Potassium Nitrate For Tree Stump Removal

I have a few old tree stumps that I need removing and after searching I read that you need to drill a few 25mm holes into the stump and then pour in
Potassim Nitrate into the holes and after 4 - 6 weeks it can be easily removed
with an axe..............sounds easy, but is it?

Also after phoning a few garden centres, you just cant seem to get hold of
the stuff anywhere (apart from Ebay, is there anywhere local to the Medway Towns) and if I do have to order from Ebay, how much do you need for a 12inch dia stump please?

 

like Loofah says, I wouldn't go ordering that off of ebay, the CIA are probably already looking at this thread.

 

I did use a Stump Grinder but these are very very close to a wall, hence I didnt want to damage the grinder or the wall, and when you take a axe to the stumps, they are so hard that the axe does very little to the stump. (will take a picture of the stumps when I get home)

Is there nothing else I could use to help dissolve / rot them away or at least speed
the whole process up or is it just hard graft requied?

 

no it was potassium nitrate, you leave it in the holes to speed up the rotting process, maybe I read it wrong but its in the link below.

http://www.familyhandyman.com/DIY-P...ow-to-remove-a-tree-stump-painlessly/View-All

 

Maybe you should just ask for a proprietry stump remover, the garden centres probably won't know whats iin them.

Failing that, battery acid would do the same job.

 

What about descaler (thats contains phosphoric acid) do you think that could do the job?

 

The chap in the article is the original eco warrior then:

if I understand correctly, the chap is saying something like, 'first make some nitric acid which will slowly eat through pretty much anything (and if I remember GCSE chemistry right, will react with certain naturally occurring compounds to make a fire hazard), and then pour fossil fuel onto it and set fire to it.

I must admit, it sounds quite novel. I think I'd just go at it with the pick axe for an hour or so. Just remember the number one rule of hitting things with a pick. "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction". I.e. never drive the pick straight down, always swing at an angle so that when the pick hots a springy root and bounces back, it wont take your head off.

 

I wonder if vinegar might work..........??

 

So would I if I were 20 again, looks like I will have to get someone in to do the hard work :(

No wonder some of these old ship timbers have lasted hundreds of years!

 

Or you could hollow the top bit of the stump out an make a nice little bird bath / paddling pool :p

 

Get a stump grinder in or otherwise it's just brute force and ignorance - Go at it with a pickaxe. All these potions and lotions will be a waste of time and money.