Stump Disposal ???

SkunkWerX · Mar 5, 2010

Scotty370 said:
No personel experiance, but I did see a thread somewhere that said to drill holes and fill them with the highest nitrogen fertilize that you can find, and they'd be 'punky' in a year! Don't know! ~Scotty

Yes, this does work. Might take more than a year, all depends. Nitrogen fertilizer breaks down the wood. The old "stump-away" product was 100% Potassium nitrate and I do know it works.

I have also heard of people using iso or denatured alchohol into the drilled holes in the stump, which helps dry out the stump. Then, once dry, they pour kerosene into the holes, and top off the holes with kero every week or so. the kerosene soaks well into the wood. Then when you burn them, they burn right down to ash.

My grandfather would leave the stumps in the ground and let them dry over a season.
Then he would get a metal can, like a 5 gallon can, and remove the bottom from it, and poke holes in it. Making like an oversized charcoal starter.
Then he would fill it with charcoal or even regular coal and burn the stumps from the top down into the ground.

JB4310 · Mar 6, 2010

Thought I remember someone saying they drilled holes in them and poured diesel in and burned them from the inside, also took a long time like all the other approaches.
Not sure how well it would work with fresh/green wood?

JB.

Mousefield · Mar 6, 2010

Most of the stumps I put in the bush. To much work to try and burn them, can take forever unless it is done right. Last one I burnt took three hot fires to get rid of. When we cleared for our house the excavator guy built a nice big fire and then fed the stumps into it for a couple of days. You have to look at your situation to see what works best for you, at least now you have had some different ideas to help you.

IslandTractor · Mar 6, 2010

hr3 said:
OK no stumps in the pond,, I'll dig them out and rake off the roots with the BH and drag them down back and put them on the tree line to rot..There goes the new lawn we put in last year,,

If the stumps are too big to lift and carry with the tractor then drag them on top of an old car hood. That should help minimize damage to the lawn.

20 20 · Mar 8, 2010

Just a heads up on burning a stump in the ground. Years back I was burning a large pine stump. It burned real nice, even lit a few extra fires over 20-30"away

The fire traveled under ground by following the root systems. An old pine forest can make a great fire place. Just a heads up if you're burning stumps watch for what you may not see. Oh and the spreading fire didn't show until the day after the stump fire.

BruceWard · Mar 8, 2010

I burned hundreds of stumps clearing land in 08 and 09. The last burn was a pile of 24 stumps. The trick I found was to build a very hot fire with lots of coals then start setting the stumps on top. I used forks on my tractor to place or push the stumps into the fire. As the stumps started burning I would place additional stumps on top of them. It worked best when I started the fire with other wood and then added the stumps to the top.

Here is a picture of one of the fires with stumps in the middle.

Stumps placed in burn piles did not burn. It was the small intense fires that burned up the stumps.

forgeblast · Mar 8, 2010

no one mentioned using a diesel and tire yet!!! Lol My buddy did that last year, smoke was everywhere, but all the stumps did burn.

ctgoldwing · Mar 8, 2010

dave1949 said:
I don't think I would roll them into the pond either. If you want fish cover or something like that, medium sized limbs with branches would be a better choice.

Stumps get buried over here. Just pick a spot you never want to build on or use for a lane or driveway. If you pack them in good, it will be a long long time before they rot and cause a slump. At least 30 years I have been told. Even if they would rot, a bucket or two of fill will take care of it.
Dave.

I had 2 stumps to remove when my tractor was delivered last fall. One was about 30" in diameter. It took a while to dig around/break the root system but when I finally freed it I carried it in to the woods, dug a hole & dropped it there. It really doesn't matter what happens to it now. I used some of the really black topsoil from the woods to fill the original hole.

Mousefield · Mar 8, 2010

forgeblast said:
no one mentioned using a diesel and tire yet!!! Lol My buddy did that last year, smoke was everywhere, but all the stumps did burn.

Very illegal for us to burn tires up our way. If they catch you could be big fine.

Mousefield · Mar 8, 2010

BruceWard said:
I burned hundreds of stumps clearing land in 08 and 09. The last burn was a pile of 24 stumps. The trick I found was to build a very hot fire with lots of coals then start setting the stumps on top. I used forks on my tractor to place or push the stumps into the fire. As the stumps started burning I would place additional stumps on top of them. It worked best when I started the fire with other wood and then added the stumps to the top.

