Hey all, this might not be the right forum but, I took down a gnarly cherry tree on my property this weekend to make room for a deck. I don’t know that I can afford or need to have it ground down. Is it safe to assume that if I did nothing, cherry saplings would start growing out if it? If I had some stone/fill dirt dumped on top, might that squash such growth? TIA! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Some outdoor fires right on top of it will make it go away. That’s how I fix mine. Once it’s burned below ground level cover it over. I don’t think it would ever consider sprouting again.
black cherry is notorious for sprouting aggressively. It can take two or more years of persistence continually chopping off the suckers as they appear to starve the root system enough to cause collapse. One treatment of herbicide might not even suffice. But that's really the most effective/quickest way unless you can dig or burn it out.
The fires on top of it I can do. How about stone and fill dirt though. Would saplings grow right through that?
Yes. Maybe two or three feet of fill would work. I have one I've been cutting back now for three years as it came up right beside a producing blue berry bush that I don't want to use herbicides near. It just keeps sending suckers up below wherever I cut. One sucker came up on the other side of the blueberry bush and I didn't see it. I'm hoping to annoy it to death but it is hard to tell at this point which is winning. It was never all that big, three inches tops for the stump. A big pile of salt on top of the stump and then a cover of some sort to keep the rain from diluting it might work too if you are really averse to herbicides, but then you have a big slug of salt in the ground that can take a very long time to wash away.
A big old piece of steel, like a car hood from a 1970 or so car, would block light from the suckers and starve it. The suckers would grow towards the light at the edges if there was light at the edges.
I think just the fire would do it. Unless it’s dead and dry it takes quite a bit of fire to burn a stump down. Coals and long durations are the key. Kill the stump and the roots give up and die. JMO. PS whenever I let the fire go out I use a diamond shaped garden hoe to dig around the stump a little further. Expose the roots more and get the ashes off everything. Ash is a great insulator, not something you want a lot of. Dirt removes easier after a good burn. It’s super dry and the very small roots in it are burnt.
So, while I have no problem with herbicides, the area with the stump will be fenced in and my 1yo Siberian Husky will be hanging around in thee. So , I have to be a little cautious.
Dump a 20lb bag of charcoal on dat ol' stump and light it off. When the coals look right for cookin' cover 'em wit ha metal garbage can lid, er ha couple hunks 'o tinfoil, puts ha cinderblock on da top ta keeps da wend from blowin' hit too much and let hit cook all nite. Next mornin' dey ain't no mo stump. Cover wit top soil an plants ya some posies.
Mostly it would grow if it is given chance to propagate but If you can burn it it’s better that way. Severs any real chances of it propagating, plus if you want to get rid of tree stumps, the chemical way works but there’s better things to do than that. Burn a couple fires and get that hole filled up with what you got on hand. Have experienced burning a couple of hard-a$$ed black locust stumps and that still propagated but notoriously known for being hard to kill too. It senses when it is needing to produce and will produce sprouts like 2 month corn in a matter of days.
