On 07/03/2019 12:41, Jeff Layman wrote:
I have been wondering about using this on my Cornus stump. That would be
to accelerate its decomposition, of course, not to kill it as that would
be an unapproved use.

But I just had a look at the Westland Garotta pack in my local garden
centre, and there is absolutely no mention of what it contains. I
thought it might say "Ammonium Sulfamate" somewhere, but there's not
mention of it. However, on the information sheet at
https://www.gardenhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Garotta.pdf it
states that the hazardous ingredients are "Silicone (sic) Dioxide 35 -
40%"Â* and "Limestone 35 - 40%".So it's sand and limestone. No ammonium
sulfamate to be seen.

I have found it effective for starting a smaller cold heap. YMMV
You can cut it with ammonium *sulphate* to make it go further.

It is a mix of inert minerals and freeze dried compost fungi/bacteria.

I can't see it doing anything useful to a tree stump. Loading it with
potassium (or ammonium) nitrate and a copper nail would be my
suggestion. In a dry year you can get it to smoulder away and in a wet
one it rots faster with the added nitrogen and a trace of copper. That
is how I got my former big apple tree root out.

My compost heap is large enough that it runs hot provided that I always
add a decent amount of stuff at one time. Last year was so dry during
late summer that some layers did not properly rot down though

--
Regards,
Martin Brown