Getting Dtmps Out

[Bill Tattersall]

With the brutal snow storm this past weekend in Delaware, most everyone had trees going over, particularly the Leland Cypress variety. After cutting off the trees I still have the partially buried stumps in the ground. Short of renting an excavator, what's the best way to get them out? I have a 35 hp tractor with front end loader and forks.

 

[560Dennis]

Well , I have no experience with that trees root s. I would suggest to hand dig around the roots exposing,one at a time and saw them. Don’t hit the dirt that will end the session with instant dull chain. Use the tractor to pull it out .
After you do one see if you can get an arborist to mulch it up.
Roots here no matter the condition the type are very difficult to remove after years of being dead.
I ve tried with the Kubota bx back hoe , that a waste of time and very hard on that small machine . It won’t break the 3+inch root , got to saw all roots then lift them .
I call my local arborists ask ,”when are you in the area with your stump mulcher? When I get a big one.
I have recently used a saw to cut into the stump with cuts deep enough to catch water to promote quick rot ,still takes long time of freezing and thawing. What I try .
With big back hoe or excavate breaking up roots in wider diameter works.

 

[Sean Feeney]

With the brutal snow storm this past weekend in Delaware, most everyone had trees going over, particularly the Leland Cypress variety. After cutting off the trees I still have the partially buried stumps in the ground. Short of renting an excavator, what's the best way to get them out? I have a 35 hp tractor with front end loader and forks.

Isn't the ground still frozen?

 

[Mrfred54]

I had a couple stumps a year ago I wanted removed. Bit the bullet and just called a contractor with an excavator and truck and had him haul them away and brought back a load of top soil.

 

[joeysmith]

Rent or hire a stump grinder

 

[Blackhole49]

With the brutal snow storm this past weekend in Delaware, most everyone had trees going over, particularly the Leland Cypress variety. After cutting off the trees I still have the partially buried stumps in the ground. Short of renting an excavator, what's the best way to get them out? I have a 35 hp tractor with front end loader and forks.

A picture with size and number of trees would be helpful. Without that, I would just rent the small excavator and be done.

 

[Texasmark]

I had a bunch of willow trees around my pond and they kept getting thicker and thicker. Got out my chain saw and cut them off leaving a stump of about 10" long. I guess that was 5 or so years ago. Yesterday I decided to test one for removal. Got out my 65 HP tractor with loader bucket and set the bucket on the ground adjacent to the stump. Put force on the stump and it just crumbled. So much for that. Harder wood would surely take longer.

They make stump grinders that chew away at the stump a little at a time from the top down....use back and forth motion moving the cutter teeth back and forth across the top of the stump as it chews away at the wood, hand operated like a hand operated garden tiller sort of machine. DR manufacturer, to name one, sells one, or you could probably rent one.
Roots are a big problem in attempting to remove stumps......course if you had a D9 Cat. Dozer, it would be a piece of cake.

 

[Wdj]

If you're not in a big hurry you can speed up the decay with some nitrogen fertilizer.

 

[560Dennis]

View attachment 143917
Rent or hire a stump grinder

That’s the hot set up !

 

[showcrop]

If you are looking to save money just get a Diablo twelve inch demolition blade for your reciprocating saw. Pull it as far as you can then cut exposed roots. Repeat.

 

[ss55]

With the brutal snow storm this past weekend in Delaware, most everyone had trees going over, particularly the Leland Cypress variety. After cutting off the trees I still have the partially buried stumps in the ground. Short of renting an excavator, what's the best way to get them out? I have a 35 hp tractor with front end loader and forks.

How big are the stumps: 3 inch diameter or 3 foot diameter?

I have good luck pulling stumps out of the ground before cutting off the top of the tree. It is a lot of work, but the stump pops out of the ground with the tree trunk when the trunk of the tree hits the ground.

Attach a chain, cable or tow strap as high as possible on the trunk of the tree. After the frost is out of the ground dig all the way around the tree and cut all the roots on two sides of the tree. Leave large opposing roots to act as a hinge to drop the tree in the direction you want, then pull the tree over with a truck or tractor.

 

[Ray,IN]

It's been a long time( 60 years) but I was taught how to remove stumps with ¼-½ stick of dynamite. Performed correctly, the stump lifts up about a foot or two then settles back into the hole. Then you can pull out the stump with a tractor.
The limiting factor is location to anything else. I don't even know if dynamite and caps are sold to individuals today.

