"I've seen on a few sites that this is possible [Removing a Tree Stump with HIgh-Nitrogen Fertilizer.]

Your question is a little unclear... are you trying to kill the trees with with an overdose of N? That's possible, but not practical as it would require a whole lot of N and (inadvertently) killing many things in the vicinity of the tree. (How you think that's better than a small amount of biodegradable Roundup is highly questionable.) If the trees are already dead and you seek information about only how to decompose the stump with N, then maybe you should scour the sources who claim it's possible for the directions on how to do it. I don't personally believe it is possible or it would by now be common knowledge. Maybe it's possible to use N in a certain way to shorten the stump decomposition time from 10 years to 8 years, (though I doubt that, too) ... but what great gain is that?

Why don't you explain why you want to decompose stumps rapidly in the context of your objectives? Maybe there's a better way to approach your goal.

Thank you Yardvaark. I want to kill the tree and remove the stump. However, we want to get it done as soon as possible, both killing the stump to make sure the tree doesn't return, and removing the stump.

All of the options that I mentioned earlier, including the Roundup, are options that we cannot do for whatever reasons - they vary according to the option. Cow manure seemed the safest option.

If there are any options such as the use of the cow manure/fertilizer that are available, or even options outside of the options that I mentioned in my original post, I'd be open to suggestions.

I've even been told that garlic cloves inserted into the tree will work, but I am having trouble finding more information on it. Thanks in advance for any suggestions you can provide.

I should've provided the link as well, to the nitrogen stump removal posting I read that sparked my initial question:

Here is a link that might be useful: Removing Tree Stumps with High-Nitrogen Fertilizer

Kendra, the method I've used is to drill a bunch of holes in the stump. I use a 3/4 or 1" spade bit. Then I drizzle a high nitrogen fertilizer in the holes, moisten it, then cover with soil - although using some composted manure would be better, I think. You'll get results, but they won't be quick ones. Think it depends a lot on whether these are hard or soft woods. Currently hoping for results on a holly.

If this is fairly close to the ground, after doing this just throw mulch/wood chips to cover it. Good luck. And glad you don't want to resort to some of the toxic remedies available.

Thanks Rosie, is this your first time using this method? Have you seen results thus far?

I'm wondering if it will take years to break down? Months even? Someone mentioned that cow manure might not be high enough in nitrogen and that poultry manure might be better. Is it safe to plant food crops in the ground after this method?

What kind of a tree and what's the situation/setting?

The resprouting issue varies a bit with species, and whether you are able to stay on top of it (as in, is this your yard or a vacation property where you are rarely there?) matters.

Are you having the tree cut down or are you trying to kill it standing?? There is just enough yet not enough information to be sure of not giving bad advice.

Karin L

My sneaking suspicion is that this is one of those questions that is assuming some rather fundamental violation of a law of nature. Where things just don't work the way the OP assumes.

For example, it may take several decades for a typical tree stump to decay, depending on the type of wood, the climate, and other variables. Decreasing that time from 20 to 10 years is speeding it up considerably - but it is still going to take a long time. If the tree isn't even dead yet, then it will have to be killed off before this process even starts. How you would begin to kill off a tree using nothing but fertilizer is beyond my comprehension. The closest I can get is essentially a salt overdose. That's not cow manure, but straight urea, and even then I'd be skeptical about killing a reasonably mature tree.

In other words - Reality Bites.

Mad's right regarding certain realities. To be philosophically one with nature is a good thing - but nature does things on nature's schedule.

If one must do something (short of cutting the tree down as close to the ground as humanly possible drilling the leftovers full of holes and piling stuff on top) there is always the copper penny approach... make sure the pennies are dated before 1982. :-)

Years, Kendra. Lots and lots of years.

This post has a mysterious tone to it, as though you want to be sneaky about killing the tree. Is this tree on your property, or your neighbor's? (just being mischievous)

Food crops should be fine. Only prob I see is interference from remaining root system of the tree.
If you want to stay organic, use Milorganite. Keeping the drilled then filled stump damp will accelerate the rotting, but it isn't a quick process.

Uncovered part of my holly stump, see nothing happening yet. Did it about a month ago. Hoping that after a year it will be soft enough to rogue out with a mattock to below ground level.

