What should I do after tree removal & stump grinding?
rra1924
4 years ago
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4 years agorra1924
4 years agoRelated Discussions
Soil amendments after stump grinding
Comments (16)This has been helpful, and I'd like to add an additional question. We removed a huge dead maple maybe 10 weeks ago, lots of stump/root grinding. Removed some of the piles of wood chips. Yesterday moved a spirea to the area, adding a few shovels of topsoil, some coffee grounds, and a little worm compost. I think the spirea will do fine. However, I'd like to speed along the wood chips that now make up a huge portion of the top several inches of this area (maybe 5'x8'). If I mix in coffee grounds to the whole area, will that help? I can of course get huge quantities of those for free. Any other ideas? Thanks, all....See MoreWhat Happens if we Grind Up Tree Stumps but Leave the Wood Chips?
Comments (16)Gotcha Dave. Sour is often used to mean acidic, though most folks don't probably realize that when they use the word. But I see what you're saying. For my part, I would never advocate purposely mixing uncomposted woodchips into soil. As a mulch layer over the top-yes, of course. But not mixed in. The other problem with bark or woodchip mulches is their tendency to form a hydrophobic mat. It seems that some of these beneficial fungi which colonize the chip layer, over time, glue the whole thing together with their mycellia. I've already seen it where you can lift an entire tree ring of mulch with one hand like it's all one-piece. The only reasonable method for dealing with this-so far as I'm aware-is to get your three-prong cultivator out and gently work the stuff up. That also freshens its appearance. We use wetting agents to water some of our ornamental plantings in areas where stirring up the mulch isn't feasible, but I wouldn't expect the average homeowner to be purchasing wetting agents! BTW, some folks claim just your general-purpose dish detergent will "work just as well" as the expensive pro stuff. I can tell you from direct experience that's not necessarily so. The big manufacturers of consumer goods like dish detergent vary their recipes as different supplies come and go, or as ingredient prices rise and fall. So you never really know what you're getting. At least with professional wetting agents, they are what they say they are. And it is possible to find relatively low-cost ones, relatively being the operative word there. +oM...See Morewhat do I use to drill holes in a tree stump to remove it?
Comments (14)Not sure why this was bumped...but indeed, I've been surprised by how quickly potassium nitrate (typical 'stump out') or ammonium nitrate (still available online in small quantities) will accelerate the decay of large pieces of wood. I had some huge 3' X 10' logs from a tree that fell about 3 years before, that I had pushed back into a wooded area with my FEL. They just weren't breaking down very fast. I didn't even drill into them, I just carefully sprinkled prills of KNO3 into the nooks and crannies where the bark was splitting. (edit: I now remember I did put just a few drill holes in places there were only big flat surfaces...but not many.) A year later those nooks and crannies took on a porous, cardboard like appearance, with big chunks of the wood sloughing off. Mushrooms are also growing all over them. If I do another round this year, I think they will be on schedule to have totally vanished by 2-3 years time....See MoreTree stump grindings
Comments (14)lazy_gardens wrote: >I would take the sazwsust out into a thin layer and ifnpote it. Explain! It should break down by then, especially with some fertilizer, and if any of that was from the old stumps or already dead trees, that helps too since it has a head start. Wood chips are great for paths and areas between beds or anywhere you can't or don't want to have grass. I can always find a place for them. Any area that's already mulched can usually use some more....See Morerra1924
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoUser
4 years agorra1924
4 years ago
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