PSA: I used to think stump grinding was always the best option until a neighbor called me out

My neighbor Jerry stopped me last week while I was grinding a big maple stump and said he thought leaving the stump to rot was better for the soil. He showed me how his old stumps had turned into rich compost over 3 years with just some drilled holes and mushroom spawn. Has anyone else found that letting stumps decay naturally beats grinding in certain yards?

2 comments

2 Comments

miles_roberts2217d ago

Three years seems a bit quick for turning a whole maple stump into rich compost unless it was a tiny sapling. A big maple stump like the one you were grinding could take closer to five to seven years to fully break down, even with mushroom spawn and drilled holes. The mushrooms do help speed things up and improve soil life, but you'll still have a solid core for a while. My old man tried the mushroom route on a walnut stump and after four years it was still mostly wood, just with some crumbly edges. So Jerry's not wrong about the soil benefits, but the timeline depends a lot on the stump size and wood density.

joseph_lewis9217d ago

Yeah I was totally in the same boat, thought grinding was the only way to go. But Jerry's point about the soil health makes a lot of sense, honestly changed my mind on it.