GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - ELM tree stump- cannot kill it

brooklyn1 · 25-04-2009, 04:53 PM posted to rec.gardens

dr-single digit wrote:
try mounding the stump with charcoal, pour a can of charcoal fluid on it
and light.
when it has burned down, no flames, mound dirt over it so it just smolders
for a few
days. when it doesnt FEEL hot anymore, scrape some of the dirt away and
feel for
warmth. when it isnt warm anymore then remound with dirt and water every
day to
increase moisture for bacteria and fungus rotting. Ingrid

That's just silly... once wood is carborized it won't decompose, the
organisms in the soil won't touch it.... bury a bag of charcoal and come
back in a hundred years, it'll still be just as you left it... even the
slantiest foreheaded neanderthals knew that carborizing preserved their
wooden tools. And since the OP speaks about living in a city what you
suggest is probably highly illegal. Folks here in the boonies burn stumps
during winter all the time when there's a good covering of snow, but the
stumps have been pulled from the ground and heaped up with other debris in
the middle of a large field to do a controlled burn until all that remains
is ash.