Burning a tree stump

Re: Burning a tree stump

Buck

Put out your/the fire. Pour a gallon of diesel fuel on it, will take

couple days for it to soak in wood and not the dirt. Midnight

throw old tire on around it, set it afire, go to bed. Don't

answer U're phone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: Burning a tree stump

Hank Knight

Dynamite should do it.

If possible...

David Weaver

...something around it (like an old tub, etc) with two holes and something forcing air into the whole thing (exhaust from a vacuum or a leaf blower on low speed).

Contain the heat and force air through. It'll probably blow much of the ash out or around and continue the burn better than just putting heat on top of the stump or around it.

A lot harder to do if there isn't something around the stump to contain the heat. Thought 2 if it's possible and 1 isn't is to bore out the center with a chainsaw and bore a hole through a side to turn the stump itself into the heat containment unit and burn it from the center out.

Re: Burning a tree stump

Tom Dunlap

Call around to get a price on having the stump ground out. You can have the top skinned off so that you can grow grass. Let the stumper know that you don't need a deep grind and that you'll do the cleanup. Stump grinding is about the cheapest part of tree removal.

Cut off as much wood as possible with a chainsaw. You might be able to aim the tip down into the center of the stump to make a basin.

Use your oldest and largest spade bits and 'Swiss Cheese' as much of the remaining wood as possible. Drill as deep as possible. The ore you drill the less you have to burn.

Scab together a box or plenum to cover the stump. Use a shop vac with metal piping to blow air into the plenum.

Run your hose near the stump and leave it on. there is the possibility that you create a 'China Syndrome' and have an out of control underground fire.

Re: Burning a tree stump

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

The time to ask these questions is before.

Once charred the wood will never rot. Before charring the requirement for rapid rot is to keep the wood wet. Cover to keep wet but not exclude oxygen that the fungus needs to live.

On the other hand, to burn, the wood must be dry. Most places wood is not dry in May. Some/most of the heat you are generating from burning the stump is being sucked up to dry the wood. The solution, if practical in your case, is more fuel/hotter fire.

Re: Burning a tree stump

Tom Dunlap

What Bill T said...and...

If it took two days to burn out 25% you might be done by the weekend. Not a long time

If the tree was in the white oak family the wood is very decay resistant. You're likely to have a solid stump even after ten years.

This might be an opportunity to burn up some of the cutoff wood from the shop. Make a sheet metal container of some kind and toss in a generous load of scraps. /Cut up some old corrugated roofing and screw the pieces together to make a circle.

The shop vac blower will accelerate the fire a LOT

Have a hose handy too.

Re: Burning a tree stump

Barry Irby

I had a red oak taken down in my front yard. About four feet on the stump and rotting in the center. Looked at about twenty YouTube videos on burning stumps. Most of them talked about surrounding the stump the way Tom D suggested. Most of them put way too much time (days) into the effort and this stump is too close to my house to set on fire and leave unattended.

So, I drilled about fifty holes in it and stuffed some of the rotting material in them. My first thought was to connect the horizontal and vertical holes (some did) and make them into "rocket stoves", but gave up on that idea and buried it in grass clippings and some nitrogen rich fertilizer. Surrounded it with silt fence to keep it contained. Mother nature keeps it wet. Now the waiting begins. Actually, I mostly ignore it. Composting it.

Half done

Mike L

well I though about the diesel and figured with the cost of it that was out. Dynamite did cross my mind but my wife said no!!!!

This stump had a small hole in it when I started. I used it as a place to get good hot ash and coal in to get the fire low inside it.

I have been buying small branch cut offs in it for the three days now. One Sid his gone and the hole is about 10 inches deep and half the stump around.

I took some of the advice and would use the branch cut offs to contain the heat low into the stump. I was already using a leaf blower on low to get the heat up which is what got the sides.

I will continue to bur it off today. It is to close to the house to build a bigger fire so the low and slow way is to go for me.

