Hi there: Last summer I cut down a massive big leaf maple which was half dead and growing over the house. After the stump is ground out or dug up, can I plant another tree nearby or will the ground be too full of old roots for a new tree to thrive? thanks
Once the roots are dead, they don't compete with new tree roots, except to use up some nitrogen while they rot. Feeding the new tree with a bit of extra nitrogen should take care of that.
Why was the old tree half-dead? If it had a pathogenic root disease (e.g. Armillaria), there is a risk this could spread from the old tree's roots to the new tree's roots.
Bigleaf Maple - Acer macrophyllum - on the Wet Coast gets infected by "Crown Rot" as it is known colloquially round here. I don't know the scientific name of the pathogen. Being a vigorous beastie, the trees sucker out of healthy growth & end up with a ragged appearence, often having no clear main leader in the upper growth & a hollow trunk. They get to be 6-8 feet in trunk diameter & 70-80 feet tall in the Fraser Valley....with big suckery branches & rotten bits here & there. NOT good trees to have by your house IMO. I suspect the trees in suburban areas are more prone to disease than the forest ones I see in the Parks & lower-level forested areas. These are just my observations. I have not seen any succdesful remediation afforts. BTW Sea witch, Why grind the stump? In the woods, these provide nursery areas for several species & add the opportunity to grow species that you might otherwise not be able to grow. I have a big stump in my yard & it has been an asset for 20 years.
Many full-sized big-leaf maples in my travels are quite apparently in serious decline during recent years, with rapid onset of undersized leaves throughout the crown and even rapid total death - as has begun to occur just in the last two years at my friend's large property on Camano Island. Some years ago I was told declining big-leaf maples in the Seattle arboretum were sampled and found to be hosting multiple species of pathogenic water molds. If you grind a stump it presumably makes it a less suitable place for Armillaria to build up in and move out from, to infest and kill adjacent plantings.
Quote from maple trees.com re Acer macrophyllum: "stem and branch wounds are invaded by wood-rotting fungi such as Heterobasidion annosum, Fomitopsis pinicola, Polyporus berkeleyi, and Inonotus dryadeus that can reduce the tree to a hollow shell. Overmature bigleaf maples are often decayed by root rot (Armillaria spp.) and butt rots (Ganoderma applanatum and Oxyporus populinus). Verticillium wilt (Verticillium albo-atrum) occasionally kills forest trees, but it is most serious on ornamental bigleaf maples" ...Ouch! Plant a Japanese maple instead.
Which, being a maple as well, is also prone to Pseudomonas, Verticillium and so on - many failures (partial or complete dying back) of cultivars at least are asked about. Acer palmatum ---Japanese Maple Verticillium wilt is becoming too common. If it were not for this sad fact, I would likely rank this a five-star tree. It is unparalled in its diversity of form, color, leaf shape, and role in the landscape. Many dozens of different kinds are sold in nurseries. But I am tired of hearing from people whose prized specimens are on the decline. For whatever reason, this ugly disease has become more prevalent in the last decade http://www.arthurleej.com/a-overplanted.html
What was wrong with it? I have no idea. I can tell you that as a woodworker, I was happy to be able to save a lot of the *heavily* spalted wood which is currently stacked and drying in my house. Several large vertical pieces were standing dead. Other large pieces (it was a big tree) were obviously broken off, and the remains of shredded limbs were visible. Since the remaining parts were growing over the house, we thought cutting it down was the only sensible option. Down close to the ground, the trunk was mushy/punky inside. For that reason, I don't think it will be difficult to dig it out with a backhoe. So if I plant other trees there, are they going to suffer the same fate? I don't understand this. How does leaving the stump help grow other species?
"So if I plant other trees there, are they going to suffer the same fate?" ...no, probably not. Not unless they are susceptible to the same kind of diseases. Ron B just shot down Japanese Maples :) ....come to think of it, mine has bracket fungi growing out of it! Just plant stuff that might be suitable for the spot & see what happens. Big leaf maple wood makes great firewood. Burns slow & hot.
If honey fungus is present or appears later many years can be wasted when it takes out a planted specimen.
My experience with honey fungus is that it is pretty unpredictable. It first took out a peach tree which I replaced with a plum that has not had any problems for at least 20 years. Then it took out the replacement peach tree planted about 15 ft away after the tree had gotten quite large. The cherry tree that replaced the 2nd peach tree has not been bothered, and it must be over 10 years old. The third peach tree, planted about 15 ft from the 2nd one, has not shown signs of honey fungus, although I found another type of mushroom growing on it last year; so its days are numbered. All of this was over a span of about 35 years in a small area. My point is that the presence of honey fungus is not necessarily a death sentence for trees in the area; so far it has only affected peach trees that were already under stress from Coryneum Blight.
