"P&J" wrote in message ...
I am having a poplar type tree removed from my garden. The tree surgeon says
that he needs to use poison on the stump to prevent it growing back.

Is this essential & would the poison be dangerous ?

I plan on having an organic veggie patch - only a few metres a way & already
have a few things very near to the tree -so I do have some concerns.

The tree man would be wrong to leave the stump behind: any fool can
just cut a tree down. Lawrence D. Hills in his very good Penguin Book
*Organic Gardening* has detailed instructions for extracting a tree up
to a foot thick.

If the tree is cut a few feet from the ground, in some situations the
stump can be hauled out with a winch: if your tree man doesn't know
how to do it, I'd find one who knows what he's doing.

If you do have to leave a stump, bore several holes in the top and
fill them with dry sodium chlorate weedkiller, then cover with
something waterproof. The chlorate will both kill the stump and make
it easy to burn with a fire on top a few weeks later. None of the
chemical should escape if your cover stays in place; but make sure it
doesn't, as it's a total unselective plant-killer which can hang about
in the ground: the makers say six months to be on the safe side.

Some suckers may perhaps still come up from the roots, though: this
would be quite a good thing, as it would tell you where to dig to get
as many roots out as possible. Leaving roots to decay in the ground
may encourage harmful fungi.

Mike.