How do I stop a tree stump sprouting, without using chemicals

Let it sprout and take up basket weaving ?

I have thought of that Baggs but I also have another willow tree and a hedge and we have a living willow bower so this one sorry poor tree stump is definitely surplus to requirements.

I'm not qualified to advise on the stump removal but to kill the tree, go out weekly, without fail, and rub off the sprouting buds when they are really tiny. This is more effective than cutting off the new shoots and doesn't require great strength.
If you have a metal file , rub them off with that and damage any young bark too. You must persevere, not allow any leaves to remain to give the tree strength and it will be dead in one season.

I do understand the problem, grammaretto. Much of our garden would turn to willow/sallow carr if we let it. There is one absolutely huge goat willow in a corner but it seems to send all its energy up one trunk so I'm happy for it to blossom away merrily.

Ooh! Taking note, springychicken! Thank you for that. I need to do that with some surplus young ash trees too.

If you need the space, I would find a firm who grind the stump down. I had to get a firm to remove a stump that was huge, probably 5 foot across. They charged £200 but that was a couple of years ago.
Otherwise, I have heard that you can drill holes all over it, as deep as you can and pour petrol in the holes and keep topping up.

Well thank you, Baggs.

When my eucalyptus was cut down I asked the tree surgeon just that as it was spouting a lot he said to pour salt on the top of it It seems to have worked for me

Thanks all so much! I will try the pinching off the buds first and hope that works. I am impressed that it could take one season and not 100 years.

If not then hire a company who do stump removal but that sounds very expensive. The tree has already cost £500 to chop down but was left with this huge stump.

I had two trees taller by a lot than three story house and cost £350 for the two took two men all day from 8 till 4 hanging in a little cradle doing it bit by bit as it was so near the house I thought it very reasonable I d been quoted much higher but the other company came got started then decided it was too complex for them I was so disappointed but it worked in my favour as the second guy was so much cheaper

When somewhere that I know thinned out a largish old plantation the guy who felled the trees cut squares across the stump tops, an inch or so deep, with his chainsaw. I think the theory was that water gets into the stump and rots it. They certainly haven't regrown. But they were beech trees. I suspect that willow is more tenacious. Worth a try, though.

I did something totally different. I sawed a cross in it and put bleach down there. Yes terrible I know so please dont copy me. It worked though .

We have found that drilling deep holes and pouring in boiling salted water on a regular basis will usually stop sprouting and aid the rotting process without damaging the amazing bug life that thrive on fallen and chopped down trees.

Powdered milk seems to work - it encourages the centre to rot.

someone else has suggested putting manure on top and covering the whole thing in fabric or plastic for fast rotting.

Drilling holes and filling them with rock salt/any salt, watering it in and then regularly re-packing the holes with salt normally works. But, you are left with the actual stump until it finally rots. You can grow a climber up that or cover it with potted plants, if you don't need the space. The salt will kill it - we use salt/vinegar/soapy water to keep down weeds on our gravel drive and pathways.

I had a laurel cut right down last summer and the stump had several deep cuts scored in to it. Every day, I went out and poured a pint of boiling salted water into the cuts. No regrowth. I've since tried the same solution on a cypress leylandii and that's slowly dying off too.

I have a holly stump which can't be treated in anyway as it’s right beside my pond. It’s sprouting but I don’t mind.
Anyone know how to kill a shrubby honeysuckle, an ugly useless thing which is suckering all along a fence?

My daughter says vegetable oil in the holes in the stump works too.