Stumps

[bobleponge]

BilboWaggins its definately for real. I saw it with my own eyes and bought some of the wood they felled.
The stumps were left for a good few months before they were burnt, but they burnt for a few days, more of slow smoulder actually, and then the remaining bits were dug out very easily.

[TonyF]

Hi Tootles

Wander down to your local Weldom or Bricomarche, they sell a range of stuff there for getting rid of roots. If you have a France Rurale near you, better prices there and they also sell organic stump killer.

If you go for the non burning method, you may want to try this way of doing it.

Go to the wine making section of your brico shed and buy a supply of the largest, shaped corks you can find. When you drill the holes in the stump, use a flat wood bit, same size as the narrowest part of the cork. Put in the powder or fluid - if it's poweder, I usually dilute it a tiny bit - then hammer a cxork into the hole, which needs to be quite deep.

Stops the rain washing it away.

I'm in the same position as you, trouble is that if I cut any more trees, already lost about 25 at the back of the house, killing the stumps will cause problems with soil erosion as w're close to the top of a fairly steep small hill!
Voila!

[tootles]

Thank you everyone for you suggestions.
Rocketron, there probably are some laws about chopping and killing trees, but we are;
a. surrounded by woodland which has grown up in abandoned
vineyards.
b. in the middle of nowhere!

It will be a shame to cut down such old and established trees but we will need the wood for heating anyway. The land opened up to the sun will be perfect for vegetables after years of sparse trees and loads of leafmold. The shade also means that there are not (too) many weeds.

There were vineyards here 40 years ago, it is incredible that these trees have seeded themselves and flourished in that time.

The whole hillside was once a productive vineyard and is now smothered with chestnut and oak. The locals call it 'Les Raspes du Tarn'. It is a tourist attraction now. I suspect if I went too mad with the felling the Mayor would have something to say!!

At least we will be warm and fed...........

[Peter]

If you intend digging stumps out you MUST leave them at least 6' high.

That way when you have dug a moat round the stump and cut throrugh some roots you'll have something to tie a rope onto and pull with some decent leverage.

Anything shorter and you'll need a JCB to try and rock the stump. Chap teo doors up took out some leylandii and his mate brought a large mini-digger round, they took all day with axe, saw and digger as the stumps were so short the digger didn't have much leverage.

[snohare]

If your stumps are too short, then you can use a Tirfor hand winch, which you can usually hire or even buy relatively cheaply. Farmers often have them for exactly this job. Dig a moat, then make a tunnel under the roots, pass the cable or sling through and tension on. But it is a lot of faffing about chopping the roots, and you have to be careful about safety. Big waggly stumps are ace, much more fun !

[Plot17B]

Ahhh..was just going to mention the winch approach. use the trunk of one tree to anchor a chain to and winch out the first felled tree roots. Then move down the line, using the next tree as the anchor to winch out the 2nd, then so on and so on. Works a treat.
Of course, you still have the last trunk/root system to get out somehow...either winch that too on a tree which will remain or then Deep Root it....but make sure you use enough as I've never has success with that stuff before.

And might not the Deep Root affect what you are intending to plant?

[Jardiniere]

Some brilliant ideas here - I've just paid an astronomical amount to have all my trees felled and the roots pulled out by a JCB.
My trees are acacia and have all grown in the last 17 years - when we bought the plot it was a ploughed field.
Keep us posted tootles on what you actually do.....