You can grind it. You can hack away at it. You can burn it.
You can blow it up. None of these approaches work well on
roots designed to hold a tree up against 100-mph winds. The
result of such heavy, manual labor is sweat and little
satisfaction.
But there is another alternative-simply letting the stump
rot. Slow, you say? Here's a way to speed up nature's
process:
Use a chain saw to cut the stump as close to the ground as
possible. It's an odd angle of cutting. Beware of kickbacks.
Remember to avoid cutting into the ground. That rapidly
dulls the cutting teeth and throws debris into the air.
Drill large holes, a few inches deep, into the stump.
Fill the holes with a source of nitrogen and add water. The
nitrogen source can be manure or a home fertilizer high in
nitrogen.
Apply powdered milk to jump-start the work of fungi.
Mushrooms show the fungi are working.
Soak the ground around the stump.
Cover the stump with a plastic tarp or dirt.
Cover the tarp or dirt with mulch.
Wet the mulch. You may want to add rocks to anchor the
tarp.
Remove the tarp and add water and a teaspoon of nitrogen
occasionally. Then cover the stump again.
Use a herbicide to stop new sprouts. However, the roots of
one tree can graft with the roots of a nearby tree and kill
it as well. The best way to remove sprouts is to just cut
them when they are 6 to 8 inches tall.
Add a bit of borax to red cedar and pine stumps. This
prevents a fresh-cut stump from being inoculated by annosus
root rot, a soil-dwelling fungus. The fungi spreads into the
stump and roots and, potentially, onto healthy pines and red
cedars through root grafts.