North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Ginda Fisher <list@ginda.us>]

On Nov 14, 2010, at 8:51 AM, Jerrydana5@aol.com wrote:

I have two questions:

1.  I have a stump from a Sassafras tree I cut down in the middle of the yard.  Does anybody know of something I can put on it to "dissolve" or make the stump soft so I can chop it out?

In my yard, once the stump is dead, termites, beetle larvae, and assorted fungi will take care of that in a couple of years.

2.  I have a couple of shrubs which in my garden I've been cutting back in hopes of killing them and it hasn't worked.  The roots are very deep and I cannot dig them out.  Is there something I can put on them to kill them?   I eventually want to use the soil so don't want to put anything on it that will render the soil useless. 

My guess is that you can apply most any herbicide directly to the open wound on the stump, and use a low enough dose that you won't poison the nearby soil.

Ginda