Do you know I'm stumped?

Question

Our Magolia tree has today been felled leaving a stump flush with the lawn. The aboralist suggested pouring sodium chloride on the stump and after a couple of weeks, burn the stump.
Our green fingered neighbour has suggested driving a copper nail into the stump instead.
I only want to grass it over eventually.
What's the general opinion?

Answer 1

Get creative. Add some color to your yard. Surround the with rocks. Fill with loam. Add flowers! Presto ! The eyesore is gone.

Answer 2

The only thing a copper nail is going to do is disappear. They do not kill stumps!

Drilling lots og holes in it doesnt do anything either, unless you pour something in the hole.

Even if the stump is killed, the roots still live and can send up shoots. You can see shoots emerge several feeet from the stump. Only way to kill the roots is to either dig up the stump, poison the stump or cut the roots.

I would suggest either chipping it up, or poisoning it, but poisoning it will not kill it.

The other option is to just lay sod over it. the sod will rot the top of the stump and will attach itself to the stump, but dont use poison if you do this.

Answer 3

You can use a lanscape "grinder." Its for turning stumps into piles of sawdust. Or you can go to the store and buy some enzymes made for breaking down the stump. Its similar to the copper nail method only much faster. You drill a bunch of hole and put the stuff in there. Of course drilling a bunch of holes in it will make it break down faster too. And you could just use some landscaping compost to speed it up.

Answer 4

Your neighbour is probably right but I suspect more worried about the smoke if you burn it. Environmentally the copper nail is the option but will take ages. What about digging down and chopping out as much as you can, this is probably a no go if its an old big tree but worth a try.

Answer 5

DON"T put salt down , if you want to later grow grass there ....
The copper spike is an old wives's tale ... it doesn't work ...
If you really want it gone, dig down around it , and chop it low with an axe ( or have some one do it .. ) Go as low as you can .....

Fill in the hole, and re- seed the area with grass.. If you happen to have a few sprouts come up , simply cut them down.... the mower will take care of them nicely ... The tree will be gone, never to return ...

Answer 6

I cut down a bay tree a year ago and you know I am still stuck with the stump, I tried the copper nail, I tried some stuff form the garden centre for killing stumps, I tried Burning the thing, its tsill there and it keeps trying to grow back.
In thestates they use dynamite and a stump router but Ihave never heard oif where to get either here in the uk. i GUESS WE ARE BOTH STUCK WITH OUR STUMPS STUMPY OL MATE.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

Get a 1/2 inch auger bit or flat bit drill, and bore as deep as you can into the center of it. You can use anything from gasoline to turpentine or weed-B-gone to fill the hole up. That will kill the root system and you can wait for the rot to loosen it up and pull it out, or you can simply cover with dirt and grass seed.

Answer 9

I'd suggest having it ground, or using the copper nail. Sodium chloride is corrosive and can damage the ground/grass/etc and can become runoff and polute water and such.

Answer 10

Get a stump grinder. The chippings make an idea mulch.