I felt the same way, I removed a large stump not long ago and I used a chain saw to cut the tree down and chop the limbs up, I used a shovel and dug around it, going down about 4 feet. Used an axe to chop fire wood sized pieces off of it. Used a pick axe to chop through or clear dirt from around the roots and an 8 foot pry bar to pry parts of wood from the stump and also on breaking the roots apart. took me about 2 months, but I did not work on it everyday, still was a lot of work and sore muscles. I still have 7 to go.
@@johnbausch7557 👍lol 😂 it’s your choice; his choice. And someone else would choose from either one or come up with choice # 3- get someone with a machine dig up the stump. It takes them hours, or less, depending on the size of the tree 🌳 Lol 😂 Life is full of choices. And us, humans are creative.
Thank you Dan and Alice! I like the idea of using the auger in order to go deeper as we have large stumps. Enjoy your garden we are right behind you! Living the dream ✨️ 💝🙏🏼
I’m amazed at how many ways you might approach problems. I’m equally amazed at the critiques below that seem to have found THE one and only way. I love the gentle approach of this fine video as two fine people share THEIR way. Thanks for sharing.
I like how you call them volunteer trees, you can harvest a lot of seedlings and branches for mulch and compost. - I would let a part of the stump stand, cut into it to create some openings, and water it and plant mushrooms. Likely it would need some larger plants nearby to create shade. A little nitrogen rich compost around to compensate for the decomposing wood.
@@_.cutiexpie._252 I was merely stating the obvious, and apparently I'm not alone in my opinion. Funnier still, is you're attempting to condone me, for doing the EXACT same thing you did posting your own comment. Logic is pretty amazing, ain't it? Play again?
Holy crap you cut the tree down and buried stump RU-vid is getting pretty stupid drill three or four or four holes that are filled with gas and burn it
@@kctyphoon “and apparently I’m not alone in that opinion” nah you just ain’t the only person mad at they life 😂💀. Foh don’t let your ego get to high bud lmfao. And yah I can “condone” you all I want lmfao it’s what you were doing in the first place for NO REASON. Over a god damn tree bud 😂. Grow up
Not trying to take away from a good video but consider this. USE the trunk for leverage! While you have anywhere from 4 to 15 feet of trunk, clean away the roots with a shovel. Tie a rope high as possible on the trunk and with that leverage pull where you want the trunk to fall. Pull on the rope with an anchored come-along, winch, truck hard point or just have someone pull the rope. While the roots on the opposite side of the trunk are being pilled, cutting with axe or chainsaw is much easier. As you cut through roots it will get easier on subsequent roots. You might try different angles pulling the rope to get to other roots. Eventually the roots break pretty easy, again because of the leverage.
Leave the tree tall for leverage. Hook a comealong or electric winch to the base of another tree or other anchor. Keep tension whilst you cut and/or pry the roots.
Another method that worked great for me was build a charcoal briquet fire in top of the stump. Once the stump catches fire it will burn the roots clear down into the soil.
Not always an option but yes it works to burn it out. I have often covered it with dirt and mulch above the ground. 6 months later the stump is rotten and removes easily.
@@patchofparadise2930 our fire dept said steep fines for that because the fire can move underground, but before he said that I was going to do it that way
@@acts10truth Our privet roots go way under our house and next door's house - it occurred to me also that I could be responsible for burning down both houses - I hope the epsom salts kill off the stump. I'm going to give that a go.
Anyone looking to deal with a stump check the wood type for the right fungi to inoculate it with and you can turn the stump into a mushroom garden as the fungi breaks down the wood.
My oak stump looks amazing with the conk fungus growing on it. You can also fabricate a wire basket using chicken wire, ect. , staple/ nail it to the flat top, put moss or landscape fabric in it, fill with soil, and walla! Lol
This was one cool video. I used my skill saw. Took a hammer and chisel and got it removed clear down below the surface. I re cut the remains and did like you showed in the video. Covered it with Epsom salt and limestone as it was in a landscaping area. Can't even tell there was a stump now. Years from now, the stump will be rotted away.
Thank you for the tip. I’ve had a tree cut to the ground, but I wasn’t able to use the space as the guy who cut the tree didn’t want to dess as l with the stump, so, thank you so much.
