Rotting Out a Tree Stump - What Has Worked For You?

[BHopkins]

Drill lots of holes, add some kerosine, diesel, and/or charcoal lighting fliuid. Get it burning and let it stay burning until it’s well below grade.

That is my backup plan.

I drilled a bunch of holes in it with a 5/8" spade bit, and then filled the holes with Roundup concentrate, like @Capt W described, and had great success with. I've let the Roundup soak in real good for a few days, and yesterday I soaked the stump with water and covered it with black plastic.

My plan is to take off the black plastic ever few weeks, add more water, and then recover it with the black plastic. I may go get a 5 gallon bucket of fresh cow or horse poop from one of the local farmers, and cover the stump with that, before recovering it with the black plastic. Manure does a pretty good jog helping compost piles digest, so perhaps it will help my tree stump.

If the tree stump doesn't come apart by next spring, like Capt W described, then I'll set it on fire using the method you've described.

Patience is not my strong suit, so this will be a real challenge for me, to see if I can wait for the process to work. Perhaps when I get back from my July vacation, I'll be renting a stump grinder and getting the job done. But I like the challenge of seeing if I can get the stump to rot.

 

[Pablo]

I just cannot keep them burning with just holes and accelerant.

I have even done hardwood and charcoal on top

Hence my suggestion of a fire ring and forced air. I use my 80V blower on the lowest locked setting and just swap batteries every few hours. Yet to melt the tip but I think I recycled my hunk of duct I used as an extension/director.

 

[JHZR2]

I just cannot keep them burning with just holes and accelerant.

I have even done hardwood and charcoal on top

Hence my suggestion of a fire ring and forced air. I use my 80V blower on the lowest locked setting and just swap batteries every few hours. Yet to melt the tip but I think I recycled my hunk of duct I used as an extension/director.

I was surprised when I did it, how long it smouldered into the ground for.

Perhaps all the wetness in WA is why you had less luck?

I think I may have applied charcoal after a while, come to think of it. But it smouldered for days into the ground.

 

[BHopkins]

I just cannot keep them burning with just holes and accelerant.

I have even done hardwood and charcoal on top

Hence my suggestion of a fire ring and forced air. I use my 80V blower on the lowest locked setting and just swap batteries every few hours. Yet to melt the tip but I think I recycled my hunk of duct I used as an extension/director.

I understand. I have three neighbors that have burned out tree stumps. One neighbor simply set a bag of charcoal on top of the stump and lit it. It did burn for days. But when he was done, he still had an outer ring. Another neighbor drilled holes and poured in diesel fuel, and lit it about 1/2 hour later. It also burned for days, and also left an outer ring, but not as much as the first neighbor. Another drilled holes and used the charcoal method, with similar results to the first two. The first two were good sized stumps, left after cutting down 60'-80' tall pine trees. The third was about a 12" - 14" diameter trunk. I can't recall the tree variety.

This is why burning out a tree stump is my backup method. I do like the idea of a stove top, similar to a charcoal lighter. But wouldn't the ideal source of air be from the bottom, which would be very difficult.

 

[mr_boring]

I knew a guy who made the most billy bad sparkler bombs ever. Almost every one he made went BOOOOOMMMMMM with very few duds. One day we were at my ex BIL's place and he made one that we shoved down into a stump. Stump was a couple of years old, and we made a hollow with a chainsaw - that took more work than anything else. Stump was about 10 inches up over the surface. it split it several ways. It also blew small chunks 50 or 60 feet, so yeah, it was a little dangerous. We weren't expecting half lb chunks to go flying that far. It won't blow it out of the ground, but its fun. The splits helped BIL burn it out.

Sparkler bombs go off harder than ANFO, more like a quarter stick to a half stick of dynamite if they are made right.

Fun note, we stuck a smaller one in a big fire ant mound that day. We didn't learn our lesson from the stump and it blew fire ants over like a quarter square acre. It was maybe 20-30 feet from his pool and there were ants all in it. Much beer and whiskey had been consumed by the time he said, hey man, I found more boxes of sparklers! Lets blow up that ant mound!

All us guys found it hilarious. All the moms found us to be hiney holes.

In retrospect, I guess we were lucky it didn't crack the pool. They really go boom.

 

[Pablo]

I was surprised when I did it, how long it smouldered into the ground for.

Perhaps all the wetness in WA is why you had less luck?

I think I may have applied charcoal after a while, come to think of it. But it smouldered for days into the ground.

Stays wet a long time here after wet season I’m sure that is the main problem for me