Hello TreePeople! I have been a long time lurker, inspiried to clean up the trees on my property. No major issues, until. I do my favorite tree. A mature beech (self IDd) and here is what I uncoverer.
At this stage I'm thinking of getting a professional. This tree sits ~20 ft from my house. And I'm not sure if cutting that root is the right call as it almost looks to fuse with both sides of the flare.
Don't mind the water, thats how I'm excavating.š
by BenderOrFlexo
11 Comments
Not an arborist, but donāt beeches have smooth bark?
Looks more cottonwood. Get an arborist to look at it
Your self IF was off and that appears to be a basswood
Ty!
I would bet $1000 that you can not kill this Sisso tree. I donāt care what you do to it.
Why cut the roots? Why not just mound some dirt over them?
Only an experienced root pruning professional arborists should attend to those girdling roots.
Waste of time and money. A tree that size will just shrug stuff like that off.
If youāre questioning if you need an arborist then you definitely need one.
Best way to root prune is with chisels. You can prob fit some loppers in there though, then clean up with chisels if you have to. Iād cut in the middle of the bridge thatās closest to trunk and remove the left one that is against the buttress root. Always use sharp tools
You should defiantly get an arborist out to asses the canopy and those codominant stems. That tree needs at least 3 structural pruning cycles over the next 10 years.
Girdling roots is most typically an issue with nursery grown trees that are cultured in pots. If the trees are left too long in a pot, the roots will grow around the circumference of the pot and often times, they will maintain that circular growth pattern into maturity, so that as the diameter of the tree increases, the roots will āchokeā the treeās Cambrian layer, cutting of the roots from that feed that side of the tree.
Given so, root pruning is more crucial as a corrective measure when nursery grown trees are young, to ensure that the treeās life isnāt cut short unnecessarily. Basswoods are by far, naturally occurring trees in nature. A tree of this size could have been planted decades ago, but it most likely germinated in that spot from a seed. Point is, this tree has already made it past the point that girdling roots are usually an issue, and Iād argue that this tree has reached peak maturity and it will gradually decline in health from here on out. Those roots can certainly be pruned, and it might as well be done while you have it opened up, but donāt expect this action to make a substantive difference in the treeās health or longevity at this point. You need to be careful what youāre doingā¦ based on your self-proclaimed lack of knowledge of arboriculture, you could easily do more harm than good to a tree, if you arenāt careful.