I agree throughout. A pity to lose the tree, but it had to be done. Plant acorns!

My stomach did a flip looking at that last photo! What a humongous tree. Amazing is right. I'm glad my job is on the ground. Thank you, thank you.

Wow, what a big tree that was! Those arborists really do a tough job, that must have been a big and expensive operation. Have you considered the nitrogen effects of having such a big crown mass slowly rotting in the ground in your garden?

Tell us Nik please. I have a stump I'm planting around.

Well, any large carbon based mass left in the ground to rot will cause what is called nitrogen dragdown - bacteria which attack the wood need nitrogen to do the job. The nitrogen is temporarily held up and is not available to the plants until decomposition finishes and nitrogen is released (which for a large crown like that in a dry climate or cold climate can take hundreds of years..) In actuality the phenomenon is quite complex and its detrimental effects, if any, are rate dependent. The more nitrogen is available, to more it is dragged down and decomposition is faster. The rate depends on soil temperature and humidity, type of wood, bacterial life in the soil, depth at which the crown is etc etc so nobody can easily tell if that nitrogen dragdown will have any detrimental effect on plants grown in the vicinity. Especially for shallow rooted plants the effects might be negligible. I would be monitoring soil nitrogen levels for the next few years though to make sure they were OK and take corrective action, nitrogen fertilization, if not.

I prefer to destroy and remove stumps and root crowns if I can, but grinding down such a big crown may be a major operation in itself.

Another thing to consider is the potential for honey fungus to be established but I don't know much on the subject.

O, what a shame to have to lose such a tree! But it clearly did have to be done,and if the trunk was rotting, it might have died anyway in a few years. Still, one does miss a beloved tree.I had several taken out about 6/7 years ago, and even though I wasn't particularly attatched to any of them-and we are talking about a woodland in this case, to boot-I still kind of regretted having had it done! And missed them! Can't say I've noticed any particular soil issues around the stumps, though,but keep in mind that my soil's pretty bad all over.

Ouch, Nik. That does sound serious. I was hoping the stump would serve as a prop for my Rooguchi clematis. I'll try to attend to the nitrogen issue. I probably am over watering now. I have a lot to learn about the hot climate gardening. My husband dug out two large stumps out of three, then gave up. Honey fungus does sound like a complex difficult situation too that I will think about tomorrow.

If one were to grind the whole stump and root crown and left the chips lying on the spot, that would surely have a very detrimental but short lived effect on the nitrogen levels. The long term effect with regards to all nutrient levels would be positive. A whole root crown left in the ground decomposes slowly unless we are talking about tropical conditions. It might well be the case that nitrogen dragdown is not that great as the wood, obviously, does not decompose all at the same rate. Nitrogen that is released by the outside parts that decompose first is then used to feed the bacteria that help decompose the next parts so some kind of equilibrium may be reached.

IMO best practice is to grind the stumps, collect the chips and dust, compost them and return them to the soil where they originally came from..

I have a few stumps left after the construction in my yard and trees were taken out. Some of them keep sprouting new growth.

But on the bright side, more sun = more roses! I planted a whole bunch in spots that were very shady but now get full sun.

Thanks for the info, Nik. We will keep an eye on it. We do have 2 other (not as big) stumps in the garden, both with pots of trailing flowers on top of them, and surrounded by other plants, and have not seen any detrimental effects. Our zone keeps getting warmer - it is now 9/10. Don't know if that has anything to do with anything.

We do have the exact same tree at the back of our property, so I will look for acorns. It was tested by the same arborists, and had nothing wrong with it, except a weird growth shape which has it (because of where the sun is) sending a huge branch over our other next door neighbors house. That tree will be pruned today, and that branch (at the recommendation of the arborists) will be taken off. The crows and the wild forest pigeons love to perch in that tree, so I am glad we still have one.

Meanwhile, it was cloudy yesterday, and is again today, but it is amazing how much more light there is in the front of our property. Luckily, there are several 100 year old black walnut street trees right near where our oak was, so there are still a lot of huge trees around. Interestingly, they were so close to our tree that they are all tilted away from where its canopy was, towards the street. Now they can spread out and get more balanced, I hope.

Jackie

Black walnuts on this side of the continent will adjust with short stems initially. We lost a hundred year old (from a count of the rings) river maple that should never have been planted near a house or out building. It took out the top third of its closest black walnut. Now ten years later, the black walnut looks almost like a normal growth pattern.

You might be having some problems with juglans near the black walnuts. I found that roses grafted on multiflora last longer than own roots at the base of the black walnuts, but most don't last more than six years.

I have read that some folks have problem with plantings under black walnuts. However, at our house there are roses (literally) which have been very near the black walnuts - varying from 90 to 30 years - and we have had no problems whatever (except having to pull up BW seedlings, of course). I also have other areas where there are lots of groundcover plants, bulbs, and also roses under the black walnuts, also with no problems. Perhaps it is climate related? Most of my oldest roses are own root by now, but they are very happy near the BWs.

Jackie