Stump Removal

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joel

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How would you clean up 2 1/2 year old stumps on 5 acres, to put in raised beds for asparagus & strawberry plants.
These are grade level raised beds, like sweet potatoes are planted on. If it was the back yard 12,24,36 inch boxes with pure weed free compost, I would not care
about a few stumps. But the bed former will not cut 8-14 inch stumps.
I get the best insight & advise from here, many what not to do, which can be more important than what to do.
 
How would you clean up 2 1/2 year old stumps on 5 acres

Exactly how many stumps are there? 3 or 4? or hundreds? If it's just a few a stump grinder would be viable... but if you have a boat load of them a contractor with heavy equipment might be the most economical when you consider the time involved. One man with a stump grinder could take months if you have 50 or more.
 
You can drill a bunch of 1" holes all over the stump and then fill the holes with...Epsom salts? Could be wrong but someone will straighten me out. Unfortunately that takes months.
 
With 100 stumps, a backhoe or other large equipment as LazyL said. I have seen videos of people digging out stumps with large equipment to clear land.

I had about 15 in my yard and a couple were really large, circumference more than 6 feet. Mine were hand dug out. I dug out some myself, and hired a couple guys to dig out the others. It was hard work and not a quick deal either, but well worth it. It took a couple years of that being my main focus.

Mine were volunteer trees, elm and Tree of Hell, some call it the tree of heaven. It is not heavenly, it is from hell! Wikipedia: Ailanthus altissima, commonly known as tree of heaven, ailanthus, varnish tree, or in Chinese as chouchun, is a deciduous tree in the family Simaroubaceae.
 
100 pounds of Tannerite with take care of it and you will have a blast removing them. Lol


My dad drilled holes in his tree stump and poured diesel fuel in it for a few days letting it soak in and set it on fire. Not the fastest way but it worked.
 
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At 2.5 years old they should be well on the way to being rotted... A big dozer, D8 range or larger, should be able to knock off the tops 5 inches below grade. A few would come up whole but not many. Or with a rear ripper attachment, yank them up for burning... Start to finish, maybe 4 days.

My grandfather cleared a 12 acre field that had 4ft diameter american chestnut stumps in it. He did it with an axe and a mule. It took him 6 years.

I'd go with a D8 and be done with it.
 
How would you clean up 2 1/2 year old stumps on 5 acres, to put in raised beds for asparagus & strawberry plants.
These are grade level raised beds, like sweet potatoes are planted on. If it was the back yard 12,24,36 inch boxes with pure weed free compost, I would not care
about a few stumps. But the bed former will not cut 8-14 inch stumps.
I get the best insight & advise from here, many what not to do, which can be more important than what to do.
Hey Joel,
This isn't an immediate answer, but if I recall correctly, this book had a good method as well as plenty of other good tips.
I just got it from the library so don't have a pix. But - Eric Sloan and Do's and don'ts of yesteryear : a treasury of early American folk wisdom It used only 'primal' items/equipment so easily acquired. Sorry I'm not more help, but a good book reference is still a good thing right? (I'm pretty sure that's the right one, have read several of his.)
 
My grandfather cleared a 12 acre field that had 4ft diameter american chestnut stumps in it. He did it with an axe and a mule. It took him 6 years.
Peanut how much does your Grandfather charge, if I pick him & the mule up, feed them & return them in time for dinner?
 
If you cut them off at ground level it would be easier to build over them and give you firewood.
The timber guy clipped them off at grade, you can drive over must of them, but I need to disk, then turn the soil, then dick again to break the bottom/ hard pan.
Then run a roto tiller over to form beds for asparagus & garlic, so removal is a must. I have a few weeks till I need them out so I going to try some of the suggestions here on the form, even googled some of the suggestions & got a clear picture of what was suggested.
Thanks for the tips, I will let you.
 
The timber guy clipped them off at grade, you can drive over must of them, but I need to disk, then turn the soil, then dick again to break the bottom/ hard pan.
Then run a roto tiller over to form beds for asparagus & garlic, so removal is a must. I have a few weeks till I need them out so I going to try some of the suggestions here on the form, even googled some of the suggestions & got a clear picture of what was suggested.
Thanks for the tips, I will let you.
If you only have weeks then machinery is your only choice.
 
Wild timber, 100 or more stumps.
I was hoping to rot or break them with out a
Large machine.

Unless you want to get the workout of all workouts and go after them with a shovel, a digging bar and a jumbo bottle of ibuprofen, I'd say you are definitely looking at needing equipment.

