Racecarl
Well-known member
When I built my garage I had to remove a 50 year old hackberry tree. I had a stump grinder outfit come in an grind the stump away. I borrowed a JD 320 skid loader from work and used a heavy duty pallet fork to get under the big roots coming in from the sides. The roots away from the main root ball are pretty soft and 'pop' out of the ground pretty easy.
My neighbor had a chinese elm and a tree of paradise (ailanthus altissima) growing up right next to the foundation of his garage. The stump grinder could not get close enough to these trees to get them out. We girdled the trees by cutting a four inch section of the bark out around the trunk about 20" off the ground. This kills the tree, and the remaining green leaves on the tree use a lot of the moisture in the trunk. I then sharpened the end of one of the pallet forks and chopped through the tap root with the sharpened point. Once I got the tap root cut and the stump was getting loose, I put the other fork back on and used the forks to pry the root ball out of the ground.
My neighbor had a chinese elm and a tree of paradise (ailanthus altissima) growing up right next to the foundation of his garage. The stump grinder could not get close enough to these trees to get them out. We girdled the trees by cutting a four inch section of the bark out around the trunk about 20" off the ground. This kills the tree, and the remaining green leaves on the tree use a lot of the moisture in the trunk. I then sharpened the end of one of the pallet forks and chopped through the tap root with the sharpened point. Once I got the tap root cut and the stump was getting loose, I put the other fork back on and used the forks to pry the root ball out of the ground.