I have two stumps about 12" in diameter from trees that were cut down after the damage they received from Irene.

Over time I know the flat area will turn black but I wanted to accelerate it.

Today I spread a fine layer of Ferrous Sulfate and Ammonium Sulfate and sprayed it with a water bottle. That stuff seems to turn everything organic a nice black, so I'd figure I would try it here. A lot hasn't yet dissolved, I may spray it again tomorrow. We are below freezing right now but it was about 40 when I put it down mid-afternoon.

simpson wrote:Drill some holes and add some urea and water.

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For now I just want to see if it will turn black. May do that later.

simpson wrote:Did it soak any into the stump or did it sit on the surface? If you could get it to soak into the stump that would be even better.

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Right now it is sitting on top.

It worked great; we had about 0.1 inches of rain the dissolved most of the powder and the stumps are dark black. Ordinarily it could take a few months for them to turn. At this point you can't even see them. We are supposed to get a lot more rain tonight we should dissolve whatever remains. I spread it like powder on a donut.

Does turning "black" mean something special is happening biologically, or do you just prefer a black rotting stump to a brown/gray rotting stump for aesthetic reasons?

cactus wrote:Does turning "black" mean something special is happening biologically, or do you just prefer a black rotting stump to a brown/gray rotting stump for aesthetic reasons?

It was basically white, sitting in the middle of a bed that has dark mulch. Just going for aesthetics. Usually the stump darkens up in 3-5 months if the weather is warm. In mid-Spring through late fall I wouldn't see it because all the plants would be leafed out, but it looked very "wrong" this time of year. Brown/gray is fine, I just wanted to get there faster.

You might be interested in my organic stump removal experiment posted in the Organic Lawn Care forum.

Dchall_San_Antonio wrote:You might be interested in my organic stump removal experiment posted in the Organic Lawn Care forum.

Thanks.

Jon,How did this experiment work out?

If definitely darkened the stumps. I'm quite sure that when we get some consistently warm weather and some rain they'll turn black like some of my other stumps.