Stump grinding

[Geo-TH,In]

Who grinds stumps? My German Cheap Gene won't allow me too. I make stump covers over stumps. Stump covers consist of landscape timbers, dirt and flowers. Well as I post earlier the cheap landscape rotted away, so today I dug up 3 flower beds. Only one stump was left and it was like cork. The other 2 beds had no signs of a stump. The flowers were root bound so much so I couldn't lift them. I used the terramite's front bucket to move the flowers to a mound of dirt at the mulch pile and dumped them so the dirt would fall off. I filled the bed of my work truck with flowers to transplant in gravel pit. Looks like a weeks work ahead.
geo

 

[Bob]

I'm with you, George. I can't believe what people will pay to have a stump shredded. If it's not in the and has to be immediately removed I also camouflage them and let them rot naturally.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Bob, I paid one time to have a stump ground and for years I filled the stump hole with dirt as it rotted. Now I cover with dirt. I know when the stump is gone because after a good rain, the dirt will settle.

Cheap George.

 

[Tramway Guy]

One of our local rental stores had a walk-behind on tracks with a Kohler V-twin. Had a grinder wheel that you could swing left and right and up and down hydraulically. I did a huge willow stump with it.

The machine had its own trailer.

 

[bja105]

Geo, I have some stumps and need some flower beds. How long did it take for the stumps to rot?

 

[kurk]

A backhoe is best

 

[Pair-a-dice farm]

Leaving stumps, is like saying "I like breaking expensive pieces of equipment". I dig them out with a backhoe most of the time but I've got a few white oak stumps that are over 10 years old that are still too big and solid to dig without leaving a hole half as big as my house. I'm not sure how long a white oak or hickory stump would last, I've seen some over 25 years.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

About 12 years or about as long as today's
cheap landscape timbers lasted.

My last stump was about 5 ft in diamerter. I
overed with dirt and then it got grass
seeds.

 

[john in la]

Drill holes in the stump; add a milk product like powered milk or condensed milk into the holes; and then throw a ant nest on top. The ants will eat it down in short order.

 

[RandyB(MI)]

Stump grinders are for the city"I want it and I want it now" group of people. I used to work for a company who built all sizes of them . never impressed me. The remote control track models with blade on front made good drive way snow plows tho. You could plow from your kitchen window once you learned it.

 

[ss55]

When I take down trees, I dig around the roots when the ground is soft and then pull the tree over to rip out most of the stump as the tree falls.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

That doesn't work well when a tree has to come down in pieces next to buildings. I hire tree trimmers to take my trees down. I know 6 people that have been killed cutting trees down. One guy was a professional logger.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

When the stump is in the middle of your yard, and you didn't want to mow around the %$#@ tree in the first place, you sure as heck don't want to mow around some %$#@ raised flower bed either.

If you've got the equipment to dig it out yourself and don't mind tearing a hole the size of a Volkswagen in your lawn and having the place look like a war-torn third world country for the rest of the summer, more power to ya.

A stump grinder will take care of the problem in a few minutes, for a lot less than hiring a backhoe, and leaving minimal damage to the lawn. Just a hole about the size of the diameter of the tree trunk. If you clean up the chips and fill the hole with dirt there's minimal settling.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

OK you dig a big stump out, then what? Where are you going to put it. Where are you going to get the dirt? A raised 8 sided flower bed isn't the same as going around a smaller tree and getting smacked with branches.

I had a cherry tree blow down exposing the roots. I dug it out, cut all the roots. The roots ball was about 15 ft in diameter. A man with a large skidder couldn't even lift it. I used my backhoe and dug the largest hole in front of the root ball as I could make then rolled the mess upside down and covered it with dirt.

The way I see it, God put roots in the ground, they can rot there too.

A stump grinder won't fix the problem, when the roots under ground rot, then you will be filling the hole every year.

I prefer stump covers, you can pay to have yours ground. I'm too cheap.
geo

 

[caterpillar guy]

Lets see I hire a stump grinder for tree in the field . 200.00 later it is gone and I work over the spot. Hire a backhoe or excavator and it is now more than that by a lot and have a hole to fill. Yes the stump shavings will rot and leave a hole though not as big as the one dug to get a stump out and then all the dirt that left with the stump- has to be replaced or a big hole left behind to work around. So far the field is level and work right over the spot with no ill affects. I'll grind stumps in the field if the price is right or let them rot. This was a big Oak stump and would not rot for decades. That also depends on the tree. A Hickory or something that rots fast probably would let rot. Oak will not rot very fast. I'm not about to put flowers around a stump in a field. He also ground the stump down so I could work over it for that price so 8 inches or so.

 

[Dieseltech]

I have a 1000 RPM Miller Pro 150 PTO stump grinder that works well on the back of my JD 4020 that will go down eight inches below ground easily. Does a good job of making stumps disappear quickly.

 

[showcrop]

Drill holes in the stump; add a milk product like powered milk or condensed milk into the holes; and then throw a ant nest on top. The ants will eat it down in short order.

where do you get an ant nest?

 

[Frank(Mi.)]

When we're purchased our land it's basically covered in trees, had a company come out and clear enough land for house and a small yard.
Now that I have some equipment, chainsaws, tractor, brush hog, box blade, backhoe,..... it's tine to clear up some more land, i don't want to be just digging stumps for hours on end so looking at a PTO driven stump grinder. Any thoughts on these? Suggestions or comments welcome.

I got a Woodland Mills pto grinder several years ago. Made in Canada. Very solid built unit. I have ground out about three dozen stumps from a foot in diameter to seven feet in diameter. It works great and I still haven't changed any teeth tho' they are replaceable. It will grind about 4-5 inches into the ground if you are on level ground.

 

[J Wendt]

Ok now the real problem all of the windbreaks that were planted in the 80s were ash trees, I have over 50 dead or dying ash trees in my windbreak and three old ancient ones by the house. Now what do you do. Don't really want to mow around them until they rot away, can't afford a stump grinder. so I'll probably have to get a backhoe and cat to dig and level.

 

[Fixingfarmer]

Have the backhoe anyway. Have used a Skidsteer mounted grinder works great you can actually use it on one of the first cold days and not leave tracks on the lawn as bad. If you have 40 to do grinder if you have one no it’s not worth the money but if you rent it on a Friday in 3 days you can do a grove for 200 bucks…there aren’t that many deals like that out there if you look at it that way