Try using a reciprocating saw to cut off the tap root (after you've dug around the base). Reciprocating saws work in soil just fine. Then you can often just dig out the stump with a pick axe.
I recently added a reciprocating saw to supplement my land clearing tools. It has been of far more use than anything else. Blades last quite a while, but when they dull I can simply pop another in the tool in a matter of seconds for a couple of bucks of expense.
This isn't a trick but this is how my Swedish grandfather split granite: wait till winter or till temperatures are under 0°Celsius. Drill a dozen holes or more about 2-3 cm wide, as deep as you can, ideally not less than 15cm but the deeper the better. Fill with water and then the water will freeze and split the stump just like the frozen water popped off slices of the drilled granite. When the thaw comes pluck out what you can; then wait till spring by which time several thaws and repeated freezes will have so shattered the stump it won't be hard to remove the rest. 😀 Obviously only works in climate zones with freezing temperatures... 🙄 Cheers!
@@wayfarer1101 when water freezes it expands. Granite has no give and that’s why it breaks. Wood does have give and doesn’t that’s why trees aren’t split all to hell every winter
It isn't just buried...the Epsom Salts is not only good for making you shit your arse off...the Sulphates (Sulfates to Yanks) break down the Cellulose in the green wood and they eventually become organics. The Magnesium will help fertilise the soil. The alternative is to break your back when levering the stump out after roots are dug up and cut off.
I dont bother with Epson salts ,the cuts help let the "Slaters"(Australia) ( Woodlice ,Ciggypiggs, Pill bugs, Woodbugs ) eat it away, We had a trivet tree in my moms back yard, only good for shade and climing,
For those large side roots you can use a tree axe to cut through them and if you do that before cutting the tree, sometimes with a tree that size, the upper weight of the tree will pull it over and the stump out of the ground.
I might suggest using a 15" dia (38 cm) diameter auger bit, go down 3 ft (1m), fill hole with Epsom Salt, cover with AstroTurf(r) and a large concrete monument.
One of the best saws for cutting roots or below the soil level is a SAWZALL... The blades are tough enough, and really not dulled by dirt as easily . Try that next time you remove a tree.
How long does it take for that stump to disappear with the Epsom Salt on it?? Thank you for showing this video. I just took down an evergreen bush and there's a good sized root left so I will cut that down close to the ground and buy some Epsom Salt. Gods blessings to you.
Great idea! I watched the Epsom salt series first though so I had the understanding of how it works... I think a lot of the commenters here might have missed that.
HOW COOL IS THAT!! That’s what I love about RU-vid! You learn great tricks for everyday problems and cool stuff like nourishing your soil when you thought you were going to get stuck with a stump that might outlive your kids! Thank you for this great trick to turn a problem into compost!
I have always loved your channel what the two of you have created has been an inspiration for many people. I have a small channel just really getting started and so far you and I have made similar videos that are similar subjects but just a little different take on them. Maybe we are tuned into the same station..😂 Yall keep up the great work!
I use a fire ring around the tree to concentrate the heat and take the branches for the fire. Ring (a culvert works great) should be 6 to 12 inches above the stump. If near your house roast hot dogs or something. I’ve used this method to clear a field for planting grass for more pasture. It will burn the stump 3-6 inches below the surface.
If you drill down into the stump with a big drill them pour some kero into it and keep topping up the kero for a bit as it burns, it will actually burn that sucker right up from the inside out.
Privets are used as hedging in some place in New Zealand.I get rid of the big privet tree along my boundary.Birds really love the berries but it stain the roof of my car because the tree overhang my driveway.
I used a pressure washer on a stump. It stripped away the dirt and debarked the stump and roots. Bored it out with drill. Then used a mixture of boric acid and Epsom salt. The salt draws out moisture and the moisture makes the acid work to rot the stump.
Epsom Salts is the old common English name for Magnesium Sulphate and it is the Sulphates that create acidic conditions and break down the Cellulose in wood. Magnesium acts as a fertiliser.
@@drsuperhero So could I. We live in Central Florida and it do be expensive to have a person grind stumps. Would be good to buy one but the price is more than we can afford.
