Natural Stump Removal Follow Up – Does Salting a Stump Actually Work?
Hey it's Brock here with Rock Hill Farms And today is a follow-up to see how long It really takes to get rid of a tree Stump with salt Now I cut down a lot of trees I do saw Milling firewood stuff like that and That leaves you with a bunch of stumps To deal with and I've dug them out I've Ground them out with a stump grinder but Those are time consuming and labor Intensive options so I started looking At natural stump removal and there's a Few different options you can find Online about that one of those options Is drilling holes in it filling the Holes with salt and then covering it up With dirt there's actually a couple Different ways to even do that but we Don't need to get into all that Ten weeks ago I did that process on a 48 inch diameter Stump that sat right here and today We're going to see if it's worked and Why did I choose today well there's a Bunch of different websites describing This process of salting out a stump and How to do it and they sometimes give you Estimates on how long it takes and one Website Said eight to ten weeks and there's no Way this stump is going to be gone but I Want to see the effect it's had in eight To ten weeks tomorrow will be 10 weeks Since I originally did this so right now
I need to start digging and and uncover This and see the condition of it in the Meantime I'm going to show you the stump That we're working with from when I cut It down to the day I salted it so There's a point of reference on this Stump the video you see right now of me Cutting it Down is from June 4th of 2021 So it's been almost two years since I Cut it down and it's been two and a half Months since I ground the top off and Salted the stump Now if you guys follow the channel you Know that stump removal is a big theme Of something I'm always working on and That's why I'm doing this test We really got some fantastic dimensional Lumber out of this log and I actually Just used some working at the rental House this weekend But you can see on the screen a Description of how to remove a stump With salt and this is from the website Of the show This Old House Ah [Applause] So the salt kills anything alive and it Removes all the moisture from the stump At least that's the theory And once all the moisture is gone It apparently will rot faster especially If you cover it with a really rich soil Or compost which is what you're going to See me do
The next big concern that people had When they saw me pouring salt on the Stump is that nothing would grow in that Area for a long time afterwards and I Think there's definitely some truth to That although there were a few weeds Growing right out of this spot already So we'll follow up on that over time too Right here you can see me cutting the Stump down with the chainsaw And this is just to save time with the Stump grinder Now I could have done all of this Without grinding the stump but the lower You get it the better your chances of Working are I also got it low enough with the stump Grinder I could have just left it alone But I want to be able to run a plow Across this field where the tree was and That means I can't have a stump four Inches below grade So that's why I'm really working it to Get it completely gone All right I actually did a pretty cool time test On grinding out this stump with my Little tractor and I believe it took 45 Minutes for this 48 inch diameter stump To get it the normal four to six inches Below grade that this machine is capable Of Thank you [Applause]
Then I got the biggest drill bit I had And drilled Dozens of holes all over this stump And it would have been better to use A big paddle bit or a bigger hole saw to Make these As big as possible but since these are Only half inch diameter holes I just Made a lot of them Then I poured the salt on really thick And then kept pushing it into the holes Till they were packed then I spread the Salt all the way across the stump And used way more than I thought I Needed which was about 50 pounds All right We're down to it and here are the holes I drilled to pour the salt in So obviously the stump is still here If this is working it should be soft Now when you cut down a tree sometimes You find a soft spot inside of it I'm in a spot like that that was Starting to rot I could take this and Jab it like this and stick it Into that soft spot And what I was hoping to find here was That this had a soft spot where all that Salt was And it does not So As of today I'm going to say this didn't Work
Now I will also come back in six months And check it again Now if you're watching this video down The road Check the pinned comment check the Description of the video check the cards On the end screen if this eventually Works I'll post that too But as of right now 10 weeks I would expect to see this Softened and I'm not seeing any Softening You should see links on the screen to Some more of our videos and I'll put Whatever videos are the most relevant to This stump removal job especially if it Ends up working six months down the road But thanks for watching
