably doesn't pay to rent a shredder plus it would be difficult to manouvre it in the hilly area. I had heard in the past of chemicals that are drilled into the trunk. I'm looking for something readily available that is faster than natural decomposition.
Drill holes and fill with fertilizer.
I've heard of using powdered milk, but I've not tried it. The one stump I took out, used a sawzall, and a lot of blades.
Check out stump remover, at Lowes or Home Depot. Worth asking.
Google is your friend.
Drill holes and fill with a high nitrogen (first of the three numbers is much larger than the other two) fertilizer.
2-3" in diameter? Really- *inches*? 5 minutes with a hand axe should release the roots and you toss them in the trash. I keep an axe for just such jobs. I quick-sharpen it on a grinder and don't worry about chipping it on rocks.
Jim
Saltpeter works good too. Its a strong oxidizer that will make it rot. They use to sell it and potasium nitrate as stump remover.
Jimmie
What i do is drill a 12" deep hole in the trunk with a 1/2" bit, and fill it with gasoline.
I got rid of a 3' diameter by 3' tall stump by building a fire on it. It took about three days using a fan to keep it hot. The grass growing where it was now makes it about impossible to notice anymore.
Is that still available?
I used to be able to buy jars of powdered saltpeter in drugstores.
We used to hear that they mixed it with food in prisons to curtail the inmates libidos, but that story may be rot.
As kids, we used to make "fuses" by soaking thick string in a concentrated saltpeter and water solution and then letting it dry out.
If you pour powdered saltpeter into bored holes in the stump and let the rain soak it into the stump wood, repeating that a few times over several months, you'll turn the wood into a very easily combusted material.
If you then pour a bit of charcoal lighter on the stump and set it afire, the stump wood will burn it's way right into the ground.
A garden hose and reasonable caution should always be on hand when you start the burning.
Jeff
The procedure is to drill 1" diameter holes into the stump, 4 or 5 inches deep and keep the holes filled with 34-0-0 (potassium nitrate or saltpeter). The downside is that some nitrogen will leak into surrounding area, making turf turn a deep green color.
I found it much easier to cut the stumps as close to the ground as possible so you can mow over them. For your size saplings, it can't take too long to allow them to decay naturally.
Ask your local butcher shop.
Potassium nitrate is approx. 14-39-0 and sodium nitrate is 16-0-0. Ammonium nitrate is 35-0-0 which is what you are referring to and may leach faster. Saltpeter refers to potassium nitrate but Chilean saltpeter is sodium nitrate. Myself, I just use whatever fertilizer is on hand.
I used to, also. Back in the1970s. Not sure it's available any more. I've heard that some hardware stores have it, as stump remover. But I havn't looked very hard.
Buy yourself a Grub Hoe and dig them out...Stumps that small will be pretty easy...
Just did that... How long does it take to have a noticeable effect? How long till it is mostly complete? Days? Weeks? Months? Years?
I misspoke. Trees are more like 8" diameter
I had a hack berry tree (soft wood) with about a 14" base and multiple stumps from that. I built a flower box over it out of untreated 2x pine. We fed the flowers a lot of rapid grow and by the time the flower box rotted the stumps were also. Estimated 4 years.
All you need is a high nitrogen fertilizer. Try to buy to ammonium nitrate (pure nitrogen) might be a problem these days if you aren't a farmer. The super green lawn products are about the same content at 29-0-10.
Keep it moist and it will rot faster.
No idea. I have read that placing plastic over the area will accelerate the process.
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