Killing off a stump

Brushwood killer available from any good garden centre.

Peter Crosland

Not exactly banned, rather not worth the company making the chemical relicensing it, I think.

Glyphosate is still a licensed stump treatment and probably some of the broadleaved herbicides containing trichlopyr, 2-4d (timbrel is one).

sodium chlorate will work but contaminate the area for a long time.

AJH

For elder, simply wait till new shoots appear and glyphosate them.

In fact cutting back to the ground will kill it too..have these pop up all over the place: they don't survive even an annual mowing. In fact not much woody stuff does.

Actually, very few perennials survive mowing..grass of course does, and some weeds. Nettles brambles and elder dont.

I have used potassium permanganate for tree stump removal in the past. I suppose it must now be banned, along with most things that work.

;-)

I used some glyphosate in the spring in a similar situation and it seems to have been very effective. Being a tightwad, I could see that the powder at my local was a more expensive way to buy than a ready made spray, even though the final concentration would be similar. So I bought the spray to see what would happen and nothing's grown back yet.

Perhaps not pertinent to this query, but when the electricity board cut down a number of trees they killed the stumps by making a number of horizontal cuts in the top then filling with weed killer.

I have seen all the trees killed in an area by application of table salt in May, it wasn't a lawful way of killing the trees though ;-).

Twenty years on there appear to be no side effects, though the regrowth is largely birch rather than the pines that were there before.

AJH

It certainly works. To avoid contamination, drill a few downward sloping holes in the side of the trunk with a flat bit. Spoon in some chlorate then plug with a wine cork or similar. Or in the top of course if wide enough.

Peter Scott

I haven't used it for many years because it doesn't translocate like glyphosate or ammonium sulphamate. We used to do just as you say and the theory was it aided the burning of the stump later.

AJH

It's only necessary to get the chemical into the cambium, so a vertical cut around the inner periphery dosed with chemical is effective.

AJH

That was also the reason for using permanganate of potash. It seemed to work, because the stumps would smoulder away to almost nothing.

OK, I only saw the stuff in small amounts in chemistry sets and as crystals for disinfecting, I think it was used in public baths for treating foot infections. Quite effective with spirit of salts IIRC ;-).

Saltpetre could be obtained in bulk then and the sodium chlorate didn't have inhibitors in it! How did we survive before terrorists showed us our errors?

AJH

There was also "Gentian Violet" as an antiseptic. It was withdrawn from chemists about five years ago.

And all they have done is found other ingredients, such as perfume and hydrogen peroxide ....

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Tim Decker saying something like:

Common practice on farms round here is to drill a few 1" holes in the stump and fill them up with fertiliser granules. In such concentration it's a toxin, not a fertiliser.

To get rid of a stump drill a number of holes in it. Then repeatedly fill with a strong saltpetre solution. After a while built a bonfire over the stump, light and enjoy!

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Broadback saying something like:

It's what's available to hand, really. I wonder if a fertiliser-ed stump would burn as well.