Does tree stump killer contaminate the surrounding soil?

Posts

• JennyJ Posts: 10,576

  April 2023

  Stump killer takes a while to work. If you're removing the stump (eg digging out or using a stump grinder) I don't think you need to use it.
  

  If you're removing a stump that's been killed with a stump killer product and left long enough to start rotting down then my guess is that it would then be safe to plant, but check the label on your product. If the active ingredient is glyphosate, that's inactivated on contact with soil so it'll be fine, but it is being phased out so newer products might contain something different.

  Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  

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• didyw Posts: 3,573

  April 2023

  We inherited a dull yew growing against the house when we moved here.  We chopped it down and treated the sump - which really upset me, watching the wood greedily soak it up while I knew it was poison - but it didn't harm the surrounding soil.  An adjacent euonymus continues to thrive, as does the rosa banksiae planted where the yew was.

  Gardening in East Suffolk on dry sandy soil.

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• LunarSea Posts: 1,923

  April 2023

  Well for what it's worth I'll be treating SBK with utmost care in future. Despite being very careful I managed to kill off an established Clematis after treating an Ivy stump in the same area. I carefully drilled holes in the Ivy stump and injected the SBK with a syringe. They had both been growing up an old cherry tree trunk which had since collapsed - the Clematis planted by me, the Ivy invited itself. I can only conclude the roots of the two plants must have been so intimately entwined that transfer below soil level somehow happened.

  Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. 
  
  I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
  

  1
• StephenSouthwest Posts: 635

  April 2023 edited April 2023

  I'm confused by stump killer.

  
  

   I presume you'd only use it if:

  -You have a tree which would shoot from the stump

  AND

  -For some reason you can't just remove the shoots as they emerge

  AND

  -You're not removing the stump

  AND

  You're not concerned about buying or  using such toxic chemicals

  
  

  ...or have I missed something?
  

  1
• melvynp Posts: 14

  April 2023

  Read somewhere that Epsom Salts can be used as a stump killer?
  
  If it’s effective it may not be a damaging to surrounding ground?

  1
• nutcutlet Posts: 27,445

  April 2023 edited April 2023

  StephenSouthwest said:

  I'm confused by stump killer.

  
  

   I presume you'd only use it if:

  -You have a tree which would shoot from the stump

  AND

  -For some reason you can't just remove the shoots as they emerge

  AND

  -You're not removing the stump

  AND

  You're not concerned about buying or  using such toxic chemicals

  
  

  ...or have I missed something?
  

  Yes, you missed 'I've been indoctrinated by a multi-million pound industry to think you can't garden without chemical assistance'

  
  
  In the sticks near Peterborough

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