I've heard that you can use solid copper nails to speed it up. Being solid copper the nails most likely won't have much strength to them so drill a hole for each nail. I would make the hole diameter a couple drill sizes smaller so you get a tight fit. Check Home Depot or Amazon for the nails. You may want to research what effect the nails will have on the area around the stump before you try this method. One vendor on Amazon even includes a free drill bit with their solid copper nails.....

Following this as I also have a few tree stumps in prime locations.... I looked it up once & you can hire people to drill it out, but that sounds expensive, especially if you have more than one. (What I found seemed more like a landscaping service for commercial/development properties - I didn't call to inquire, so don't know the details.)

Thanks Cyndita! I would consider the drilling out of the tree stumps as they have (or had) someone here who went around and did that. But I closed off my entrance to that garden down to a 4' gate and no way to get the apparatus into it now without tearing out a big section of fence and flower beds. How to imagine how many copper nails it would take and how does it work? My husband used copper tacks in his Shaker box construction but a copper nail does sound kind of useless because of lack of strength. Maybe augering a hole and inserting copper pipe or ground rod would work better if I knew why or how it works.

Edited later….I finally found the articles on copper nails and killing trees - they were intended to be nailed into the live standing tree - but the consensus is they don't kill trees. They did however recommend urine and suggested having a beer party and peeing on the tree or stump. Haha! Well my husband has been known on occasion to pee on my roses right outside the back door when the bathroom is occupied but I doubt I could convince him to go out to the garden area where the stumps are on a continual basis!

Drill the biggest holes you can, and as deep as you can. Use the biggest drill bit you can find and drill all over down into the stump. Removing the bark from the outside with a hatchet helps too. Cover it with some burlap, and then a big pile of mulch. Keep moist, and it will rot down pretty fast. I had to do that to an old crepe myrtle stump. It took about a year, but they are notoriously difficult.

Maybe you could build raised beds around them to camouflage the mound? :-)

I swear I have seen a stump away chemical at Lowe’s or Home Depot . Not sure you want to poisen the ground or what that all entails ..

The copper nail is just a source of copper, it’s not required to have strength except if you drive them into the stump. Drilling allows the copper to be inserted with ease. From then on it’s a chemical reaction that takes place. That is why I suggested you research it out….

Another way is to grind the stump out using a machine. The machines come in different sizes and from looking at the picture of one that Home Depot rents (in a Google Image search) I’m sure it would fit through your garden opening. They operate like a lawn edger only the cutting blade is quite large. You move it back and forth across the top of the stump going deeper with each pass.

https://www.homedepot.com/tool-truck-rental/Stump-Grinder/SG1314B/

I’m sure you can find a youtube video on how they work. Some machines are huge but they work the same…. have fun.

Ammonia, urine, high N fertilizer -- it all amounts to providing Nitrogen to the microbes that would break down the wood. The microbes that break down "brown" matter need N to work (and will, in the short-term, tie-up some of the N in vicinity of wood). If you need to go organic, yeah, urine and blood meal might be an option, otherwise something like Ammonium Sulfate could work. I would drill a number of holes into stumps and put some into the holes, as well as sprinkling it atop the wood, roots, etc.

Be advised that any vegetation in vicinity could get burned if you are too liberal with the stuff. A light sprinkle should suffice. It will nonetheless probably take a couple years to really rot the wood out.

A stump grinder is fine for superficially making the area look attractive prior to extensive, shallow plantings like grass, but will likely leave a lot of the roots in the way, and microbes might compete with the remaining wood for nutrients until decay is well underway. Again, if you use a stump grinder, a light sprinkling of high-N fertilizer in bottom of hole might be in order, as well as allowing the area to settle/decay for several months before planting, just to avoid nutrient issues.

Yes,I share Carla's perplexity. I had several large oaks removed years ago, and didn't worry about the stumps and roots, though admittedly they were not all concentrated in one small area. I did remove parts of larger roots that were connected to the stump with a hand-saw,to prevent the tree from regenerating from the base. Also, I'm unclear about the phrase "10 inch stumps" Ten inches high or wide? My oaks were more than 10 inches wide. You're going to have to work the soil anyway before planting, I'd just take a pick to it, and saw out any large root segments with a hand-saw. Add organic matter, and keep an eye on the roses if they show any signs of nutrional deficiencies.

My late father would drill holes in the stump and pour a mix of superphosphate and water into it. A year later he would set fire to the stump and it would burn everything including the roots. Smaller stumps are better treated with compost and fungi to speed up decomposition.

I think you drill the holes and add epson salts.... At least you would still be able to plant roses later, because the salts won't hurt the ground long term. Roses like the salts. Here is a link that might be useful.... https://plantcaretoday.com/use-epsom-salt-stump-removal.html

there's an organic product called Stump Rot that I've used very successfully to rot out much larger trees than you have.

Shame you didn't know any serious BBQ fanatics. They would have taken as much of those woods for smoking meat and left you only the roots they couldn't reach.

I heard fruit trees can take 3-4 years to have fruits. Maybe you didn’t wait long enough....... I am new to fruit trees, not a pro though.

Thanks everyone and all! The fruit trees were there 15 years this time, the previous ones 20 years on the other side of the house. Any fruit disappeared down the gullets of racoons and deer and attracted them long before they were near edible to humans and they hung around hoping for more. Enough! The stumps are 10" across and the roots are fanned out about 12" down. I'm 70 years old and stump hacking and removal is something I did in my past when I had more hormones. So I got an auger bit today and am going out tomorrow to drill and then ammonia nitrate the holes and then heap up over the stumps with some really wet nasty barn cleanings. That should keep me busy doing the 10 stumps for the next couple days. Wish me luck!

Oh I hear you. I had thousands of pears last year, they were green, brown and red pears , I didn’t get one pear. Animals got them all. I had a lot of apples left and most of peaches ( I picked them earlier).

Raised bed over the stumps and plant the,roses between the stumps. After a few years the stumps will be gone and the roses will be big because of the rose food.

My neighbor drills holes in them, dumps a bag of sugar in them, and Waters it in.

I had a tree casting dense shade across my entire back yard in a raised bed that I cut down. I was told by the arboris

I had a Bartlett pear tree in a raised bed that was cut sow I was told by the arborist to cover the stump with a plastic bag and then cover with soil. He said that if the stump got wet the roots would continue to live and sprout up.

Any way, I think someone else on this forum said that roses would not like being near dying tree roots. Well the tree roots are all over my back yard fanning out from the raised bed. I had problems with some roses thriving near that buried tree stump. Ground covers like nepeta, salvia, lamium are doing fine. Also a Golden Hinoki Cypris is fine. Anyway, I am trying roses in pots instead near that stump.

Any way, I think someone else on this forum said that roses would not like being near dying tree roots. Well the tree roots are all over my back yard fanning out fekmyhs I had problems with some roses thriving near that buried tree stump. Ground covers like nepeta, salvia, lamium are doing fine. Also a Golden Hinoki Cypris is fine. Anyway, I am trying roses in pots instead near that stump.ay, I am trying roses in pots instead near that stump.