Forum home› Problem solving
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Strange, large lump below the conifer trunk

NorthernJoeNorthernJoe Posts: 660
in Problem solving
I recently cut down a small conifer with a 4 or 5 inch diameter trunk. However at about ground level below the trunk is a large mass of trunk like growth. It's about 2 foot wide by over 3 foot long. I have not dug around it to see if it's deep or just on the surface. I can't dig for awhile due to broken arm but I'm still curious about this.

Two questions, is it a common feature of ornamental conifers? What is it? And what's the best way to get rid of it so the border can be replanted?

Ok three questions.

Posts

  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    Need a picture.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    Pick axe, mattock and heavy duty secateurs to remove old roots from conifers. It can be done, just takes time. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • NorthernJoeNorthernJoe Posts: 660
    Started an exploratory dig around the base. It's a fair old lump of trunk like wood. Not the slightly soft roots but solid trunk material. It goes down more than a spade and half deep below the surface. I poked around one section even deeper and didn't find the bottom. Most trunks I've dug out start to go back in not too far below the soil surface but not this. I thought conifers were mostly shallow rooting.

    I've seen girdling images. Mostly its roots but a few online pictures showed a large bulge of trunk at the soil surface. This is what I've got. Looks half a metre by quarter of a metre in size. If that was the size of a tree trunk you'd struggle with manual digging out I reckon.

    I don't want to hire a grinder or use weedkiller, especially as spring with rising sap m isn't the best time for that. So I think I need any manual stump removal tricks people have. I think I might have to wait to do it until I'm at full strength following arm injury. Or do a little digging and cutting in short sessions to take my time.

    I'm borrowing a wrecking bar and large felling axe. Although my little hatchet is quite handy getting down into narrow trench to cut roots. Got some very cheap, Tesco's extending loppers with a kind of enhanced mech, not ratchet but it applies more force than straight loppers. That cuts wrist thick roots easily. After my hatchet failed to cut one roof due to getting enough force I used it to cut through what was left. That was arm diameter.
Sign In or Register to comment.