What to do with the stump after a tree comes down

You have three choices for the stump: grind it out, cut it flush with the ground, or leave it standing. Which one is right depends on what that patch of ground has to do next, and that is a question about your yard rather than about the stump.

One thing up front. We are a tree crew, not a soil lab and not a pest control company. The facts below about sprouting, insects and replanting are quoted from university extension pages, with a link to each one, and your yard is still its own case.

What a flush cut actually leaves

A flush cut takes the stump down level with the ground, or close to it. When we took three Bradford pears out in New Market, all three stumps were flush cut to within three to eight inches of the ground. You can mow around the stumps. You cannot plant on top, and the root system underneath is untouched.

Whether that is enough comes down to one thing: whether anything has to go in that spot. On a maple we pulled back off a house and a fence in Powell there was an old stump on the side of the house, left from something earlier, sitting where a mower had to go around it. It was flush cut while the crew was there, at no charge, and it took a few minutes. Read that as what happened on one job rather than as a standing offer. Ask at the estimate and we will tell you which it is on yours.

Will it sprout back?

That depends on the species, and some are a great deal worse than others.

The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, writing about tree of heaven in Tennessee forests, puts it plainly: “Cutting alone is not effective because trees will resprout from the stump or roots, and root suckers will emerge from the soil.”

Callery pear behaves the same way, and that matters here because Penn State Extension’s page on callery pear notes it “is also known as ‘Bradford’ pear, a name given to its most widely planted landscaping cultivar”. On cutting it, the same page says mechanical work “effectively eliminates the low cover and provides access to overgrown sites, but plants will readily resprout”.

So on a Bradford pear, a flush cut is quite likely to be the start of a second job, and grinding is worth pricing at the same time rather than next spring. For what is standing in your yard, tell us what it is when you call and we will say what we expect it to do.

What an old stump brings with it

Decaying wood near a house is worth knowing about, and the extension pages are careful about how far that goes.

Penn State Extension on carpenter ants says: “The nest is usually located in a cavity in the soft, moist, decaying wood of a hollow tree, stump, or log.” The same page says of a house with ants inside it that “The parent colony is often located in a tree, log, or waste wood within 100 yards of the house.”

Note which direction that runs. It does not say a stump in your yard will put ants in your kitchen. It says that if you already have them inside, a decaying stump is one of the places worth looking.

Termites are the other insect worth a word here. The University of Kentucky’s guide to protecting a home against termites lists this among its prevention steps: “Where practical, remove stumps and dead roots around and beneath buildings, and any form boards left in place after the building was constructed.”

Distance is the thing. A stump at the back fence of an acre is a different proposition from one three feet off the crawlspace vent. For what is in your walls, ask a pest control company. We can tell you what it would take to get the stump out.

When keeping the stump is the right answer

Sometimes the answer is to leave it, and that is a real choice rather than a way of saving a line on the invoice. We took down a maple of about eighty feet over a neighbor’s carport in Knoxville, and the stump stayed on purpose. The homeowner planned to use it for flower pots and garden projects, so it was left cut low instead of ground.

If that is what you want, say so before the crew packs up, and say how high. Cut low for flower pots and cut at seat height are not the same cut, and the second one cannot be made after the first.

If you ever want to plant in that spot

This is where grinding earns its money, and it still does not hand you a clean slate.

Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, answering whether you can replant in the same spot after a removal, gives a number worth keeping: “Usually most of the issues with soil structure, nutrients, and physical space occupied by old roots can be avoided by planting at least three feet, but ideally six to eight feet away from the removed tree.”

Grass over a ground stump is a different question, and Purdue Extension’s answer on planting grass over a newly removed stump covers both of the things people notice afterwards. On the dip that shows up a year or two later: “There will be significant settling of the ground below the stump as it decays and loses its structural fiber.” On grass that goes in and then sulks: “The woody debris material created from stump grinding has a high carbon to nitrogen (C:N) ratio. This reduces nitrogen availability for the new tree or grass.”

Which is to say that grass over a ground stump works, with soil added on top and feeding to make up for the chips. A new tree down the same hole does not. Move it a few feet.

If you leave the stump standing instead, how long it takes to rot is the one thing on this page we will not put a number on. It turns on the species, the wood and how wet that corner of the yard stays, and nobody can read those off a photo.

Can the grinder even reach it?

Worth asking early, because on some properties it changes the answer.

A grinder has to get to the stump, and a back yard is not always open to it. How we grind stumps goes into the machine, the depth and what happens to the grindings.

When you call, tell us where private lines, such as sprinkler systems and septic system drain lines, run and where the gate is and roughly how wide. We take all factors into consideration before anything is quoted.

Two things decide what the stump work costs, and both are better settled at the estimate than after the truck has gone:

• Grinding at the same visit versus coming back for it later? Grinding on the same visit may save you money depending on the situation i.e., the time, fuel, etc. savings of hauling all equipment over in one trip vs returning as a separate trip.
• What happens to the grindings? We offer three stump grinding service tiers: Grind & Level, Grind & Clear, and Grind & Restore.
  • Grind & Level reflects traditional stump grinding where the stump is ground with grindings leveled and left at the stump site.
  • Grind & Clear involves removing the grindings and mulch after the stump has been ground; this is a great option if you plan to add top soil later.
  • Grind & Restore is our premium tier where we remove the grindings and mulch after the stump has been ground and then backfill with top soil; this tier is ideal for those who want to seed grass at the former stump site.

Pricing slightly varies from job to job with Grind & Clear typically 2x Grind & Level and Grind & Restore typically 3x Grind & Level. For example, if a Grind & Level is quoted at $200 then Grind & Clear would typically be $400 and Grind & Restore $600. Again, these are ballpark numbers and may vary depending on the type of job.

Where to go from here

If a tree removal is already booked, decide the stump before the crew comes, because doing both in one visit is one trip instead of two. If the stump is already sitting there, from us or from whoever cut it, it is its own job and we will quote it on its own.

We work Powell, New Market and the rest of the Knoxville area. Call 865-360-6685 and tell us what is in the yard, what you want to do with that spot, and we will tell you which of the three choices fits.