I don’t have my brightness up, but I don’t see any signs of decline, so I would encourage trying to get that root flare showing.
Lumpy-Turn4391
Maybe still salvageable. Don’t wait too long
xeodgroup
Much appreciate the advice. I’ve learned a ton from this group and very appreciative of everyone sharing!
Howcomeudothat
Go for it now
JCanse9
The grass cut ring around the tree is a decent size of what I’d start to dig out and mulch over the area.
The tree will thank you.
DanoPinyon
They’re not suited for Colo. Good chance it will become chlorotic and decline, very common and fairly well-known problem tree.
Denver bans them outright as street trees, many cities have removed them from their recommended list, they’re on [**the not recommended list**](https://planttalk.colostate.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024-Front-Range-Tree-List.pdf) (last page) for Front Range trees. Problem is that maybe ~20% look good for about 2 decades and people hope that will happen to them too (similar to aspen). Builders try to get away with planting them because they’re so cheap.
The standard routine for these trees on the Front Range is someone loves them, finds out they’re terrible, sees the yellowing leaves, throws down some iron chelate for a few years, then finally gives up and replaces the tree after ~7-10 years and starts all over. If you keep it, you’ll have to prune often to remove narrow crotches and broken limbs from wet snow. IMHO the rate of tree failure IIRC is ~40-65%, depending. With some of the new construction in expansive clay soils, this problem is delayed somewhat due to the sulfur being added to reduce clay expansion.
[edit: fatfanger]
substituted_pinions
Do you cover the trunk in winter? I planted two and lost one. Fragile tree, do not recommend. The usual 3 year cycle of _sleep, creep and leap _for these MFs is more like _pale, frail and fail_.
7 Comments
I don’t have my brightness up, but I don’t see any signs of decline, so I would encourage trying to get that root flare showing.
Maybe still salvageable. Don’t wait too long
Much appreciate the advice. I’ve learned a ton from this group and very appreciative of everyone sharing!
Go for it now
The grass cut ring around the tree is a decent size of what I’d start to dig out and mulch over the area.
The tree will thank you.
They’re not suited for Colo. Good chance it will become chlorotic and decline, very common and fairly well-known problem tree.
Denver bans them outright as street trees, many cities have removed them from their recommended list, they’re on [**the not recommended list**](https://planttalk.colostate.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024-Front-Range-Tree-List.pdf) (last page) for Front Range trees. Problem is that maybe ~20% look good for about 2 decades and people hope that will happen to them too (similar to aspen). Builders try to get away with planting them because they’re so cheap.
The standard routine for these trees on the Front Range is someone loves them, finds out they’re terrible, sees the yellowing leaves, throws down some iron chelate for a few years, then finally gives up and replaces the tree after ~7-10 years and starts all over. If you keep it, you’ll have to prune often to remove narrow crotches and broken limbs from wet snow. IMHO the rate of tree failure IIRC is ~40-65%, depending. With some of the new construction in expansive clay soils, this problem is delayed somewhat due to the sulfur being added to reduce clay expansion.
[edit: fatfanger]
Do you cover the trunk in winter? I planted two and lost one. Fragile tree, do not recommend. The usual 3 year cycle of _sleep, creep and leap _for these MFs is more like _pale, frail and fail_.