You can remove stumps with very high nitrogen fertilizer but it will take a year or more. That might be good because planting something there will just get it infected too. V. wilt lives in the soil.

First you need to cut it lower it should be as level with the ground as it can be. Drill a few holes in the stump with your largest bit and as deep as you can. Be sure to clean up any debris left from the tree to cut down on the wilt thatgoes into the soil--leaves,sawdust etc.

Wet down the stump filling the holes with water and then add the nitrogen fertilizer to the holes and stump--the highest you can buy. Aim for 45-0-0. Then cover the stump and surrounding area with plastic. Lift the plastic occasionally and add more water and fertilizer. To hide that unsightly spot next summer mulch it and perhaps put a bird bath ot pots on top. Make sure it is something you can move to add water and fertilizer. The plastic will heat the soil too and perhaps get rid of the wilt.

When you do plant something else there, if it becomes infected remove the infected leaves and spray with a fungicide. Plastic around the plant and mulch will help keep the disease from infecting the plant from the soil

They can be burned out much faster. If there's no hole in the center, make one large enough for a couple handfuls of charcoal. Drill a couple oxygen holes through the sides, add the charcoal and light it. You may need to add charcoal or dry wood for a couple of weeks depending on how green the stump is. Once the stump is fairly dry it will continue to burn out without the addition of anything. Keep the vent holes clear with a coat hanger or something similar and drill new holes if needed as the stump burns down. I've done this with several stumps and of course it takes longer with harder or greener wood. The heat may also kill VW.

Anyone who thinks you can get rid of soil is overly optimistic. The best way to have a successful planting in an affected are is to install something that's resistant to the verticillium fungus. Resistance of clerodendron isn't known. Try it & find out.

Thanks, you all! These are really great suggestions and will help us a lot.

First, re the clerodendrum: I read somewhere that it was vw resistant, so I planted it in another part of the yard where another jap. maple had died (smaller, we pulled the stump out ourselves), and it's *thrived* there, so much that we have to scramble to keep the babies under control. But we have one baby that has grown up pretty nicely and I'm thinking of transferring him over to this place, because he's certainly not been affected thus far.

oilpainter, I wish I'd gotten it cut down further when the treecutting guy was here. I only have an ax, and swinging it sideways when it's already that low...I just don't have a good feeling about that. I may have to just drill holes where it is now and do either the nitrogen method or the burn method.

I really appreciate your thoughts and advice on this process.

Another thing re the clerodendrum: I'm actually in no rush to plant again, since the light has been most welcome today. We've lived kind of in a northern-exposure cave with the tree overhanging the window since we moved here -- it's wonderful to see the sun back behind our house...my DH wants the tree but I almost think I'd be content with a bush or something that would be able to handle the vw without blocking the light. As a transplant from NC to OR, I *MISS* the sun! Thanks again.

Burning stumps in the ground is not a recommended method of removal since that produces even more pollution then burning the wood from the tree.
As Oilpainter suggested several holes, about 1 inch in diamter, bored into the stump and filled with a high Nitrogen source will work, eventually. I've used Blood Meal rather than Urea to do that many times and how long depends on the tree species. Maples, and other hardwoods, take longer then do pines, and other softwoods.

THanks, kimmsr. As I was thinking about it, I feel the tree is too close to the house to feel safe burning it.

A question: after putting the nitrogen in and 'burning' the stump out that way, is the soil able to take another tree there? Or does it need a while to process all the nitrogen?

Thanks again!

Burning stumps in the ground is not a recommended method of removal since that produces even more pollution then burning the wood from the tree.

LOL! Are you serious?

kimmsr thinks the VW will be released into the air and everyone will become zombies..lol!

Planting another tree in that spot may not be possible for several years because it can take some time for the Soil Food Web to digest all of the roots that are there. Putting the High Nitrogen source in the holes will provide a foods source for those things that will digest that large bit of wood you see but will not do much for the rest that you cannot see. Most all of the Nitrogen will be used up by the SFW while they digest what you can see and should not pose a problem for anything planted there in the future. Mostly what I have found is that trying to dig a hole in almost the same place as the previous tree was is pretty difficult due to the roots still there.
While there are still people that have not yet learned that burning tree stumps is not good for the environment studies done here in the 1960's found the level of pollutants released by burning stumps was greater than those released by a coal burning power plant. Since the 1960's around here you cannot get a permit to burn tree stumps, so no one can legally burn them. Burning tree leaves, wood, tree stumps, almost anything that produces smoke of any kind will also adversly affect anyone with asthma and/or emphysema and could cause them to need to go to the hospital because of difficulty breathing, so no one with any sense is going to burn those materials.

taz6122
Make fun if you wish but burning garden waste or a tree stump or wood in an old stove does bother people with allergies and asthma.

I have allergies and my husband has Asthma. We have one old fellow in our neighborhood. He burns wood--often green--in an old cook stove for winter heat. He burns garden waste too. We make it a point never to go past his place when we go for a walk. Neither of us can breathe if we do and my husband has to use his puffer a few times to get his breath back. I pity his close neighbors.

In case you think I'm against burning wood for heat--Burning wood in a new airtight stove gives off very little smoke

I feel sorry for those people because they will never escape smoke from wood. No matter what kind of stove you have the smoke still bellows out the pipe that leads outside and into the air we breathe. If it was cause for alarm I don't think they would be able to do these controlled burns everywhere. Unless this stump is right next to the house I don't see a problem. JMO

This is for people that have not yet learned what open burning of waste does to our environment, and are willing to learn.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pollutants from open burning