How high from the ground is the stump?

FWIW -- I've gotten rid of almost ground-level stumps through my own "mad scientist" method. [1] Cover stump with bag[s] of fertilizer. [2]Cover with black plastic [3] Heap soil over the covered stump and surrounding area. [4] Plant a vine or other plant to cover the stump.

As I recall, it took about 2 years for the stump to rot away and become compost. I planted honeysuckle ... which grew like mad and became a whole 'nother problem. But when I dug out the honeysuckle, the tree stump had melted away to almost nothing. [few larger pieces, which broke away very easily, ditto for the root]

Can you have them ground? We've had stumps ground only a few feet from our fence line and it didn't do any damage to the surrounding area at all. The grinder the guy used was small enough to fit through our 36" wide gate also. Granted, giant eucalyptus might have been more than his machine could handle, but I can't imagine that his process would be inhibited by being close to a structure.

The stump-killing chemical only needs to be applied to the stump itself, but it should be applied immediately after the stump is cut so that it is absorbed by the tree. Eucs take quite a long time to rot. If you can drill some large diameter holes in the top and add bloodmeal or ammonium nitrate or some other high-n fertilizer and then cover, that will help break them down a little faster. I have a couple of Eucs we cut down 10 years ago and they are still trying to come back. No way we can get a stump grinder to the area.

Thank you for your responses! Great ideas!

Couldn't get a stump-grinder in to grind the stumps because one stump was inbetween two air conditioners and the space was too small for the machine to do its thing without damaging the air conditioners (they could barely get in there to cut the tree down--it was a dumb place to plant a tree...), and the other was adjacent to a tiny 2-foot walkway next to the house that wasn't big enough for the grinder to even fit onto. The stumps extend only about 2-4 inches above the ground.

Again, thank you for your great responses! Much appreciated!

If you get suckers growing, you can girdle them instead of cutting them off. That sometimes helps to kill a recalcitrant stump, but it takes a long time.
Renee

Potassium nitrate stump killer is not a poison. I don't think it's toxic. You drill holes in the stump and apply. You can look it up online. Then you water the stump a lot until it breaks down, but this will take years. It's a long term project.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to kill a stump with Potassium nitrate

If you don't want anything to grow there affterward and the space is contained, you could consider salting it so heavily it makes the soil toxic. Some prefer rock salt or epsom salts, make sure the runoff won't harm other plants.

Chicken poop is also high nitrogen, and non-toxic

FYI - our Euc that we cut back to inches above ground last spring is over 20' tall now. I did not want it dead, just had to be taken down due to height & damaged limbs.

Now I chop & drop tons of biomass from the suckers, but I let a few go that I will coppice for wood when they reach 6-inch diameter.

Anyway, I think most of the above methods are viable. I wouldn't salt my land. And I don't think epsom salt will kill most plants, except in massive quantities. It is used as a fertilizer for many plants.

Innoculating the whole thing with compost tea and fungi would help the whole process along. I'd use compost, urine or manure, covered by a pile of wood chips, lots of water and covered with a tarp.

I have an elm stump to kill. Would painting it black kill it?

My elm has been a stump about 2 1/2 years. I covered it with plastic, and loaded woodchips on top.

After about a year, I removed the black plastic. Since then, a lot of the neighboring groundcover myoporum grew over it. This summer an elm sprout emerged, so I recovered it with a lot more woodchips.

After the resprout and the dry summer, the myoporum started to look really bad, it just couldn't compete with the other( close by & alive ) elm tree's roots. So I added even more wood chips and some horse manure, in a similar mad scientist, or just experimental fashion, as mentioned by border barb.

Now I planted succulents on top of it and added some rocks to make it look like a more naturalistic raised bed.

Just make a clean cut and paint the cut end with glyphosate. It is less toxic than vinegar. It is definitely better than dumping a bunch of salt on it. You will probably only have to do it once. You won't have to struggle with piling woodchips or anything else. Just kill the stump and get it over with. Then drill some holes and load it up like Hoovb suggested.

Until it's totally gone, you could make something decorative out of it.

Otherwise, the other ideas, including drilling holes and filling it with something, work well. I have also heard that some people will burn their tree stumps (pile up dry wood next to it and keep control of the flames as it is burning, kind of like a bonfire, depending on how big your stump is). It's not dry or dead yet but get enough heat and it will still burn. Afterwards, you have a little bit less of tree stump to deal with, at least, while it may still take time to totally disappear from the ground view. And of course, you could burn it again to keep working it down.

If you live in an area where it's legal to burn on the ground, drill several holes as deep into the stump as practical. Fill them with saltpeter, then pour diesel fuel or kerosene in to soak the salt peter well. Cover and wait 60-90 days. Uncover and start a small campfire on the stump. The partially decomposed wood/saltpeter/diesel combination will supply it's own oxygen as it burns the stump down into it's roots.

Just cover with plastic. No light,no live.

@nil13

Roundup is less toxic than vinegar? Maybe in terms of how much you have to drink to die, it is less toxic than acetic acid. But in terms of toxicity in small doses, unknown toxicity of "inert" ingredients, etc, I think it is much more dangerous.

I think I will use the compost method described above to deal with the Bradford pears I have to take out.

Roundup inert ingredient toxicity:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/weed-whacking-herbicide-p/