HTH, Rosie

Thank you Rosie, I read elsewhere too that the fertilizer method could take as much as five years. I would love to simply grind it down (though this costs a lot of money that I cannot afford) and simply plant next to it, but the roots are obstructing in the space next to the tree.

When they grind down a tree, is it true that typically grind it down a foot below ground?

I tried a drill and decay solution on a stump at my property because it was directly over a gas line (forget what tyoe of tree, but most likely a holly). After two years of ZERO change I got tired of looking at it and very carefully dug it out by hand.

It's accepted that best practice for grinding a stump is to go down a minimum of 12". The reality is that you should probably specify that's what you're after.

I'm not sure in what world cow manure is considered a "high nitrogen" fertilizer. Put simply, any fertilizer derived from a living source is going to carry a relatively low nutrient load (including nitrogen) compared to a chemical based fertilizer. Cow manure is somehwere in the .25-1.0% nitrogen range. Of the animal-based manures, cow manure is the lowest nitrogen source.

A high nitrogen fertilizer would be something like ammonium nitrate or urea (25-45%). One drills down into the stump and then compacts the fertilizer into the holes. Both the stump and the fertilizer should be kept moist to speed decomposition but as others have indicated, this is not a rapid process. Depending on the type and size of the stump, 3-5 years, perhaps more.

Manual removal is possible but requires some physical effort - and the lower/smaller the stump the better.

FWIW, there are a lot of old wives' tales out there about dealing with trees and their removal. High nitrogen fertilizer will not kill a tree (although it could certainly shock it). Neither will a copper penny or driving a nail into one. Neither will spraying the tree with RoundUp or similar herbicide although again, that could do some foliar damage for sure. Your best plan for tree removal is with a saw.

I'm with Kim. I have heard of many money saving schemes but piling cow s hit on a tree to kill it sounds a bit strange. I think there is a strong possibility that this is someone else's tree that has an accidental death planned for it.

I don't understand "the roots are obstructing in the space next to the tree." I would love to see a photo of that - can you post one? Grinding the stump is not expensive relative to the cutting down.

We just dug around where a willow stump was left at least 20 years ago, before we bought the house. The stump was still evident underground though it has disappeared up above.

Karin L

1 - Cut down tree, leaving as little as possible above ground

2 - Use a spade bit (wood bit) and drill a lot of holes in the stump, as deep as possible. Space them from center to edge, a 4-6 inches apart.

3 - Fill the holes with any high-nitrogen fertilizer. Ammonium nitrate is readily available.

4 - Fill the holes with water to dissolve the fertilizer.

5 - repeat steps 3 and 4 every few months until the wood is "punky" and can be hacked out of the hole.

This will take a few months to a few years, depending on the size and type of tree.

========
I prefer dynamite.

Might the answer depend on where KS lives? And if the answer is out in rural areas, how close are the neighbors? And are there male members in her household?

What is high in nitrogen, free, mild, and fairly harmless (but is yucky to many)?

See where I'm going with this.

But even if you live in a populated area, how trainable is your dog?

robert, what a brilliant idea, training dog to help with tree stump removal! I've known many dogs trained to use only one area to do their business, but never quite so specific.

Use urine here all the time. As soon as I can get the twelve wheat straw bales up to where I want to use them to help my piss poor soil, will liberally apply to hasten decomp.

Rosie

What a relief that this has been resolved finally!

How about cutting the tree down, killing the stump by whatever methods, then setting it on fire and burning it and the roots away?

Well done, sagitarrius - very well done.

Rosie

Do you ever wonder how some one found a 2 year old post and decided to "answer" the questions?

in this setting.. they are NOT talking about bagged compost.. aka manure ... this composted product is useless for this job ....

they are talking about what is freshly scooped out of the barn which is high in urea [which is the old fashioned basis of high nitro fert . the NATURAL version... rather then the chem version] .... it comes out of a different part of the animal ... lol ... it is the raw product ...

and by the time you get it delivered ... cost might be prohibitive ...

in the alternative.... a high N fert would be 49-0-0 .... sold in places like tractor supply.. or any high end nursery ...

but even that.. the key to rotting wood.. is water ... the nitro is barely relevant ... if you cant keep the wood wet ...

in my sand.... it can take a decade... for a stump to rot naturally ... on 5 acres... i have no hurry on removal ... but have added the nitro to huge wood chips piles.. to speed decomposition ...

