Removing smallish tree stumps

NickK · 17 Apr 2015 at 10:05

Previous owners of the house put a small conifer 2 foot from the front door. At about 3-4ft I thought it was time for it to go to protect the house walls.

I've sawn the thing down, removed all the branches and now left with a stump that's about 2 inches diameter for the main trunk. Counting the rings it's about 10-14 years old, with the main growing rings indicating it's starting date in that location about 8-10 years.

The stump itself is rock solid - indicating a good root structure, so what do people do with this sort of thing?

My thought is to apply weed killer to the trunk to kill off the roots, then fork out the soil around, cut the roots off with clippers and then pull out the main root/trunk mass.

BigBoy · 17 Apr 2015 at 10:08

Don't waste money on chemicals, a fer tree with no branches will die quickly. Just dig it out.

NickK · 17 Apr 2015 at 10:30

BigBoy said:
Don't waste money on chemicals, a fer tree with no branches will die quickly. Just dig it out.

Ahh cool - sounds like a plan.

john_s · 17 Apr 2015 at 13:19

BigBoy said:
Just dig it out.

This.

Just dig down by the stump and cut any big roots that you come across. You should have the stump out in no time for a tree that size.

Blackjack Davy · 17 Apr 2015 at 13:46

If you'd left it as a bare trunk 2-3ft high you can use it as leverage i.e. push it back and forth when you're digging it out, much easier than if you've sawed it off at the base.

BigT · 17 Apr 2015 at 19:17

Last time I needed to get something this size out of the ground I used the tow hook on my 4x4 and a strong chain. Pretty swift and efficient.

King85 · 17 Apr 2015 at 22:53

We dug 4 conifers bigger than that out of my back garden and it wasn't hard, they don't have huge roots.