How can you get rid of tree stumps in your yard?

Question

We cut down a couple of trees in our yard in the last few years and now have the stumps left. I have heard that you can drill some holes down into the stump and insert something that will basically make the stump rot out. Does anyone know if this is the case or any other way of getting rid of the stump with out digging it up, chopping out the roots and ripping the stump out?

Answer 1

The stump stuff works better on fresh stumps as they are still wet. But you can give it a try......read the labels carefully. Perhaps you'll have to keep the stumps wet once in awhile.

I've had good luck chipping out a hollow, packing with manure and high nitrogen fertilizer......ammonium nitrate until the Oklahoma City deal.......now ammonium sulfate.....and covering with soil and keeping it wet. When mushrooms appear, celebrate, the wood is rotting below. Took 3 years and I still had to chip them out, but they were fairly well rotted.

Professionals use a chipper that grinds out the stump and some roots but can only go down a few inches......some can go 12 inches down. Problem there is it is expensive.

Otherwise bring over your friends, make a day out of it, provide a BBQ and beer and chip and dig. If the stumps were large, you'll still have to figure out how to get it out of the yard..........

Answer 2

Rent a stump grinder. Easy to use. just fill the holes back in with the grindings. Use left over grindings for mulch. Depending on size, will only take half an hour for small stumps, to a couple of hours for big ones. If you can't find a place to rent one, contact a local tree service to grind it out and tell them you'll fill the holes back in and take care of the clean up. You'll get a good break on price that way.

Answer 3

Hire a Person or company with a stump grinding machine and for a nominal fee they will grind out the stump. Drilling holes in the stump and putting something in the holes to rot it out will take a long time, sometimes a couple of years. It's a slow process.

Answer 4

Yeah you could buy a couple 20 lb bags of charcoal and some kerosene let the kerosene or lamp oil soak in for a while make a nice pile of coals around it and have a bon fire works for me and much cheaper than a stump grinder.There is a product called stump rot that is supposed to do that but ain't tryed it.

Answer 5

Home Depot and Lowe's carry products you pour into the holes. The only one I can think of offhand is Stump Rid.

Answer 6

Stump grinder is by far the easiest, you can rent one or hire it done, not hard to use but will jarr the crap out of you, but it will get rid of them instantly and you grind them down four or five inches below the soil line.

Answer 7

A very inexpensive way is to take an ax chop a few times, or drill a few holes it it, then pour regular tablesalt in the holes, the next step is to pour clorox over it. It will work in no time and is easy to do. We have done this.

Answer 8

there is a service thats grinds stumps out, did it myself
grinds it down about 14 in, below ground costs 35.00 per stump check in phone book

Answer 9

You heard right... you can hasten nature's decaying of the stump by drilling holes and adding water and nitrogen. Here's an article link that will tell you exactly how to do it:

http://landscaping.about.com/cs/lazylandscaping/ht/stump_removal.htm

Answer 10

we had a huge one removed, they came in with a big saw, looked kinda like a concrete saw, it was self supporting and they just pushed it up and down with a big handle grinding and grinding till it was gone. Didn't take too long. I think you can rent them at tool rental places.