There were two large ficus trees causing mayhem to my sprinkler pipes and neighbors wall. I cut them down to stumps which was pretty challenging for me. Now I am wondering how to properly remove the roots. Do I dig and follow as best I can, cut flush as far as I can get it, and rebury with dirt? Are there other ways that would be more efficient or effective? Thanks.
When I moved into my new house, I had 2-3 of these plants fully grown in a brick planter box a couple feet from each other creating this monstrosity of an archway as they connected at the top. It looked nice, but constantly sent flowers into my pool not to mention they have these super big sharp thorns. I cut them down to stumps and to my surprise were still thriving with growth on the stumps. I finally dug the planter box out and saw there was about a 3” gap on the bottom from the concrete to the wall of dirt where they were running drip system hoses. The two (three? 2 looked like they fused at the stump) stumps had huge roots that went all over the box but all found a way through the 3” gap and their diameters are maxed out. Is there a way to do these roots out or what do people typically do? Cut them flush to the opening? Do you need to do anything else to prevent them from regrowing? I want to use the planter box for flowers.