Do Any Plants Grow Well in Tree Stumps?

Speed Up Decay

• Without branches or leaves to feed, the stump no longer pulls nutrients or water from the soil. Nitrogen and water are key ingredients in decomposition. When a stump stops pulling these ingredients from the soil, decomposition slows. Hardwood stumps could take years to decay. Turning the stump into a planter, adding fertilizer and keeping your new plants watered speeds up the process. The moisture and nutrients hasten decomposition while the plants hide the unsightly stump.

Create a Planter

• Create a depression in the top of the stump with a chisel and a mallet. The stump's size and type plants you are planting determine the depression's size. Many annuals add color to the dead stump and do not need deep holes. Fill the hole with garden soil, fertilizer and new plants. Adding a flowerbed around the stump incorporates it into the landscape and helps keep the stump moist, encouraging decay. Each season, as the stump decays, reposition your plants to continue covering the stump.

The Stumpery

• If the stump is in a shaded area, turn it into a stumpery. In England in the early 1800s, gardeners used stumps both upright and turned on their side as art work in a shaded garden. Woodland plants grew on and around the stumps for a natural effect. Ferns, hellebores and hostas are some the most common plants grown in the old Victorian stumperies and in modern stumperies.

Fungus

• Several fungi species grow well on old stumps including some culinary mushrooms. Maitake, shiitake and chicken of the woods mushroom spores are available as plugs. The mushroom mycelium colonizes the stump. About nine to 12 months later, mushrooms grow from the stump's various cracks and channels. Hardwoods such oak, poplar, elm and maple, are good for growing certain mushrooms, but aromatic trees, such as like cedar and pine, are not recommended.