[How do I?] Remove green tree stumps

[finsruskw]

Dig around them and cut 'em off below the ground level.
If that is all the bigger they were, you shuld have pulled them over with whatever before you broke out the chain saw.
Wayn more leverage that way

 

[Aukai]

All you need is a couple of Clydesdales.

 

[homebrewed]

Dig around them and cut 'em off below the ground level.
If that is all the bigger they were, you shuld have pulled them over with whatever before you broke out the chain saw.
Wayn more leverage that way

I had a fairly large apple tree I wanted to remove. Based on previous experience, I knew my tractor wasn't capable of pulling or pushing a stump out of the ground if the stump was only a foot or so above ground, not enough traction. So I sawed the trunk off at about 6 feet above the ground and raised the front loader bucket up to the top of that "stump" and pushed it over. Piece of cake. I have another volunteer apple tree that will get the same treatment.

I saved the larger hunks of applewood for smoking food in my Little Chief or flavoring food in my Weber charcoal BBQ.

We removed a hawthorne stump by innoculating it with wood-rotting fungus that specializes in breaking down dead wood. I used a variety called "trametes versicolor", often found in the woods around here growing on downed logs. That was slower but didn't require dynamite and it broke down the stump and all its roots in about a year, basically turned it into compost.

 

[mmcmdl]

WG24 Stump Grinder

woodlandmills.com

I bought this one 2 years back for the Kubota . No more back breaking work for me ! I'm actually heading up near their plant tomorrow and could check out their saw mills .

 

[mickri]

Cut the stumps at ground level with your chainsaw. Then use the chainsaw to make closely spaced cuts across the top of the stump. You will have to experiment to find what distance works the best. Then break out the cuts. This will get the stumps 6" or so below ground level. Do it again if you want the top of the stump deeper under ground level.

 

[silence dogood]

This story came from my neighbor. He's usually pretty trueful. Even it's not, still thought it's a great story. A rancher in these parts had a big old black locust stump next to the ranch house. He had to go to town and told his two teenage sons to dig it out. It did not take long for the two boys realize what hard work this was. When one of them remembered the old man had dynamite stored in the maintenance shed. Can't remember how many sticks, but it must had been one too many. Dug a hole under the stump for the dynamite and placed an extra-long fuse. They then ran behind the barn for safety and listen for the boom. Right after the explosion, the nearby cattle stampeded, the dog running howling, the cat disappeared in the hayloft, and finally the dust settled. The boys inspected what remained a hole with nothing of the stump. Well, they decided to congratulate themselves by grabbing sodas out of the frig in the kitchen. As they walked into the living room, both boys stopped in mid stepped. There on top a flatten coffee table was the stump with daylight shining on it.

 

[Shotgun]

Get a stick of electric conduit. Make a series of holes about 2" apart starting at one end. Crimp that end closed, and then bend into a J hook. Drop the hook around the stump. It should be fairly close to the stump with the holes pointed down. All the holes should be around the hook, and not all the way up the shaft. Rig a hair dryer with the heating elements removed or other type of blower to the other end. Use tape, cardboard, or whatever to blow into the tube. It doesn't have to blow hard, but it has to blow for a while. A hairdryer with no heating element draws a miniscule amount of current, so you can use a really long drop cord.

Establish a small fire around the stump and on top of the hook. Use logs, split in half, to completely close in the stump. You can make this several layers deep, and you can use the green wood. Once the small fire is well established, turn the blower on. The stump in the middle will burn white hot. The logs on the outside will trap the heat. The tube will supply the air to make the fire burn from the middle out. An 8" root will take a couple hours to burn to beneath the ground.

 

[pontiac428]

Unless you're in a rush to build on top of the site, just drill the stumps out with a boring drill and dump sodium nitrate in the hole and check back in the spring. We all have different trees and soil, so it's hard to say what's a PITA or not, but my take is to spare yourself the trouble and let the simple chemicals do the work.

 

[RJSakowski]

When I first moved to my present residence, the first neighbor to stop by was a salty old Norwegian farmer. We used to have great conversations over the years. He's been gone for more than thirty years now but I still think of him.

On one occasion, we were discussing wood and in particular, he told me how they used to make split white oak fence posts. White oak was preferred as it was long lasting. Now, Honest Abe cut his teeth splitting rails but as anyone who ever tried splitting a six foot white oak log would tell you, it's a lot of hard work When you have a forty or two of pasture to fence, that's an awful lot of hard work.

But those crafty old Norwegians had an easier way. They would bore a hole to the center of the tree about four feet off the ground and stuff a quarter of a stick of dynamite with a long fuse into the hole. Then they would fil the remainder of the hole with mud, light the fuse, and run for cover. The explosion would split the length of the tree into six or eight pieces while still on the stump. All they had to do was to cut the pieces to length and they had a wagon load of posts.

 

[Bi11Hudson]

Unless you're in a rush to build on top of the site, just drill the stumps out with a boring drill and dump sodium nitrate in the hole and check back in the spring.

There are several chemicals that will work, to one extent or another. All are slow, some slower than others. Nitrate has other uses, I prefer the chemical Boric Acid. It is very slow, but time I got. Often sold as "Roach Powder, it is widely available in pound or greater lots. I usually have some on hand for bugs in the early part of the year. Just grab a couple of hands full for the small stumps I have to deal with. Anything over 5 or 6 inches is usually left alone unless I need the space for something. Also (used to be?) sold as "Stump Rot", I haven't had occasion recently to look for that name. I use a 3/4 auger for almost everything. With a brace power is not required, but youir arms/shoulders will let you know when you push too hard. Especially when the wood has had time to "season". Burning is faster but has some "side effects" that bear watching. The inside of the stump may be live even when the outside is safe.

.