Stump Holes

[Jolly]

Several years ago, I cut an elm tree down in front of the house. I drilled the stump, poured in a little used motor oil, piled on a few sticks of scrap lumber and lit it off. It burned pretty well, but I still had a remnant. Waited a few more months, stacked a dozen pieces or more of firewood on what was left of the old stump and again I set it on fire. This time, it burned for three or four days, burning roots in the process.

I filled the hole with some potting soil and dirt from around the place, threw in some old, dried cow patties and planted a fig tree in the old hole. I planted another fig tree on the other side of the house at the same time, but I had to dig a hole.

Time has marched on.

The tree in the stump hole is twice as big as the other tree and produces twice as many figs. Moral of the story? Do not waste your stump holes!

[Ozarks Tom]

I too am too cheap to rent a stump grinder, so I cut the bottom out of a #10 washtub, put it around a stump, pour a bag of charcoal in and light it off. Next day, no stump, and a hole about 8" deep.

[BrewDaddy]

I heard of a fun, though not quick, way to remove stumps....

If you have pigs, drill some deep holes in the stump here and there around the sides. Pour in a bit of corn grain. Sprinkle some around the stump.

Then watch over time as the pigs will work work work that stump loose trying to get to that grain...

bd

[Tim Horton]

On my old lake place I had a number of large trees blow over.. One pulling up about an 8' diameter root ball and leaving a hole in the ground 8' around and almost 4' deep... I used the tractor to fill the hole with dirt so when the tree trunk was cut from the root ball, the root ball didn't fall back into the hole..

A couple other trees broke off and fell.. Once the tree was unhooked from the part still standing, to find they were hollow with rot.. A couple that were about 40+" in diameter could be cut down to leave a kind of hollow tree stump planter... I filled them with compost, dirt and such and planted things in them..

There was a chain of lakes there 4 lakes long.. I was on the 3 rd lake down, so the wind would really howl by the time it got to me..