The process is quick, but you’ll need to repeat it multiple times over several months.
Cost
$25–$50
Just a short shopping trip (or online order).
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What you'll need:
TOOLS
Cordless drill
Shovel
SUPPLIES
Epsom salt
Household vinegar
Tarp or durable plastic (optional)
Wondering whether Epsom salt and vinegar will kill a tree stump? The answer is that these household items can speed up the dying-off process, inserting them into the trunk to see fast results. Plus, these chemicals won’t pose any serious threat to nearby plants or lawns. Let’s review the step-by-step instructions for using Epsom salt and vinegar to kill a stubborn stump.
Prepping to Use Epsom Salt and and Vinegar On a Tree Stump
Before you start working on your tree, there are a few preparation facts you need to know. First, do not confuse Epsom salt with table salt or rock salt. Epsom salt is a mixture of magnesium sulfate, which is not inherently harmful to the soil and is even a common addition of many fertilizers. You can find it at any department or home improvement store, or order it online.
However, when applied to a tree stump it can quickly dry it out and force an early death. The other common household salt is sodium chloride. It’s safe for humans to eat in tiny amounts, but it’s toxic for plant growth. It can help kill a tree trunk by drying it out like Epsom salt, but it will also poison the nearby soil and kill anything else growing there (or any future plans for growth). That’s why it’s best avoided in situations like these.
Second, the type of vinegar isn’t nearly as important as the type of salt. Any household vinegar should work, but we suggest sticking with common white vinegar. It’s affordable and easy to buy in bulk, and you’ll need a fair amount to treat your tree trunk.
How to Use Epsom Salt and Vinegar to Kill a Tree Stump
With a bag of Epsom salt and a jug of vinegar, you’re ready to begin. Wait for a dry day when the stump isn’t wet, but you can do these steps at any time.
Flatten the Stump
If your stump was chopped with an angled felling cut, try to flatten it to a more horizontal surface with some quick saw work. A flat stump is much easier to deal with when applying Epsom salt and vinegar. If you are dealing with small stumps or stumps that are close together, it may be difficult to use this killing method until you flatten them out.
Use your electric drill to drill several deep holes into the stump. The holes should be as large as possible, so use your largest drill bit. You should drill down as deep as possible to reach the heart of the tree stump. You can drill up to 10 inches down for maximum effect on large stumps. Wipe away any sawdust obscuring the holes.
Pack in Epsom Salt
Pour your bag of Epsom salt into the holes. Make sure it’s packed in tightly, but avoid piling Epsom salt around the trunk. While it’s used as a part of fertilizers, too much can risk harming the soil or it could encourage weed growth.
Pour Vinegar Down the Holes
Carefully pour your jug of vinegar into the holes to thoroughly soak the Epsom salt. It’s fine if the vinegar overflows a bit, but you don’t want it to completely soak the surrounding ground. The acidic vinegar will help the Epsom salt permeate the stump (along with a very minor chemical reaction) and will itself hasten the stump’s death and drying out.
If you decide to skip the vinegar step, it’s still a good idea to lightly soak the salted holes with water to activate the Epsom salt.
Cover Up the Stump With a Dark Material
For maximum effect, you should cover the stump with a heavy tarp or a weighted black plastic sheet or bag. A plastic covering will prevent the stump from getting any sunlight, which only encourages new shoots to develop. It also concentrates the heat from the sun in that area, forcing the stump to dry out even faster. It can also keep the rain off the stump if necessary so the Epsom salt won’t wash out.
Repeat the Process In the Coming Months
One treatment of Epsom salt and vinegar will help, but it won’t be enough to fully kill the stump. After a couple of weeks, wash any remaining Epsom salts away with a new vinegar treatment and repeat the process. Keep an eye on the stump: If it looks like it’s still trying to grow or isn’t dying fast enough, you can drill extra holes for a larger application.
After a couple of months, repeat the process a third time. By now, the stump should be dead and beginning to dry out. Fully killing and drying out the stump usually takes six months or longer. When the stump looks like it’s ready to start crumbling, it’s time to remove the stump.
Once the stump is dried out completely and crumbling, you can choose your preferred method of removing the stump. In keeping with the DIY style, you should start by trying to dig and hack it out with a sturdy shovel. The dead tree roots won’t be the barrier they once were. If the stump is too large, you can rent a stump grinder or hire a professional stump grinder to open space up.
As a tree stump dies and dries out, it faces a growing risk of developing problems, notably root rot that can attract disease, which spreads to nearby living trees. It can also attract pests like termites, carpenter ants, wasps, and disease-bearing beetles. Keep a close eye on the stump’s condition and watch for the right window to act. You’ll want to remove it when it dries out, but before rot can set in and start causing problems. The time frame depends on the stump size, species, and climate.
DIY vs. Hiring a Pro
This homemade mixture for drying out a stump is strictly a DIY project, making it easy to kill a stump yourself. With inexpensive and easily accessible chemicals, it’s a project anyone can complete. If you have a drill and can carry a bucket, you can finish this task.
However, the treatment takes significant time and you need to repeat it several times to work well. Not everyone has that kind of patience or time. In these cases, you can call in a professional to handle the tree stump for you. The cost to remove a stump varies based on its size and accessibility, but it usually ranges from $180 to $560. You also have the option to grind a stump down to below grass level. Professional stump grinding costing between $120 and $400. Consider hiring a local tree maintenance professional to determine the best course of action for killing your tree stump.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can expect Epsom salt and vinegar to take between 6 to 12 months to kill and dry out a tree. That may sound like a long time, but it’s much faster than it takes most tree stumps to die. If your time frame is more limited than that, you may want to call in the stump removal pros to remove the trunk or grind it down, although this may cause more ground damage.
A tree can grow back from its stump, but full regrowth is unlikely (especially for more stubborn conifer trees). Instead, trees are more likely to send up a number of shoots from the dead stump, which will try to develop into primary stems over time. In other words, it will start to look increasingly bushy. The goal of killing and drying out a tree stump is to prevent that from happening, as well as make the stump easier to completely remove.
No. Rock salt and similar concoctions use sodium chloride. It may be great sprinkled on your roasted potatoes, but plants don’t like it at all and in large amounts it will poison the soil. So while standard salt will dry out a tree, it will kill everything else nearby and cause other problems. The confusion is due to the word “salt” being an old catch-term for any dry chemical mixture.
Some people prefer to leave or even carve a leftover stump, but we recommend removing it if possible. You can often dig out smaller trunks with a shovel once they have died and dried out. You can have stumps professionally removed, or request a service to grind them down to ground level so they can be replaced with other landscaping or objects.
It can be bad to leave a dead stump in the ground. A stump becomes a hefty piece of dead wood in time and eventually (especially with the help of rain) starts to rot. That makes it a locus point for diseases and pesky insects, as well as a bit of an eyesore. It’s best to remove a tree stump completely before it starts to decay, especially before it starts to fall apart. If the tree was removed because of disease, it’s even more important to fully remove the stump if possible.
Tyler Lacoma has spent more than 10 years testing home technology and the latest tools to help keep readers current for their next project. His published work can be found on Family Handyman, U.S. News & World Report, and Digital Trends.
Tyler Lacoma has spent more than 10 years testing home technology and the latest tools to help keep readers current for their next project. His published work can be found on Family Handyman, U.S. News & World Report, and Digital Trends.
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