the problem with my sand.. is that it is bone dry for about half of the year.. when it isnt frozen solid in MI ... in other words.. my rotting season is short ...

i kill ALL my stumps with generic RU ... but you dont want to hear about that ...

i think it is speculative to try to kill a tree with the nitro .. not saying it cant be done... but i dont know how it can be accomplished ... many suggest a trees root system is twice as large as what you see above ... and if thats the case ... one might ask ... where is the best place to apply such ... and what you will end up doing to the soil if in fact you do kill the tree ... it MIGHT end up.. a scorched earth ... think romans and carthage ... [boy thats obscure.. lol]

all that said.. we also dont know what tree ... if its a suckering tree ... juicing it with fert.. might only result in you ending up with hundreds of them... all over the place ...

your base problem.. is not that you want to save money ... in my reading.. the issue is you want it done FAST .. and wood simply.. does NOT ... rot fast ... no matter what you do ... to speed wood rotting.. you chip it into the smallest possible format... thereby increasing surface area ... and you dont want to do that ...

many answers here are extremely optimistic .... IMHO .... again.. in my sand.. i would say... 7 to 15 years ... at least ... and the harder the wood.. the longer it takes ...

i have no idea.. why you posted this in a design forum .... you might want to try other forums ....

good luck

"Do you ever wonder how some one found a 2 year old post and decided to "answer" the questions?"

Naah. Happens all the time! Can I tell you about my tree stump now? Pleeeeeease?

This post was edited by grubby_me on Tue, Dec 2, 14 at 12:54

I don't know about the fertilizer method but should work. A stump grinder really takes a year or years out of the project.
We put stone from Lowes etcc around a couple of stumps and filled with good potting soil and grew tomatoes and peppers and flowers.
One hickory stump, at our old home ,was gone in four years but the Folks kept the planter going. Required a little watering but the rich soil and plants worked.

Hmmmph...I have had this same problem sortta. I cut down a lot of trees in my yard and not having a stump grinder I was forced to leave about 12" above ground so I don't hit with my lawn mower (again). I heard gas kills so I poured gas on one stump and tried to burn. well obviously it was not good enough because it did not burn down into the ground and later it sprouted leaves and is trying to grow again, like the gas actually fertilized it. Then there is the fertilizer. I had chickens so I scooped up a bunch of poop out of the coop and poured on another stump and that happened? I had baby trees growing all over the yard. WHAT? There is just no substitute for grinding the stumps. I had a tree cut down that was hollowed out and over 40 high, fearing it would fall on my house. I left it about 8' high thinking I would have someone carve something out if it. like a totem pole or something. Did not even get a chance to do anything because to look at it now it looks like afull fledged tree. Some trees are just evil!! If you love it, it will fall down if you hate it, you can't get rid of it LOL

Hi I have many tree stumps in my yard and have tried multiple methods, However my first idea seems to be the best. 5-6 years ago we had multiple trees cut down to ground level. I noticed a tree in the forest behind my house, a branch from this tree fell it was rotted and had this white fungus like growth on it. It was soft and almost totally gone. I thought if I could infect the stumps with this tree fungus it would rot away the stumps. Well I took a piece of the fallen branch and placed it over each stump. All the stumps I did this to are gone or almost gone. Simple, Cheap and it works. Have a great day

Will try Courtney Jean's idea. Have some hardwood stumps that are persisting. Thanks.

I kill trees often. Hot weather scrape the soil from arond the roots. Drill hole into the root or into the tree but not through the root or tree at an angle so liquid can not run out. Glysophate only stops the tree from taking water in . The tree dies from lack of water very quickly. Mix glysophate with 50% water. Tree will probably die in a few days. Suggest you research properly the properties of glysophate and find out what it does. Its not poisenous but a little goes a long way. I buy 60% glysophate in 20ltr containers and generally mix in a watering can so there is no overspray. Done properly it works well with little risk to you. But do your own research.

My Dad used to kill stumps with high nitrogen fertilizer poured into holes drilled in the stump. It is slow though, takes a year or so. It does work, I have seen it done. I think people just forgot that you can do this. Cow manure would probably not be a high enough nitrogen source.

For other suggestions, see https://www.thespruce.com/removing-tree-stumps-without-stump-grinders-2131136.