Not sure where you are, what kind of ground you have, type of trees they were, the diameter size of the stump or how long ago thet were cut but likely you'll need a dozer or excavator to get them out. If you wait for them to rot there is a good chance your great grankids might still be watching them rot away. I'd suggest possibly waiting to do it in the middle of dry spell. It'll be dusty as all get out but that way when they dig them out they can knock the root ball around or run over it with the dozer to get a lot of the dirt off. depending on your soil this may or may not work without letting them sit awhile to dry out. Where I'm at here in PA we have a lot of clay so it takes forever for a root ball to dry out. if your say down south with real sandy soil it'll be much easier.

Like others said once they are out you could pile them up and burn them but if they're green and wet, good luck. If you hire a contractor they might be able to haul them off for a fee or a big enough outfit might have one of those huge bowl grinders to shred them into mulch which could be a big boon if they could grind them on site and leave you with a mountain of wood chips for mulch. another option if you have a low spot you want to build up but not build on, you could always go in and dig a huge pit and roll them in and backfill over them. Just smash them down best you can with a heavy dozer or excavator. They'll slowly rot over the years and the area will sink in time and need additional top fill but it's an option if you don't want to burn. If you have a lot of extra dirt you might be able to pile them in long low windrows and cover them with soil to turn them into hugelkultur mounds, say maybe around the perimeter or in areas to creat wind breaks? Though make sure they aren't placed close to any structures if your in an area with heavy termites.

If they have a dozer, once everything is out they could backblade to smooth things up so you can go in and finish clearing out all the straggler roots and rocks. It's no small task even with the equipment.
 
Why do you need to disk and till if you are building raised beds? Much easier to build the beds around the stumps and let them rot on their own.
No one in permculture that I have talked to (on line/net) believes me. However it is true that I have 4 or 5 perennial weeds that will NOT die under 8 inches of compost, they grow though & spread like fire. Had another farmer on the main road down from me use Round up weed killer & it did not kill the wild garlic, it did kill the coastal grass & wild dewberry vine, but the roots came back a few weeks later. Then there what I call sting nettle, no not the one you eat, this is a 2-4 inch tall green plant with small purple or white tomato flower & a 1/2 inch fruit that looks like a green tomato & ripens yellow. It has thorns that sting & root that came from hell, I know I got on my knees & dug half way to hell before I cut the root off & they where back next spring.
If the land Had not been my family for near 100 years, I would move.
But I degress, as an organic gardener I have to break the bottom/ hard pan from 50 years of farming, before I let it rest with pine tree for 15 years.
So now I got to kill the weeds with deep tillage & solarization, no it will not remove stumps, but it will kill most weeds & unwanted fugui, but cause I am going to use Wine cap fugus to build the soil back up after killing the weed that are not killed by tillage.
First year the beds will be single layer, I will then build up the soil over the next 5 years with sawdust/ wood clip, because that is what wine caps like & yes I will eat the flush of toad stools. So I am hoping to have stumps out by late may or early june so I can turn the soil about 8-10 inches & solarization it.
July & august are great months for that. While that is happening I need to find two or three soruces for wood chips. In my spare time plant some garlic for next Spring. The good new is that I can leave the stumps that are between the trees & bushes, as long as they are 18-24 inches from the center of the plants at the time of planting. But the beds are a different story, I was going to start on this last year & the doctor said no, but the problem is under control, now the time.
 
@joel Is this the nasty little thing that plagues you? If so it's "Solanum carolinense aka horse nettle"...

It's in the nightshade family along with "tomatillo's" used in mexican dishes and a dozen or so toxic plants including jimson weed...

Getting rid of it? It's been in my old garden over 50 years... :mad: It never really goes away... It's a matter of controlling it. NEVER let the seeds mature and you can keep it to a minimum, sometimes... It mainly spreads via the roots.

Horse Nettle (1).jpg
Horse Nettle (2).jpg
Horse Nettle (3).jpg
 
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That is it! I thought it was nightshade & heard it called nittle as a child, may have been Horse nittle, that was way back in the 20th cenutry.
I will let you know if it can be killed with the solarization.
Thanks again.
 
@joel Is this the nasty little thing that plagues you? If so it's "Solanum carolinense aka horse nettle"...

It's in the nightshade family along with "tomatillo's" used in mexican dishes and a dozen or so toxic plants including jimson weed...

Getting rid of it? It's been in my old garden over 50 years... :mad: It never really goes away... It's a matter of controlling it. NEVER let the seeds mature and you can keep it to a minimum, sometimes... It mainly spreads via the roots.

View attachment 37964View attachment 37965View attachment 37966
I hate that crap. And no I've had no luck killing it off here either.
 
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