On 07/03/19 16:15, Martin Brown wrote:
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.

I've had some KNO3 for maybe 30 years as I used to mix my own specialist
low-phosphate fertiliser for proteaceous plants. Although I haven't got
any copper nails, I've got plenty of copper wire. Maybe it'll save me
wasting any money on ammonium sulfamate.

--

Jeff