Tomorrow morning, I am going to destroy a gnarly stump that has been giving me grief for a year.

TreePointer said:

I had a neighbor who always burned them out with charcoal briquettes. It took a couple days, but it worked. On the liquid method, I heard some old-timers talk about pouring buttermilk into the holes to increase the biological activity.

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I have used the charcoal method, it really worked well.

Bigg_Redd said:

OP - do you mean "stump" as in "still attached to the roots"? Or "very difficult to split round of wood"?

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I wondered if that's what he meant, as well.

Seriously, I think the stump killed him. I've lost a lot of sleep about this. I just need to see how it turned out.

I keep checking this post as well. Maybe one day we'll find out what happened!

Do the stump grinders grind the above ground roots too?

I was thinking of making an aluminum dome using some metal hoops and HD foil. Then burning under the dome.

Just built a road on my land,had a huge tree right in the middle. Sawed off the tree at ground level and now part of the road level with the stone.
Other stumps wether in the ground or out ,i just build a fire on top of them or under.

I have some property where I had some slash piles to burn. I put the piles over some of the (long dead and very dry) stumps, burned the pile, then making sure there was no way it could spread, just left the stumps alone to smolder. Came back a week or three later, and it was like the stump got teleported out Holes 2-3' deep where the main roots were, leaving a perfect negative impression of the root that used to be there.

Then they got back filled and you can't tell there used to be a stump there.

I also saw something somewhere about building a fire over the stump, then putting a metal trash can upside over it to contain some heat.

Hellllloooooo OP?

Back when, we had a white oak stump on the farm, it was at least three feet across, we had been cutting drainage ditches with dynamite all day and as we where heading home, my old man said lets blow the bastard out. I'm 16, so I'm the dynamite rigger of course. I find a spot where I can pound the steel rod deep under the stump, I put as many sticks as I could into the hole, then I put a 150 pound rock over the hole. Now we're all set, my dad was always cheap, so the detonation cord was only about 30 feet, we hid in a ditch on the opposite of the hole, my friend, definitely aware that my dad and I were not to be trusted screwing around with dynamite stationed himself about a 100 yards away. I touched it off, there was a hellish explosion, the stump didn't move, but the rock was shot out like a cannon and split into three pieces, it was shot high into the air, straight at my friend. He looked like a ball player trying to catch a fly ball, except he wasn't trying to catch those rocks.
No tofu eater would reek havoc on that stump! D9 maybe.

Hoozie said:

I have some property where I had some slash piles to burn. I put the piles over some of the (long dead and very dry) stumps, burned the pile, then making sure there was no way it could spread, just left the stumps alone to smolder. Came back a week or three later, and it was like the stump got teleported out Holes 2-3' deep where the main roots were, leaving a perfect negative impression of the root that used to be there.

Then they got back filled and you can't tell there used to be a stump there.

I also saw something somewhere about building a fire over the stump, then putting a metal trash can upside over it to contain some heat.

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How does a stump dry if its in wet ground. I read on here about burning out stumps, had about 10 fires on 1 and almost no difference. Saw a ford commercial about pulling a stump, tried that with my awesome tow chain, hook is more like a spear now. Excavator or grinder is the only thing I've seen work.

mass_burner said:

Do the stump grinders grind the above ground roots too?

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Yes, grinds everything below ground level, put loam on top and plant grass seed.

STIHLY DAN said:

How does a stump dry if its in wet ground.

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I guess I should have clarified; it was cut down probably 20 years ago, and is in the high desert. In this area, I can dig a couple feet down and the dirt is only cool; not damp.

At my parents place (wet side of Mt. Hood), a stump would rot faster than it would burn

Let's just wait

Maybe OP is not who we think he is...

Knots said:

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Well...we're waaaiting...

I think the stump might have got the better of him.

Area Man: 0
Stump: 1

Laying down on the job? Too busy buying pizza for the help????

TreePointer said:

burned them out with charcoal briquettes.

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This is what we always did, especially if you can put some sort of barrel or other chimney type device around it.

Toro makes some nice riding stump grinders like the stx-38. Considering he's got a few pounds of metal stuck in there the burning with charcoal option is probably best..

I have wondered if I would ever make it back too.

Maybe he decided it was too much and is ashamed of his defeat.