That compost may well negate the need to add any Nitrogen. I would wait a year before planting anything in those areas.

You don't need to remove anything. If the stumps have been ground up sufficiently so that no large pieces of root are visible, work the chips well in to the remaining soil, add compost to fill and then plant. No need to add any additional nitrogen and no need to wait for a year before planting. You might want to wait a couple of weeks after adding the compost to allow it to settle, then top it off again.

I hope this is related enough for this thread.
We had a few trees cut down as well last year. We had to move the grindings to a temporary location until this year. We put a tarp over the pile (mixed soil and grindings) for the winter to keep weeds from growing in it. When I uncovered the tarp the other day there is now a white substance all over the top of the pile. I was hoping to spread the pile out, mix it into the soil in that new location. Does the white material mean mold? Can I still use the pile? It seemed like a good idea at the time to throw the tarp over it, but now I wonder.

Yes, you can use the pile. The white substance you see is just evidence of naturally occurring (and desired) fungal acitivity going about the business of breaking down the stump grindings.

Thank you gardengal48! Now I can't wait to get my hands dirty!

beatrice, it's an interesting observation that stump grindings, mixed with the soil from the tree stump area, I assume, covered with a light-blocking tarp, causes the fungi to bloom. Another example of why it's important to keep soil covered with some sort of covering; mulch, straw, burlap, something.

I had a stump ground out last year and then I mixed the grindings up with good soil and planted a large rhodie in it. Mulched the top with wood chips but this spring the rhodie is very yellow. I didn't use extra nitrogen fertilizer but I think I will have to??

Sounds like it, Dotty. Could also be some iron chlorosis if the soil is not acidic enough. Try some cottonseed meal and you'll accomplish both tasks at the same time - added nitrogen plus a soil acidifier.

If you had used compost rather than just soil initially, you may have gotten by without any additions needed this season.

Thanks Gardengal, I'll try the cottonseed meal.

This has been helpful, and I'd like to add an additional question. We removed a huge dead maple maybe 10 weeks ago, lots of stump/root grinding. Removed some of the piles of wood chips. Yesterday moved a spirea to the area, adding a few shovels of topsoil, some coffee grounds, and a little worm compost. I think the spirea will do fine. However, I'd like to speed along the wood chips that now make up a huge portion of the top several inches of this area (maybe 5'x8'). If I mix in coffee grounds to the whole area, will that help? I can of course get huge quantities of those for free. Any other ideas? Thanks, all.

Coffee grounds are not the panacea that many people have made them out to be. The caffeine is coffee grounds inhibits root growth. Too much caffeine can completely stop root growth.

Try some other nitrogen source.

Interesting note about coffee grounds. I'd never thought about the caffeine. I'll go slow with this, then.

Caffeine is water soluble (much of the decaf coffee is made by taking advantage of that fact) so used coffee grounds have very little caffeine left in them.

I've used them for many different purposes and the only time I have any problem with them is if I put too many in one spot. If they're more than 1/2 inch thick or so, they can cake up when they dry (and they're guaranteed to dry here) and repel water.

BPGreen - just to clarify - caffeine is an organic molecule and not water soluble - we make it soluble but putting it in sodium benzoate or by carbonating the water water. Caffeine is extracted from coffee using organic solvents.

Last year I had to take down a mature red cedar and a pecan tree. I'd like to get the stumps ground and replant a crepe myrtle along with a red maple. If I grind out most of the big roots from the planting zone and replace the sawdust with a mix of compost and soil, how soon can I replant? I'm asking because I assume the pecan (and maybe the red cedar) are alleopathic(?).

sure hope someone answers you Allen456,
I need to get a cherry stump ground and wonder how soon I can replant another type of tree and what to consider in doing so.