Thanks

Mike

Don't stop

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

At this point you have begun to dry the wood, the essential first step in burning it. Also you have charred some of the wood and this char could become a protective layer that will retard decay should you leave what is left.

Re: Don't stop

Mike L

I won't stop for the next two days. On Saturday I have an excavator on hold to do a French drain while I have it here I will dig out the what ever is left over.

It was about 40 inches across and about 6 to 10 inches out of the ground. I put some kindling on it this morning and it start right back up so I know it is staying hot over night.

Thanks

Digging

John K Jordan

>>>On Saturday I have an excavator on hold to do a French drain while I have it here I will dig out the what ever is left over.

The excavator is a great solution, in my opinion. I dug out a LOT of stumps with the small backhoe on my tractor before I bought an excavator. Now it's so much easier - I took out at least 20 stumps in the last few months.

Several things I'm sure you've already considered, but just in case:

- In the unlikely case of any underground utilities in your yard you are not aware of you may be responsible for thousands of dollars for repairs if damaged. In many (or most) states there is a free utility locator service that is required before digging. They will mark any utilities but in TN they require about three days notice. I once needed to remove two huge stumps on my property near the road. I found that a gas line was so close to one tree that just pulling up the roots could have damaged the line. (A broken gas line could be exciting!) I dug down a couple of feet from the marked line by hand and severed the large roots with an axe before digging up and pulling out the stump. There is a 7200 volt underground line 500' up through my property to my transformer - imagine hitting THAT!

- In your case the roots may be somewhat decomposed after 10 years and might easily break off near the stump. If not, it might take a BIG hole to remove the stump. Some trees have large, long roots. To remove a 30" pine I had to dig a hole over 6' wide and 4' deep (and pines typically have shallow roots.) When clearing for my shop a stump from a 24" hackberry tree was so big I couldn't lift or drag it with anything I had - I ended up rolling it with the skid steer to a spot in the woods where it rotted away after 15 years or so. I had to dig a hole maybe 12' across to get out a much smaller hackberry.

- Related to that, you may have a big, heavy stump to dispose of in addition to finding enough dirt to fill in the hole, assuming you want the spot level with the rest of the yard. If the dirt is not properly compacted it might settle over time.

With luck, the burning you are doing now may make this a simple task!

JKJ

Power and gas lines

Mike L

My power and gas lines along with water lines are no place near this stump. I had the gas put in last year so I know exactly where that is. Power line is underground near the area of the French drain so I will be careful there.

The water line is about 12 feet away so I am good there.

I will continue to burn it until I get the excavator here. If it looks like the burning is taken it below the ground level I will leave it at that.

I have a lot of landscaping to do and in turn need to get a lot of top soil and get rid of fill dirt. So if it is a big hole then the fill dirt has a place to go.

Thanks. Nice toys

Why dig?

Tom Dunlap

Digging out stumps is a lot of work from start to finish. If your goal is to smooth out your yard all you need to do is get the stump and roots about 3" below grade. If you don't mine a little texture leave a mound and toss in some grass seed.

Leave all the rest of the stump in the ground to decay and become new soil.

If there are some lateral roots that might be a hump burn them out individually. It sounds like you're gaining with fire.

Re: Why dig?

Mike L

I am filling the area with top soil so I was only planing on digging anything that didn't get burned out.

I was even going to leave the ashes and just cover them if they are cold. If not then water them down and cover them.

It is going slower now I am in the main part of the stump but I am not giving up on it.

Re: Burning a tree stump

al morgan

How about a firepit ring around the stump with charcol in the ring...keep on feeding the charcoal? Remove ash (usefull in garden).

Re: Burning a tree stump

AZ in Colorado Springs

40 (!) years ago my brother's friend had a stump to burn out. Was only 12" - 15" in diameter if I remember correctly. It was in the middle of the back yard, not real close to the house. He cleared a ring about 12" wide around the stump and built a fire on top of it. Burned 15 or 20 used pallets that night. Stump ... gone.