How to get tree roots out of lawn

[LBrown59]

I'm not really interested in removing the roots especially on live still standing trees.
I'd like to just get them down low enough to where I can drive the tractor over them with out going over a big hump and mow over them with out hitting them with the mower blades.
I would think a stump grinder could cut them down a bit.
Must have been something wrong with that guys grinder after all isn't grinding stumps what it's for?

I recently helped my Stepdad out with an old Bradford Pear Tree.

He had a guy say he could grind out the stump for $80. After hacking on it for 3 hours and destroying his grinder teeth, he gave up.

I trailered my machine down to the house and we spent 12 hours digging up the better part of his side yard removing root mat. In the end, I basically excavated a 40 x 50 patch of yard a solid foot down with my backhoe in an effort to remove the roots. They had grown together to create a dense mat of root matter that was holding the soil together.

My experience in my yard has yielded similar observations. Stump grinders are only good for folks that want to HIDE the tree they just cut down. If you want to GET RID of the stump and associated roots, you need to dig...no way around it.

In relation to the OP's question, I don't see a stump grinder working on ground roots. As mentioned, my Stepdad tried it as a "root grinder" and the results were very, very poor.

 

[RayCo]

I recently helped my Stepdad out with an old Bradford Pear Tree.
...
In the end, I basically excavated a 40 x 50 patch of yard a solid foot down with my backhoe in an effort to remove the roots.

I was thinking of planting a pear tree or two. It sounds like they're more like a soil virus!
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[splotkin]

First, the trees are still standing. They are 50 ft tall ash trees. Over the last 25 years the roots have worked their way to the surface and made a mess of the lawn, not to mention what happens when we cut the lawn and the blade bounces off them.

A stump grinder is out for a couple of reasons. First, there are lots of rocks that tend to break the grinders expensive teeth. I had one stump ground and the operator would not do any more. Also, When you grind them out there is always some left behind that will rot. This causes the ground to sink over the years. Your nice new lawn will grow sink holes over the next few years.Finally, it does get expensive to rent the grinder and an operator.

I think the chain for the big ones and the subsoiler for the small ones will be the way to go. I also have some large rocks that need to go. Maybe I will practice using Diesel and nitrates on the larger roots before I graduate to the rocks!

Thank, Scott

 

[Reg]

For a li'l twaktor it might be easier, cheaper, better to just haul in an inch or so of screened loam.
No so deep that you have to re-seed, just bring things up an inch, let the grass grow through and do the same thing next year, perhaps the year after that too.

 

[splotkin]

I tried the dirt thing about 4 years ago. They just keep coming and coming. This time the roots are coming out completely. The trees will be soon to follow as soon as I have available time to cut and split it. I already have a large red maple that I just took down and a 50 ft yellow birch. I need to process that wood as well as fine a dry place t stack it before any other trees come down.

 

[KeithInSpace]

I was thinking of planting a pear tree or two.

No biggie...go ahead and plant them. They are really pretty. Just don't plan on taking them out later...

I helped plant this tree when I was still in middle school.

This very impressive tree ended up quite happy consuming their side yard over the course of 20 years and, along with other trees, providing such dense shade that not a blade of grass grew beneath. The root mat was quite unlike others I've encountered. While it was a single trunk, there were 3 or 4 100# "lobes" that we pulled out of the area along with many hundreds of pounds of thick, unorganized root mat. There were only a few large roots running out from where the trunk was. Not to mention that all this root growth swelled the ground up by a solid 1.5 feet near the epicenter, lesser so as you went out from the trunk. Don't know if this is indicative of all varieties of pear, but it was pretty amazing to see.

 

[KeithInSpace]

Must have been something wrong with that guys grinder after all isn't grinding stumps what it's for?

I understand if you're grinding down on a 12" Pine or Oak that has a defined trunk for a foot or two underground with only a few major runners going to a complex system of roots further from the tree.

The difference here was that it was a 8" or so trunk that almost immediately "disappeared" to a dense conglomerate of fine root material and dirt. At least that's what I saw when I started trying to dig everything up. Very different from other tree root structures I've dug up in the past (~25 or so trees worth)

Once you get a bunch of dirt in the hole, the grinder (or chainsaw blade, or sawzall blade, or whatever blade you use) is complete toast. The dirt is just too abrasive.

That is why I don't believe a grinder would work well when "chasing down" troublesome subsurface roots. Knocking the knob off the top of a 60 year old Hickory tree, sure. Somehow chasing down and grinding the runner from a White Oak that is 3" below the surface? Don't think so. No choice but to rip those out by subsoiler, middle buster, FEL, BH, BoxBlade, fork and spoon, chopsticks, WHATEVER. Nothing you can do but rip the suckers out one at a time.