Ash, the answer to your question depends on a couple things, mainly how much of the woody material got removed with the stump, and how close is "close" to the same location. Now in nature, new trees arise near, and sometimes right on top of dead ones, but that's a different scenario. Nature is in no hurry, we usually are. So if a large amount of the "stump chips" are removed with the stump grinding, and replaced with good topsoil, you can indeed plant virtually in the same place. What might happen is that the fungi that decompose any remaining woody material will temporarily use up most of the nitrogen in the vicinity of the old tree. You will know this is happening if your new tree becomes "chlorotic", which means it has yellowish foliage (For a tree that should normally have green leaves). But this is easily remedied by placing some fertilizer containing nitrogen-most do-over the top of the soil in the area of the old tree replacement/new tree planting. Does this make sense? I feel like it is taking too many words to explain something that's not really all that complex! Oh and BTW, yes, your present tree is ready to be made into firewood if you still had any doubts! +oM

In 2008 we had six huge trees removed from our small city lot here in Mobile. Four were 100 foot tall pines, a water oak, and a sweet gum tree. ALL big. The sweet gum was really in the neighbor's yard (at the time, anyway...we bought that section of her property later on). It cost us $5000 for the lot of em. And then the stump grinding for all but two trees. I left one pine in the yard about 30 feet high, because I wanted something for the woodpeckers and birds which eat insects. And then we left the 4 foot high stump of the sweet gum. That tree was the culprit which broke the slab and walls of our cement block garage, which cost a lot to repair last year, before it became my Teahouse/Greenhouse/playhouse. Now I have lots of fungi growing in the flower beds, where I spread those chips. Also fungi on the roots and on the stumps. Berndy says, "In my case one maple did cost over $700 several years ago. They actually cut it into certain lengths and placed it on a real logging truck, probably to sell it to a paper mill. My area seems to be expensive. A guy I know had several medium large white pines removed at $8K. My large pine has a 2ft diameter 5 ft up from the ground,..." Having worked in research at International Paper Co, I do not think they took the maple tree for a paper mill. Most paper mills want softwoods not hardwoods, but perhaps it would be taken to a lumber mill. Or a sculptor? As wood not pulpwood, it would bring a higher price. I have an album in my Webshots account about this, called Suburban Tree Cutting. And it was a tight fit to take these out. We'd just bought the house here, so not many flower beds then. They took a cherry picker into the back yard for those trees, ran it up as high as it would go, and then the climber went up on ropes with his spikes, cut off limbs then parts of the bole, and with ropes leading to people on the ground, slowly lowered parts of the tree until they could get hold of it with a grappler. Or whatever that grabber thingy is called. They worked all around the house and powerlines, never damaged a thing, but it took us a while to fill in all the compacted lawn. It was scary to watch and impressive. I liked the shade of the trees, but they were a hazard to the home with high winds, and insurance rates are terrible in hurricane prone locations, which is where we are. Here is a link that might be useful: Suburban Tree Cutting

Most rootstocks I've seen aren't tall enough to bud or graft 3 onto. If you did, you would get all 3 starting very close to the ground. I would just graft (whip, cleft, etc) one onto it initially, then graft the other varieties on when the main variety has grown enough. You may need to cut it when it reaches a height you want the trunk to branch out at (could be as low as 2-3' for an open center peach). So, I would think it would proceed like: 1- graft variety #1 2- wait a few months until the central leader (#1) reaches 2-3', then pinch off growth. 3- Let 3 main scaffolds grow off, at roughly even spacing, pinching off everything else. 4- Depending on your growing season, you may be able to bud the 2 other varieties late in the summer. If not, graft them the next spring. I'd suggest keeping the remaining scaffold (with #1) in a more Northern position, to avoid shading the 2 new grafts. Note that I haven't actually done this- most of my multi-grafts are built onto (more) mature trees. So if anyone with actual experience chimes in, I yield to their expertise.

There are a lot of misconceptions about tree roots :-) All trees will produce widely spreading root systems - with most mature trees the root system will spread out 2-3 times the height of the tree. Sometimes quite a bit further if soil and water conditions dictate. And the bulk of the root system is contained in the top 12-24" of the soil profile. Also, tree roots do not "tear up" foundations - if the foundation itself is structurally sound - no cracks or crumbling - any tree roots that encounter the solid surface of a foundation wall will simply change directions. Foundation issues only occur if the structure is already compromised and that is typically attributable to settling or soil subsidence, not roots :-) Many trees will develop large roots right under the soil surface that in time will emerge through the lawn or in the soil surrounding them, large growing maples like both silver or reds are just a couple of common examples. This is one of the reasons growing smaller plants under the canopy of these trees is difficult - it is a very rooty location, hard to dig, and those existing roots claim the majority of available nutrients and soil moisture, not to mention the heavy shade these situations produce. Few other plants appreciate those tough conditions. Silver maples are no better or worse than any other large growing maple. They seed heavily - but then so do my native bigleaf maples - and they tend to have a natural branch structure that leads to breakage in high winds or ice storms unless properly pruned/trained (ditto the bigleafs). They are very closely related to red maples and share many of the same characteristics: a preference for moist soils (they share the common names of swamp or water maples), a wide spreading, surface oriented root system, heavy seed production and both are native trees with a very wide natural range. I would not plant either silver or red maples close to inground plumbing/water pipes or near a septic system as their water-loving nature can create problems. Their DNA is so close they are able to hybridize easily, with the resultant Freeman maples (Acer x freemanii) offering the best characteristics of both species. Numerous named forms - cultivars - exist of all three types and all are propagated by grafting.