Here is a picture of one of the fires with stumps in the middle.

Stumps placed in burn piles did not burn. It was the small intense fires that burned up the stumps.

That's the best way, our excavator guy did this and took a couple of days but they did burn up.

dave1949 · Mar 8, 2010

20 20 said:
Just a heads up on burning a stump in the ground. Years back I was burning a large pine stump. It burned real nice, even lit a few extra fires over 20-30"away The fire traveled under ground by following the root systems. An old pine forest can make a great fire place. Just a heads up if you're burning stumps watch for what you may not see. Oh and the spreading fire didn't show until the day after the stump fire.

In dry ground with deep duff, those fires can smolder un-noticed for days, then along comes a day with a good breeze and they start up again. Not good.
Dave.

20 20 · Mar 8, 2010

dave1949 said:
In dry ground with deep duff, those fires can smolder un-noticed for days, then along comes a day with a good breeze and they start up again. Not good.
Dave.

Yep it was a pretty scary feeling, we were lucky. We just happened to be walking out back and noticed smoke. I kicked the ground were the smoke was comming from and it was enough to start a good blaze. Again luck was on our side, one of our ponds had just been done earlier that year. We carried a bunch of buckets of water, and hooked up the gas water pump.

spruce Deere · Mar 8, 2010

The best way I have found to be rid of stumps is to use them for fill or bury them deep. Places along some of the creeks here, they use stumps as bank armor, erosion control. Burning them works better if you can beat all the dirt out of them and have a lot of fines to burn with them like limbs and brush not to mention all the time, beer and attention a fire takes

not that its a bad thing

savageactor7 · Mar 9, 2010

Over the years we've had many drainage projects requiring the cutting of 100's of trees.

I always had a large hole dug & buried the stumps...any excess top soil or clay would be piled up and used around the farm.

Years ago when I got my CUT my dealer talked me out of a BH suggesting that in the off season a 'real' BH could be hired for the small price of a monthly payment.

So far we've had 5 major projects totaling close to 3k feet and still haven't paid out what the cost of a CUT BH would have been.

Taylortractornut · Mar 9, 2010

At work we use stumps for eroson control especally silt dams. Just ple the stumps up at the end of a hollow and add a lttle brush n front of them and t will stop about 95 percent of your silt. Others of a mixed sizes are used for wildlfe habitat. We may place a few in a fashon to leave some gaps and tunnels. All sorts of animals like to make homes in these.
SOme tmes if they are out of the way and large enough Ill dig a borrow pit and stack the stumps n there and then back fill partially. Ill let a good rain or too settle all the air spaces then *** more soil. Have several thats been buried for over 10 years no problems. When we cleared the 4 acres of pine stumps here behind the shop saved every stump. Each one was 10 to 30 inches in diameter. I would take them up the hill and set them in rows and every few days Id take the old backhoe and rake the dirt of them and pick them up and drop them on one another to beat off the clay. When it was said and done there was over 170 stumps in the pile. One still night we set a fire in it and thought we had messed up. It was a super hot fire. All that was left the next morning was one green root in some wet clay.

We had a pine tree about 20 inches in diameter had been lightning struck. It stayed there a few months till all the bark fell and the power Company cut it down. Dad cut it up in 2 foot sections and piled it up around the stump with all the limbs. Dad lit it and it burned all night and then it burned under ground for 33 days after that. We put several sticks of wood down that hole for the entire 33 days. When it finally went out we ran a grade rod down it nearly 10 feet deep.

IslandTractor · Mar 9, 2010

I dig up a fair number of stumps. Mostly small softwood about 8-12 inches trunk diameter and weighing in the 500-700lb range. Some I use as landbreaks to start a hedgerow along a road. The rest I bury. I usually just find an area where I have already dug holes near each other to get the stumps out and expand it and deepen it. Sometimes I have trouble digging deep in the spring time as the water table is quite high then but a least the stumps don't float. It has been only a few years but I haven't noted any depression in the land. No big deal if I did as I'd just add fill periodically.

Last photo is a year after clearing/burying.