Question
Don't know if you can answer this but here goes. I just had a larger live oak (3 ft diameter ) removed from my yard that was much to close and hanging over my home.  I'm going to have the stump grinded down and the people doing the job say they generally grind anywhere from 10 to 12 inches below grade.  My question is we would like to plant a Japanese magnolia where the oak tree was.  Can we do this and even if it grows some would it be eventually sucessful.  Thank you

Answer
Richard,

The majority of the root system of your oak is found in the top 12-14 inches of the soil and spread out up to 3-4 times the diameter of the drip line.  By grinding down to 12 inches most of the oaks root system will have been removed and you should be able to plant your magnolia.