Getting rid of black walnut trees

[Tommie]

Black walnut trees grow like weeds around here and, because of the rocky soil, they aren't deep rooted. When it rains a lot and the wind blows hard, you can count on one or two coming down. The squirrels plant them when they are storing nuts for the winter and, with so many around, there's no way I can beat them to the nuts. There are three trees right up against my house that I want to destroy. My neighbor cuts them down but they come back up from the roots. I don't want to poison the place but what can I use to get rid of those three permanently?

[bullthistle]

You might have to. When I bought my house there were a couple of Sweet gums outside the front door, so I cut them down, drilled holes in the stumps and poured stump rot into the holes and years later whallah, black holes arose with no end in site when I tired backfilling.

[Tommie]

Black holes? Are you saying the trees grew back?

[bullthistle]

No, a black hole was left where the stumps and the roots were. Disintergrated.

[Tommie]

Oh, no! And no amount of filling helped, I take it. Well, I don't need that, either. Is the answer just cutting them back when they get tall enough to cause problems? I don't like the juglone that comes from the leaves, either.

[Kisal]

I've had a few trees removed from my property over the years, and I used Stump Rot as described by bullthistle. I've never had any "black holes" develop as a result. In fact, there were no holes at all, so no backfilling was ever required.