As long as the roots are alive, I'm afraid you are going to have suckers. You could try to smother the roots by putting black plastic over the roots to the drip line (or where the drip line used to be) and cover it with mulch. That will take several years just like it does when people put a raised bed around trees, and you'll probably still have some suckers to deal with in the meantime. You could also cut out any roots near the surface before you put on the black plastic because those are the ones most likely to send up the suckers.

What is the diameter Sylvia? My grandfather always put a can over a stump if he could and my b i l does it now that I have told him and it works . I'm sure a trash bag would work also

DH says that I have used a rug before, I don't remember that but........

How high is the stump and do do you want to keep some height to it? If it's cut down to the ground what we do is take a chainsaw and cut a crosshatch pattern into the stump. It's worked for us.

When we had to cut down our big old Arizona ash last summer and I wanted to keep the stump high to put a bird house and planter on I gave the top several coats of black roofing sealer in hopes that it would stave off its rotting. It got just maybe a half dozen sprouts at the top and only two or three at the bottom all of which were twisted off instead of cutting them. I don't know if the tarry stuff I put on top kept it from having many sprouts or what, but it might be worth a try. Also pulling the sprouts off left nothing for leaves to grow on so it had to start over. Maybe that will work for you. Probably a lot depends on the age and variety of tree.

Black roofing sealer sounds like the ticket!

I'll put some on the top & maybe at the base to discourage sprouts.

Little sprouts along the feeder roots are easy to pull out, but the ones that grow from the stump itself are harder to get & they're the ones that would disfigure the gnomes' home.

& gnomes don't like their homes messed up.

Thanks all!