About 6 Years ago I had to have a 65' Eucalyptus cut down in my rear garden,
the roots were destabilising my path and garage floor, as well as my
neighbours pathway. I killed the stump off with the necessary chemicals and
it IS rotting away slowly. Does anyone know if there is any way to speed up
the rotting (breakdown) of the stump, chemical or otherwise? I considered
Stump Grinding but found the cost was not something my budget would not
stand, I am only on a small pension.
I would appreciate any comments that might assist me with this problem.

--
~Brian~....... )

"~Brian~" wrote in message
.. .
About 6 Years ago I had to have a 65' Eucalyptus cut down in my rear
garden, the roots were destabilising my path and garage floor, as well as
my neighbours pathway. I killed the stump off with the necessary chemicals
and it IS rotting away slowly. Does anyone know if there is any way to
speed up the rotting (breakdown) of the stump, chemical or otherwise? I
considered Stump Grinding but found the cost was not something my budget
would not stand, I am only on a small pension.
I would appreciate any comments that might assist me with this problem.

--
~Brian~....... )



I think I would drill lots of holes in it, say 1/2" diameter. Logic for
this being that it would allow water in to otherwise unreachable parts and
thereby accelerate the decay process. Chip at with an axe, anything to
increase the surface area available to rotting agents .
Also I would consider a walk in the woods and bring back some fungal decayed
wood and drop some of that in the holes.

mark

On 2009-10-23 14:13:37 +0100, "mark" said:


"~Brian~" wrote in message
.. .
About 6 Years ago I had to have a 65' Eucalyptus cut down in my rear
garden, the roots were destabilising my path and garage floor, as well as
my neighbours pathway. I killed the stump off with the necessary chemicals
and it IS rotting away slowly. Does anyone know if there is any way to
speed up the rotting (breakdown) of the stump, chemical or otherwise? I
considered Stump Grinding but found the cost was not something my budget
would not stand, I am only on a small pension.
I would appreciate any comments that might assist me with this problem.

--
~Brian~....... )



I think I would drill lots of holes in it, say 1/2" diameter. Logic for
this being that it would allow water in to otherwise unreachable parts and
thereby accelerate the decay process. Chip at with an axe, anything to
increase the surface area available to rotting agents .
Also I would consider a walk in the woods and bring back some fungal decayed
wood and drop some of that in the holes.

mark

Let's hope that fungal decayed wood doesn't contain honey fungus....... ;-(
But drilling holes and putting in Root Out (or whatever it's called
now) helps though it sounds as if that's already been done - or
something similar.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon

~Brian~ wrote:
About 6 Years ago I had to have a 65' Eucalyptus cut down in my rear garden,
the roots were destabilising my path and garage floor, as well as my
neighbours pathway. I killed the stump off with the necessary chemicals and
it IS rotting away slowly. Does anyone know if there is any way to speed up
the rotting (breakdown) of the stump, chemical or otherwise? I considered
Stump Grinding but found the cost was not something my budget would not
stand, I am only on a small pension.
I would appreciate any comments that might assist me with this problem.

If it is dead then load it with some extra ammonium or potassium nitrate
in a few holes drilled into the top of it. The extra nitrogen will
encourage fungi to grow faster. That is how I got my old apple tree root
out of the lawn. After about 10 years the roots had weakened enough to
pull out a 3' diameter tree stump aided and abetted with a couple of
scaffold poles and a large rock that was crushed acting as a fulcrum.

Eucalyptus may well resist a lot of UK native fungi because of the woods
high aromatic content so you may be in for a much longer wait. Even so
drilling into it for increased surface area and adding nitrogen will help.

Regards,
Martin Brown

Janet Baraclough wrote:
The message
from "~Brian~" contains these words:

About 6 Years ago I had to have a 65' Eucalyptus cut down in my rear
garden,
the roots were destabilising my path and garage floor, as well as my
neighbours pathway. I killed the stump off with the necessary chemicals and
it IS rotting away slowly. Does anyone know if there is any way to speed up
the rotting (breakdown) of the stump, chemical or otherwise?

Find a couple of teenagers , give them an axe, saw and pickaxe, and
bribe them to dig it out. They excavate the earth from round the trunk
then saw/hack off the larger roots just
underground , to extract the stump. The hole won;t be big; just fill
in with earth and you'll never know it was there. It's a surprisingly
quick easy task (and fun, to boys) so won't cost you much. .

Janet

We have recently done just that after removing all the top growth of
three conifers, planted no doubt when dwarf conifers were so
fashionable. These just outgrew their allotted place and had to go. We
replenished the soil dug in lots of compost and leaf mould and have
reclaimed a nice strip of land for other more interesting plants. It
looked a daunting task and I was all for calling in a person with a root
cruncher, but my other half was all ready to tackle it himself so
between the two of us we did just as you recommended above. It cost us
nothing. We dumped the old roots, out of sight behind the compost heaps,
for the critters.

Bobbie

--
http://thingamabobs.co.uk/imagesofcanfordheath7.html

In message , Janet Baraclough
writes
The message
from "~Brian~" contains these words:

About 6 Years ago I had to have a 65' Eucalyptus cut down in my rear
garden,
the roots were destabilising my path and garage floor, as well as my
neighbours pathway. I killed the stump off with the necessary chemicals and
it IS rotting away slowly. Does anyone know if there is any way to speed up
the rotting (breakdown) of the stump, chemical or otherwise?