@@arlenebowers326 Have you ever consider burning them out? If you have a decent chainsaw, you can slice into the top similar to this video, and then light a fire on top with sticks. The fire travels down into those slices in the stump, and ends up burning the it from the inside out. Obviously, that method doesn't work if your stumps are close to buildings
Dig out an extra 3 feet all the way around and 3 feet down around that tiny stump, back up your pickup, hook a chain around the bottom and jerk that little stick out of the ground.
You should cover it with plastic so that rain doesn’t wash it away. I did this with a few stumps in my yard. They are still there , but 1 year later, they are no longer giving off shoots and can tell they are decomposing.
Or dirt in the bark or a rock in the tree or an old nail. Plenty of ways to dull a chain. Files are cheap and chains on consumer grade chainsaws are too. Just save old chains for cutting trash.
I just bought a wood carvings wheel for my angle grinder. Was a lot faster than chainsaw and a lot easier. I tried drilling holes using an auger bit and it stuck in the stump, tried backing it out with drill, vise grips and crescent wrench but the thing is still locked in. I decided to just burn the stump with the auger still in it.
Wow why is everyone so mad at this guy, people are so ready to jump on someone at the first thing and he didn't do nothing wrong but try to give his version of how to get rid of a stump lol I guess everybody thought they were gonna see a magic trick
Because he was dangerous with the chainsaw, didn’t use chaps, and used a dull chainsaw along with looking right over the saw when he said he was concerned about kick backs. Maybe this is why?
😂 don’t do this unless you know what you are doing, blunt saws are more dangerous than sharp saws. This saw is very blunt and the video should not be shown.A professional would do that size tree for £20-40 with the stump removed.Better safe than sorry. 🤕😵Bad info sorry
Yo, you have your chain on the saw backwards.. there is no way even a dull chain would cut that slow. Trust me, I've done it once myself! Love the videos!
Wow, looks better than I thought it would. Can't even tell a tree was ever there. I'm having to romove trees (therefore tree stumps) along an old fence line, and there's wire grown into all the trees. Argh. What I'm having to do is cut the trees at a height above the fence line, then dig out each stump with a backhoe attachment that goes on my tractor. A small tree like that, I could totally tear out stump and roots in 5 minutes. But big trees are usually 4 hours per stump! P.S. Where's your wife from? I married a Filipina myself.
What an unsafe idiot , he acknowledged the possibility of kick back and still proceeded and on top of the in most cuts his face was directly over the saw, people like this cause accidents , go back to your basement dan
Thank You I had 2 large trees taken down and I knew to have the Criss cross the stumps with their chainsaw but didn’t know about the Epson salts I pour bleach in it every once in a while and it hasn’t budged it a bit so maybe the Epson salts I was trying to stop the trees from tearing up my foundation and the word is very much alive and I have volunteers coming up everywhere but I’ll try the Epson salts
It worked for you? Im buying some land with eucaliptus, that will be cut off in 8 years, i will use the land after the cut for cattle but its far away from my home, so if epsom salts (or nitarte of potassium) work i would rent to agriculture. A land ready for agriculture is much more valuable here.
The epsom salt MgS04 is a mystery to me but you say it works so I will try. Stumps take a long time to rot because they are mostly carbon. Speed it up with nitrogen and possibly phosphorous fertilizer like ammonium phosphate. The microbes will now have a more complete diet to do their work. You can drill holes in the stumps as well.
Since they repeatedly let "volunteer plants," a term he even used in this very video telling us that's what the tree they are removing was and also actively promote letting things that establish themselves to grow. I don't really think they care.
Cool I got a lot that are far away from the house but are eyesores all the same I had a generator at the time so I did drill a lot of holes in he stumps on top as well as the sides but they werent cut nearly as low as they could have been . Ill try more epsom salt & & dong better covering the stumps Thanks for the info Nice to see the two of you working together & the job looked great when it was finished
Dan and Alice - Thank you for the video. I have used this technique in the past and it works. Another method would be to cut the tree trunk as close to the ground as you can (just like you did) then take the tip of your chain saw or an axe and dish out a bowl shape in the tree trunk then add a few BBQ briquets, ignite the the briquets and walk away... They will slowly smoulder without an open flame. You get the same results, just a little quicker. You can even cook lunch over the briquets while they destroy the trunk. Wood ash makes a excellent garden soil enhancer as well. Michael from Canada
