I have just cut down a couple ot conifers - only about 10ft high.
Do I need to do anything with the stumps or will they naturally just die off as there is nothing to collect sunlight to sustain life.
I have seen Stump killer - is it needed?
I have had a couple of trees regrow from nothing more than stumps. The last time I had a tree surgeon take them down, they hammered in half a dozen Ecoplug stump killer inserts, which seem to have been effective.
If you cut them low (say
I recently took a leylandii out, about twice that height.
I dug a little bit around it and chopped off a couple of major horizontal roots with an axe and then levered the eight foot stump and it just toppled over and came out. I was surprised how easy it was.
I have no idea if this is usual but it seemed a lot easier that a neighbour who employed a team to shave a stump to the ground.
In message , DerbyBorn writes
We had a couple of conifers cut down probably 8 to 10 years ago. The stumps were cut almost flush with the ground, and nothing more done. They certainly have not sprouted, and will eventually rot away. They may be easy to remove now - I haven't checked for years, as they are not in the way of anything. I would only take further action if they were an eyesore, or in the way of something. Ours were probably 20+ feet high, although whether that makes any difference, I don't know.
I've done dozens with a minidigger. The problem is roots that go straight down. And the hard work involved.
That's another way.
Ah, so I was just lucky. I did wonder.
I might drill a hole a pour in a bit of my Systemic Weedkiller out of the spray bottle.
I removed a couple of approx 8 inch diam stumps simply by cutting them off as low as possible then attacking them with a hammer and chisel. It didn't take that long to do.
Mike
No, I have never seen roots go straight down, which doesn't mean to say it doesn't happen, but I think it's unusual. Generally they won't go into a clay subsoil and will just spread more or less horizontally once they reach that level.
I've dug out the stumps of several medium sized trees (15-20ft) and none of them have had roots that penetrated deeply.
Tim
I would just dig it out. A post hole digger (the long tongs variety) is a useful tool for digging around the stump (and cutting smaller roots) followed by a sabre saw to cut the bigger ones.
Tim
I suspect you are either fortunate or it is a feature of local soil conditions. I have manually dug out maybe a dozen stumps in different places and all but a couple had strong roots going straight down that requires quite a deep excavation so I could get at them with a mattock, blunt axe or something.
depends on the tree. some have taproots and some do not. And indeed it depends on the soil as well. Certain soils - free draining ones - encourage roots to go deeper.
Clay tends to encourage multiple shallower roots that still go down a long way.
Doesn't have to be that deep to be a complete c*ut to get out.
I have found that you cut all the laterals and there are still a few left underneath the root ball.
They can be dug out a bit and cut, but its not trivial.
Possible I suppose. All the tree stumps I've removed have been in the same locality.
Tim
That's the way we did it with something pretty big where we didn't want any subsidence later on as the (pretty big) trunk / root rotted away.
Small trench around the root to expose all the horizontal roots and cut them across. Then fix a wire winch to the top of the remaining stump (8' like yours) and to the bottom of a nearby stump and winched the stump over till the tap root broke out. Refill hole, simples. ;-) ;-)
I think it all depends on access and if you are going to do anything over the stumps thereafter. If they are just in a garden you could cut them close to the ground or leave them higher and turn them into features (chainsaw carving, bird table stands etc).
If you want to use the ground for some other type of garden (veg plot / shed etc) you could have them ground to below the surface. Or you could do what we did anyway as then they are really (mostly, all but the remaining roots etc) gone. ;-)
Cheers, T i m
Stump grinders are cheap to rent for a day.
I think that depends upon the species. I had a willow regrow from a stump only a few inches high. Generally, anything that can be coppiced is likely to regrow unless you kill the stump.
We have an Elaeagnus that snapped off about 6" below ground level in storm Doris and is now growing back very vigorously.
I've known willows regrow from log piles ...
Willows will strike from cuttings off any part of the tree. In fact you can dig up a willow and plant the top where the root belongs and the root in the air and it will sprout leaves.
We used to plant poplar setts, for the match industry,cut from stools by dibbing a hole, sticking the sett it and pouring sand into the hole, just like laying block paving.
Generally conifers don't have adventitious buds so don't re sprout if branches are cut back beyond the last green growth, wellingtonia are an exception. Many broadleaves, especially younger ones do as the adventitious buds move out to keep up with the cambium so when the wood above them is cut and they are no longer inhibited by auxins traveling down from the tips they are ready to sprout.
AJH
next door had a pine tree about 6" dia. at cut-off point. Half a dozen 20mm holes and it'd pretty well gone in a coupel of years.
I'd guess that ashh would happily sprout from a stump - I cut and stacked some ash logs one winter and about 15 months later they grew green bits!
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