In message , John Towill
writes
On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 11:50:25 GMT, Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:

The message
from (P Verstege) contains these words:

What did work was to excavate around the stump and then drill numerous
holes through the stump as far sown as possible. Then I snapped it off
and filled in the hole. a Lot of work and only a small stump.

But what if Iwant to plant another tree there? Will the rotted
(rotting?) roots kill off any new roots? That's why I was thinking of
burning them out - so I can clear the ground for something else

No, but it might attract honey fungus.

If you are unlucky. Mine attracted an inedible but large fruiting fungus
that eventually weakened the stump enough to get it out without easy
access. However, it wasn't quick and took the best part of a decade to
work!

If you want to plant something soon, don't use sulphuric acid on the
stump. Otherwise you can drill some deep holes into the wood and pour in
battery acid, and that will reduce the stump to (eventually) carbon, but
to a brittle mass fairly quickly.

Next time, take most of the branches off a tree you want out, cut round
the roots and attach a rope to as near the top as possible (taking into
consideration the strength of the trunk there) and using the height of
the tree as a lever, pull it over.

Then you'll have a rootball from which you can dig/crowbar/pickaxe the
earth from it.

I have never tried this but beleive that you drill a number of holes as
large and deep as practical into the stump. Fill these holes with
saltpetre in solution, repeat this filling for a number of times. Then
built a small fire over the stump. The saltpetre absorbed into the stump
will cause it to burn well.

It won't burn particularly well, but if you can get it loaded with
enough potassium nitrate and alight it will continue to smoulder if it
ever gets dry enough. I tried this with an old dead 2' diameter pear
tree stump about a decade ago. The effect was that it would not burn
because ground was far too wet even on the driest summer days.

However it did accelerate fungal decay. I finally removed the stump by
digging it out this year after the fungi had weakened it sufficiently.
Even then it required several heavy scaffold poles to lever the stump
out.

Perhaps someone who reads this will have tried and can say if or not it is
practical.

Fill the holes with dry saltpetre - no point adding any more water than
is absolutely necessary. There is usually far too much water in the wood
to get anything embedded in the ground to burn.

A pine tree might be willing to go more easily with its resinous sap.

Regards,
--
Martin Brown