How do I get rid of a tree stump?

How hard a stump is to remove depends mostly on species and size. A conifer with a shallow plate can be winched out; an oak or a sycamore with a deep taproot and heavy laterals will resist almost anything short of a machine. Deciding early which route you are taking, before you have spent two days with a mattock, saves a great deal of effort.

Safety

What you'll need

• Stump grinder, hired or hired in (optional)
• Mattock, spade and bow saw (optional)
• Winch or hand puller (optional)
• Eye, ear and face protection
• Gloves and stout boots

Step by step

1. Check for services before you dig or grind anything.Water, gas, electricity, telecoms and drainage all run through gardens, often shallowly and rarely where anyone expects. A cable detector, the property's service plans, and a careful hand-dig around the stump first are all worth the time.
2. Decide whether it needs to go at all.A stump in a border or a rough corner can be left, planted around, hollowed as a container or turned into a wildlife feature. Removal only really matters where you need to plant, pave, build or mow across it.
3. Cut the stump low first.The lower the stump, the less there is to grind or lever. Cut as close to ground level as you safely can — but not with a chainsaw at soil level unless you are trained, because chain contact with grit destroys the chain and causes kickback.
4. Consider grinding for anything substantial.A stump grinder reduces the stump and the top of the main roots to chippings, typically 200 to 300mm below ground, in an hour or two. Hiring a contractor with a machine is often cheaper than a weekend hire plus your time, and much safer. It leaves a hole full of chippings, not a clean void.
5. Dig out small stumps by hand.Expose the root plate with a mattock, sever the lateral roots with a bow saw or an old axe, then work downwards for a taproot. It is genuinely hard work — allow a full day for a 200mm stump and more for anything larger.
6. Use leverage rather than strength.A long bar, a hand winch anchored to another tree with a strop that will not damage bark, or a scaffold pole through the roots multiplies your force far more effectively than pulling. Never tow a stump out with a car or a rope round a towbar; ropes under tension are dangerous and vehicles are damaged.
7. Understand what a chemical stump treatment does.Stump treatments work by being applied to freshly cut wood so the plant translocates them into the roots, and they kill regrowth rather than dissolving the stump. They take months and the stump still has to rot or be dug out. Approvals for garden products change, so read the current label; it carries the legal conditions and it governs.
8. Deal with regrowth on species that sucker.Cherry, poplar, willow, lilac, sumach and elm throw up suckers from the roots after felling, sometimes across a wide area. Cutting them off repeatedly through a growing season exhausts them eventually; grinding the stump reduces but does not always stop it.
9. Fill the hole properly if you are grinding.Grinding leaves a mix of wood chip and soil that will sink for two or three years as it rots and will lock up nitrogen in the process. Dig out most of the chippings if you intend to plant or lay a lawn, and backfill with topsoil.
10. Do not plant the same species back in the same spot.Particularly with fruit trees and roses, replant disease is a real problem. Move the new planting position, or excavate and replace a generous volume of soil.

Tips

• A rotting stump is a superb habitat — beetles, fungi, hibernating amphibians. If it is out of the way, leaving it is a positive choice, not laziness.
• Honey fungus does colonise dead stumps and can then attack living plants nearby. If honey fungus is known in the garden, removing stumps properly is worth the effort.
• Contractors often price stump grinding by stump diameter. Measure across the cut face before ringing round for quotes.

Common mistakes

• Burning the stump out — It is very hard to control, produces days of smoke that can be a nuisance to neighbours, can smoulder in roots underground for weeks, and sterilises the soil around it.
• Chainsawing at ground level — The chain hits soil and stones, blunting instantly and increasing kickback risk enormously. This is a common way people get hurt.
• Pulling a stump with a vehicle — Ropes and chains under tension fail violently, towbars and chassis mounts are not designed for it, and people have been killed by recoiling straps.
• Turfing straight over a ground-out stump — The chip fill sinks for years and locks up nitrogen, so you get a sunken yellow patch. Remove the chip and backfill with topsoil first.

If it doesn't work

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