Yeah, they will continue to grow. You need to dig it out or get a stump grinder.

Is water oak especially prone to suckering?

If you want the trunk for chainsaw carving or for planting on I say cut them off quickly.

If you want to grow a new tree....I dunno. The suckers will get plenty of food from the roots. I just dunno how strongly attached to the old wood they will be or if the big open stump will hollow out by the time the suckers are a nice 20 foot tall tree or what.

After one of my ash trees was removed it suckered from the two foot stump a few times. I alternated between cutting them and spraying with round-up depending if there were other weeds to kill that day.

Is water oak especially prone to suckering?

If you want the trunk for chainsaw carving or for planting on I say cut them off quickly.

If you want to grow a new tree....I dunno. The suckers will get plenty of food from the roots. I just dunno how strongly attached to the old wood they will be or if the big open stump will hollow out by the time the suckers are a nice 20 foot tall tree or what.

After one of my ash trees was removed it suckered from the two foot stump a few times. I alternated between cutting them and spraying with round-up depending if there were other weeds to kill that day.

Tlbean. If you want the tree not to grow into a big shade tree, get rid of all the tree as close to the soil line as possible. Don't wait at all. unless you are thinking you want a large shade tree.