 

[Tony in SD]

Not sure of your age, physical ability or how much time you have for this project but if it were me, id spend the money on renting an escalator. In my experience, your 35 HP with forks will not be very efficient. What I have done in the past was to rent equipment that i needed for less than a day and hire out to the same task for someone else in your same position. I was happy to break even on deals like that.

 

[Keith True]

Merrimac Farmers Exchange used to sell what the farmers here called ditchin dynamite.Used to loosen up dirt and rock to make ditching and leveling easier.I know that in 1980 you could just walk into the Merrimac farmers stores and buy it.An airline pilot retired,moved here,bought a piece of land and tractors to play on it.He read up on how to remove stumps,and that dynamite looked to be the best way for him.I went there to service the new tractor he's bought from us and saw a strange thing.There was a couple acres of stumps,standing up on spider legs.He was just blowing the dirt out from under them.He thought he was doing sometning wrong,but a blaster that looked at the place told him he wasn't.Turns out he had a very soft,loose sand,with a water table down a long ways.Those roots would travel down a long way looking for water.The loose sand would give way much easier than those roots reaching down for a dozen feet.It wasn't a waste though,with the sand blown out he could just jump in and cut the roots with a saw.

 

[Blackhole49]

I had a bunch of willow trees around my pond and they kept getting thicker and thicker. Got out my chain saw and cut them off leaving a stump of about 10" long. I guess that was 5 or so years ago. Yesterday I decided to test one for removal. Got out my 65 HP tractor with loader bucket and set the bucket on the ground adjacent to the stump. Put force on the stump and it just crumbled. So much for that. Harder wood would surely take longer.

They make stump grinders that chew away at the stump a little at a time from the top down....use back and forth motion moving the cutter teeth back and forth across the top of the stump as it chews away at the wood, hand operated like a hand operated garden tiller sort of machine. DR manufacturer, to name one, sells one, or you could probably rent one.
Roots are a big problem in attempting to remove stumps......course if you had a D9 Cat. Dozer, it would be a piece of cake.

They must have a different type of willow in TX. Around me that would never work. The willows we have, you can cut a limb off a tree and stick it in the ground and it will grow as long as it gets water.

 

[Richard Nixon]

With the brutal snow storm this past weekend in Delaware, most everyone had trees going over, particularly the Leland Cypress variety. After cutting off the trees I still have the partially buried stumps in the ground. Short of renting an excavator, what's the best way to get them out? I have a 35 hp tractor with front end loader and forks.

On the 9th of Feb Absent Minded Farmer posted a video of himself taking out a stump with a trencher. Worked pretty good.

 

[Texasmark]

They must have a different type of willow in TX. Around me that would never work. The willows we have, you can cut a limb off a tree and stick it in the ground and it will grow as long as it gets water.

Well I did put "stump killer" on the stumps after I cut the trees down......surely that did the trick and I was happy that the product advertising was accurate. I agree on willows easy growth....as long as they have an ample water supply.....that was the main problem with all the trees around my pond.....they were sucking it dry in the summer.

 

[trackrat]

I had a bunch of willow trees around my pond and they kept getting thicker and thicker. Got out my chain saw and cut them off leaving a stump of about 10" long. I guess that was 5 or so years ago. Yesterday I decided to test one for removal. Got out my 65 HP tractor with loader bucket and set the bucket on the ground adjacent to the stump. Put force on the stump and it just crumbled. So much for that. Harder wood would surely take longer.

They make stump grinders that chew away at the stump a little at a time from the top down....use back and forth motion moving the cutter teeth back and forth across the top of the stump as it chews away at the wood, hand operated like a hand operated garden tiller sort of machine. DR manufacturer, to name one, sells one, or you could probably rent one.
Roots are a big problem in attempting to remove stumps......course if you had a D9 Cat. Dozer, it would be a piece of cake.

If the tree isn't too big, then you dig it out

 

[rustred]

With the brutal snow storm this past weekend in Delaware, most everyone had trees going over, particularly the Leland Cypress variety. After cutting off the trees I still have the partially buried stumps in the ground. Short of renting an excavator, what's the best way to get them out? I have a 35 hp tractor with front end loader and forks.

You would need a super WD9 , a grubhoe and an axe. But you’re screwed now if you didn’t leave 3or 4 ft of stump out of the ground. You need leverage , now you need a backhoe.

 

[Texasmark]

If the tree isn't too big, then you dig it out

Well it was, trunk over a foot in diameter and it was on the pond side of a pond bank (about a 30* slope toward the water) and the pond had water up within a foot of the trunk this week.