Find a couple of teenagers , give them an axe, saw and pickaxe, and
bribe them to dig it out. They excavate the earth from round the trunk
then saw/hack off the larger roots just
underground , to extract the stump. The hole won;t be big; just fill
in with earth and you'll never know it was there. It's a surprisingly
quick easy task (and fun, to boys) so won't cost you much. .

Janet
I took my neighbours conifers out with my Land Rover(V8) and a kinetic
recovery rope. Helps if you cut any roots fore and aft. If the stump is
cut right down then you need to remove some earth to get the rope
underneath.
--
hugh
It may be more complicated but is it better?

"hugh" ] wrote in message
...
In message , Janet
Baraclough writes

Janet
I took my neighbours conifers out with my Land Rover(V8) and a
kinetic recovery rope. Helps if you cut any roots fore and aft.
If the stump is cut right down then you need to remove some
earth to get the rope underneath.

Kinetic rope! I have seen serious damage done with one of those
by the unwary. I did manage to recover a stuck fire engine with
my V8 Land Rover and Kinetic rope once which the crew said was
impossible until they saw their pride and jor back on solid
ground.
Mike

Thank you all for the suggestions, I will now consider my best course of
action! )

--
Cheers ~Brian~ )

On Oct 23, 6:08*pm, "~Brian~" wrote:
Thank you all for the suggestions, I will now consider my best course of
action! *)

--
Cheers ~Brian~ *)

Brian, my neighbour has a small JCB and I have seen him pushing a
tree, about quarter way up the trunk, I wasn't around when it came out
of the ground so I didn't see the final extraction.

Judith

"mark" wrote in message
o.uk...

"~Brian~" wrote in message
.. .
About 6 Years ago I had to have a 65' Eucalyptus cut down in my rear
garden, the roots were destabilising my path and garage floor, as well as
my neighbours pathway. I killed the stump off with the necessary
chemicals and it IS rotting away slowly. Does anyone know if there is any
way to speed up the rotting (breakdown) of the stump, chemical or
otherwise? I considered Stump Grinding but found the cost was not
something my budget would not stand, I am only on a small pension.
I would appreciate any comments that might assist me with this problem.

--
~Brian~....... )



I think I would drill lots of holes in it, say 1/2" diameter. Logic for
this being that it would allow water in to otherwise unreachable parts and
thereby accelerate the decay process.

agreed, is working well for me with a 4 year old large stump

Chip at with an axe, anything to increase the surface area available to
rotting agents .

again, agreed, works well.

Other thing you can do is build a compost bin over it. That started the
decay of my tree stump well.

rob

George.com wrote:
"mark" wrote in message
o.uk...

"~Brian~" wrote in message
.. .
About 6 Years ago I had to have a 65' Eucalyptus cut down in my rear
garden, the roots were destabilising my path and garage floor, as
well as my neighbours pathway. I killed the stump off with the
necessary chemicals and it IS rotting away slowly. Does anyone know
if there is any way to speed up the rotting (breakdown) of the
stump, chemical or otherwise? I considered Stump Grinding but
found the cost was not something my budget would not stand, I am
only on a small pension. I would appreciate any comments that might
assist me with this
problem. --
~Brian~....... )



I think I would drill lots of holes in it, say 1/2" diameter. Logic
for this being that it would allow water in to otherwise unreachable
parts and thereby accelerate the decay process.

agreed, is working well for me with a 4 year old large stump

Chip at with an axe, anything to increase the surface area available
to rotting agents .

again, agreed, works well.

Other thing you can do is build a compost bin over it. That started
the decay of my tree stump well.

rob


This stump (about 8" High and over 3' Long in a sort of oval shape) is
rotting quite well, and this morning I got to work with a Bow Saw a long
crowbar and a 3/4" wood bit and have managed to pry loose quite a big pile
of rotten wood. I think probably this is the best avenue to go, by the end
of the winter I should be able to get quite a bit more off it. Thanks for
your input. )

"~Brian~" wrote in message
. ..
George.com wrote:
"mark" wrote in message
o.uk...

"~Brian~" wrote in message
.. .
About 6 Years ago I had to have a 65' Eucalyptus cut down in my rear
garden, the roots were destabilising my path and garage floor, as
well as my neighbours pathway. I killed the stump off with the
necessary chemicals and it IS rotting away slowly. Does anyone know
if there is any way to speed up the rotting (breakdown) of the
stump, chemical or otherwise? I considered Stump Grinding but
found the cost was not something my budget would not stand, I am
only on a small pension. I would appreciate any comments that might
assist me with this
problem. --
~Brian~....... )



I think I would drill lots of holes in it, say 1/2" diameter. Logic
for this being that it would allow water in to otherwise unreachable
parts and thereby accelerate the decay process.

agreed, is working well for me with a 4 year old large stump

Chip at with an axe, anything to increase the surface area available
to rotting agents .

again, agreed, works well.

Other thing you can do is build a compost bin over it. That started
the decay of my tree stump well.

rob


This stump (about 8" High and over 3' Long in a sort of oval shape) is
rotting quite well, and this morning I got to work with a Bow Saw a long
crowbar and a 3/4" wood bit and have managed to pry loose quite a big pile
of rotten wood. I think probably this is the best avenue to go, by the end
of the winter I should be able to get quite a bit more off it.

aye, thats the story. It'll be a few years to totally go but you'll see it
rot away season by season. Time will wear it down nicly.

rob