I vaguely recall someone (TNP perhaps?) burning out a stump by piling up a lot of coal and then placing an old tractor wheel on top of the fire. He then used some sort of electric blower to produce a forced downdraft through the wheel forcing the fire to burn down the way into the stump.
The details might not be right but I think the principle of a forced burn
*down* into the roots is what you need if you're to have any hope of burning a stump out. Clearing as much earth as possible from around the roots will also help enormously.
Now I did burn out an old leylandii stump that had been cut down well before I bought the property. It took about 4 goes and in the end all onne could say was it was now low enough to drive over and the gravel was scattered ion top.
But it was mouldy and fungus ridden for several years before I tried. They say that saltpetre will assist, but I had none.
As a child, we had a hedge and ditch an in the hedge was an old - a very old - elm stump that as small children we used to jump off - about 5-6 foot high, that bordered the ditch. It too sported huge bracket fungi and was getting a bit wobbly. We also grew out of jumping off it. One day we set a fire to burn the trash in the ditch - it was a functional drainage system, dry in summer, brimming in winter - and the stump caught fire and started smouldering. WE splashed water on it and went to bed. The next morning the stump had gone and the fire head eaten its way into the roots. It went on for several days and left a big gap in the hedge.
These are the ONLY two stumps I have ever seen even PARTIALLY burnt out in 61 years of life.
Whereas I have cleared over an acre of hawthorn, blackthorn, wild plum, elder hazel and general scrub successfully using chainsaws, pickaxes, mattocks, spades and, best of all, a mechanical digger..
You need the digger to level off the ground anyway - stumps leave BIG holes.
By the time you have exposed the roots you might as well cut em and hoick it out mate.
I had to remove a number of old privet hedges (50 yrs +) they had huge roots, ended up using a chain winch, with fixed end attached via a long lifting strap to a convenient telegraph pole.
Ooohhh - that brings back memories of tales from Dad.
They had a large old tree in the middle of what had been a former hedgeline and they wanted it out. Various options were suggested but then one of the lads 'knew a pal' who could get some 'left over' dynamite.
They over calculated apparently and the tree show up on the air and back down in exactly the same spot.
I never did discover just what happened after that.
We had a chap come and blow some stumps out at RHS Wisley, around
1989, they didn't allow stump gobblers because of the risk of fungal pathogens, and he successfully lifted about three big ones but had an extra stick of explosive left, so he doubled up on the last one. I saw the dull red glow followed by the stump breaking up and the loud crump. One smallish piece tumbled over in the air toward me and the tropical greenhouse. It came over in such a lazy arc that I thought I would easily field it but when it hit the ground about 50 m between me and the site of the blast I was amazed, I could barely pick it up.
The curator insisted on excavators after that.
It was about this time I made the stump burner with an old vacuum which was successful in some circumstances. Now I have a 1kW igniter for a woodchip boiler that I suspect would work better but with stump gobbles being widespread now there's not much need.
Just revisiting this thread as I think I might have another crack at my ancient cherry stump (which is indeed 'well old and dried out', and full of splits and cracks) this weekend. I'm sure getting the timber impregnated with something burny has to help... what's the deal with veg oil? Do you apply it and then start the fire straightaway or do you keep sloshing over a period of time and then burn?
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