Problem Stump

[mpilting]

We have a bunch of hundred-year-old cottonwoods on our family farm. A few years ago, one of them blew over in a nasty storm. We managed to cut the remaining tree down to the stump. It's four feet across. My brothers tried burning it out. That obviously failed. You could drill holes in it all day with a chainsaw, fill the holes with kerosene, light it up. That thing's not going anywhere. So... How do you remove the stump of an incredibly large tree?

[TKehl]

Bulldozer   ;)

Lighting a barrel full wood on fire works on smaller stumps.  Cut both ends of the barrel out so you just have an open cylinder and sit it on a couple bricks to get airflow.  Still takes a few burns, but get's it done.  You may need a fuel barrel to hold enough wood...

Personally though, I'd carve a couple "bowls" in the stump, fill them with dirt, and plant some type of creeping flower in them.  I'd then brag to my wife about how thoughtful I am, hope she buys it, and if she does enjoy the relief of avoiding all that work.  It will rot down in time.  Besides, if you pull the stump out then you have to find dirt to fill the hole.  This is kind of the Tao version of two birds with one stone.   :D  ;D

[mpilting]

TKehl:
Yeah. That's what my Dad used to do. The problem is, it's about two feet away from another hundred-year-old cottonwood. I'd hate to damage the other cottonwood trying to burn the stump out. I actually had a similar thought to yours. Cut it off flat, sand it, coat it in lacquer, and turn it into an outdoor coffee table. I could sit out there and watch the sunrise and drink my morning coffee. How Zen is that?! :D

[Jeff]

At 100 years, you are at the far end of the typical expected life span of a cottonwood, although they can live much longer. You'd probably want to be mindful of the elderly tree being that close with anything you do. A dozer could cause issues with the living tree. A big stump grinder seems that it would be the least stressful.

[maple flats]

I was going to mention a stump grinder too. My brother has an ASV with a stump grinder but I'll bet, unless you live within 10-15 miles of Oneida, NY it would be a real costly way to do it. While he can grind at over 8' high, he would generally use a chainsaw to get it close to the ground before grinding.

[luvmexfood]

I'm  with Jeff on this one. You can bring in a piece of equipment and dig it out but it is unknown what damage you will do to the roots of surrounding trees. Hack away, drill or whatever pour some diesel fuel on it and burn. Then keep repeating till you can live with what's left.

[Brad_bb]

I would say a big backhoe, but being that there is another tree so close, I'd say cut it off as close to the ground as possible, then hire a stump grinder and he'll grind it up to a foot below grade.

[Kbeitz]

Just chop it down a little each day with an adze .

[gspren]

  Ignore it long enough and it will go away, sort of.

[bigred1951]

Could make a stump carving. Last week my step granny passed away and as we was pulling into the cemetery somebody had taken a big stump and chainsaw carved it into a big cross and put some kind of clear on it. It was really nice.

[bdsmith]

Buy a few pounds of potassium nitrate (saltpeter).  Dissolve it in a few quarts of hot water.  Bore a dozen 1" holes about 12" to 15" into the stump and pour the mixture in, giving it time to soak in.

The nitrates will breakdown the cellulose fiber and allow the stump to rot faster.  Within 2 years or so the stump should be gone with no damage to the trees or environment.

You can buy a commercial product at a hardware store that does the same thing but bulk saltpeter is cheaper.

[Ron Scott]

Was at a local estate auction a couple weeks ago and saw this stump carving in a large northern red oak tree that had been removed. It was a conversation piece in the back yard for those who noticed it. Wonder who the talented artist was?

[doc henderson]

I have removed about 9 of them from our yard.  I dug the stumps so they would not come back to haunt us.  one stump would not fit in the bed of the dump truck and had to ride up on the bed side rails.  It still had a little dirt on it and weighed 12k pounds!  be careful.

[luap]

We had a similar situation. Two trees 4 foot diameter of some species of poplar 12 feet apart and within 15 feet of the house. They were dropping limbs so we cut them both down. Took me a month of after work time to cut them into firewood. Cut the stumps as low as I could. Started  building  a small fire on each stump. Then my wife took an axe and over time chopped out what she could. I had to dig out more dirt around them to level the ground. Now I have added more dirt as the stumps  and large roots have decomposed. Had lots of mushrooms growing for a while where the roots were spread out. Only took about 12 years.

[florida]

I know we all love playing with fire but I have to disagree about burning stumps unless you have unlimited time and energy. I did manage to burn one 12" very dry oak stump down below lawnmower blade level but it took me 2 years of messing with it and probably $30 worth of charcoal. My son has been burning a long-dead ficus stump for 5 months now. He has probably used 5 tons of limbs, yard trimmings and pallets to get it maybe halfway burned. He usually has a large blower going and burns from Friday afternoon until it goes out sometime Sunday night.  A stump grinder would have had it gone in an hour but he says its a battle between him and the stump now.

[gspren]

 On burning stumps, during a very dry summer where the dirt is dry several feet down I've been able to burn out a stump in an easy weekend while during a wet year where the ground doesn't really dry it's next to impossible to burn a stump.