Wondering if this will work.

Hey yall.

My husband and I have cut down alot of pine beetle infested pines out of our front yard. We have about 20 stumps that we have cut off to the ground. What I am wondering is this...Do we have to grind the stumps or can we bring in dump truck loads of dirt to cover them up? They are about level with the ground, and digging up these large stumps are out of the question. We are going to plant grass in the front so I want to know if this will work. We are looking for the least expensive way of doing this (we are paying for all this out of pocket, no loans)

Any help would greatly be appreciated!

I am doing the same thing with a lot of cherrythees now.I am NOT digging those stumps up just soil and plant grass over.
Janett

lol Good I am not the only one who is looking at this as an option. I just haven't been able to find out any success stories online about it. To rent a stump grinder here is about 150 bucks a day. Whereas we can have someone bring in 2 loads of dirt for that amount. So I figure, if we use the stump grinder for lets say a week, it will come out to be MUCH more expensive, not even considering I will still have to add dirt in to cover where the low spots are. I know its going to sink irregardless due to how large these stumps are, so I am figuring what the heck? Might as well just cover them now and save our money. Just seems to be the logical thing to do.

Maybe a stupid question, but just curious...won't the trees 'sucker' and grow back?

some will but I just cut them with the mower and eventually they will stop growing. But I cut the stumps close to the ground, ok it take its toe on the chaisaw but it beats the cost and work grinding them down. The stump under ground will start to rot away when always covered with moist soil

We have same problem with pine bettles right now..We have full of pine trees here on our 18 acres. One in backyard... I noticed needles was turning yellow. DH said look like pine beetle did it. So I went outside and got a shovel. I peel the barks off the pine tree.. OH my,.. fulllll of pine beetles.. white worn like.. UGLY! and full of termties. I told DH I am glad this one will be gone.. I hate pine trees.. sick of pick up all the pine cones before cutting the grass.. Been done since I was little girl.. My Mom have many on her property. She lost few from Hurricane Andrew. THey snapped in half.
On ours.. most was died from lighting strike.. pine beetles. About the stumps. All we did is fill up with branches etc.. and burn it. It take a while for stump to burn down.. if it's fresh- long time to burn down.. If it's dry. It burn easy. We filled up with soil that was brought by dump truck for free. The city had them to dig the ditches.. so we got the free dirts and of course we have to pick up all big rocks, glass, papers.
The first I moved here. DH had this land before we met. There was many stumps. So we put dead leaves, branches, etc.. on top of stump and pour some gas and it burn for days and it went down in the ground. We filled up with dirts.

Decidious trees to my knowlege will, but the type of pines I have won't. We cut some down last year and they never spouted back out. Covered them with soil and they are rotting fast. Thats why we are wondering if we could do that with the other side of the lawn (more trees on that side) Here is a picture of all the stumps.

Some are cut down to the ground, others still have to be. Thank god for a chain saw sharpener attachment on a dremel tool. The stumps are marked in red arrows. We have tons of them. See why it is unfeasable to grind or dig them up? lol

Mini I will have to try that. We have a mound of debis that I have raked up that would be perfect for burning if the wind would just die down long enough lol.

Last picture, and we still have 30 pines to go just on this 1/4 of an acre. I hate pines now too. Big time.

Interesting info...thanks for answering.

Good luck to you folks!

Magwar.. You can let it burn for a while until the stumps are below from the top ground then stop burn or let it burn and fill with dirts.

When we did burned the stumps. It keep burning/smoking for days.. a whole week if no rain after we once set it on fire. Now we have few left that need to be burn. We hate to damage our lawn riding blades with those stumps.

If I would do that here it would probebly start a big forestfire. Your scenario is a firemans worst nightmare, a fire that can go on for weeks and month the suddenly flar up to be instoppeble,
The fire can follow the roots for month
Janett

MS is right. Fire is a great way to get rid of stumps. If they are too sappy to burn well, some old motor oil mixed with just a little gas or kerosene will get them soaked and ready to burn for a long time. You might want to drill deep holes in the stumps, fill with the oil mixture, let set & refill until they won't take anymore of the mix, then set on fire. Be ready for a LONG burning period.

There are stump killers and rotters available too. Don't know how good they are for a fast rot down tho. I have also heard that buttermilk has enzyemes that will rot down stumps fairly quickly. Never tried it but it is suppose to be a good natural remedy for stumps.

It sounds as tho you have enough stumps to try several methods to see which works best for you. LOL

We have used the product Roundup to kill out the trees that sucker badly and it has worked well. You just paint or spray it on a fresh cut to the bark and the tree seems to take it in. I sat on a chair and just painted it on every couple of minutes for about 15 minutes. I was told it would kill them without that much painting but I figured I would rather make sure it had lots of it on the stump. That stump never came back.

A friend of mine kept a few of her stumps that were close to each other and put a board across to make a different looking bench in her yard. It sure looks neat to me but I love benches.

lol Burning them, we found out, is out of the question. The stumps are surrounded by soil mixed in mulch, and found out it likes to burn as well. We had to put out three of the stumps because the soil is just deterorating around them. (last thing we want is our yard on fire =S )

Looks like we are going to have to cover them with soil. Its the only way to go. On the suggestion of leaving a couple of stumps for planters and stuff. I plan on doing that, I have a mini windmill that would look good in the front yard =D

My yard has several stumps below ground or level with the ground that someone before me left. They had dirt and grass over them. I didn't even know they were there until I started making flower beds. Some of them are partially rotted, which adds to the soil anyway. I just planned around them. I think you'll be fine just leaving them alone and burying them. The long-term fire thing seems a little too iffy safety-wise, 'though I've never tried it. When a tree falls in a forest, for instance, the stumps just rot and add food for new trees.