Our tree has had decreased leafing out and leaf loss shortly after leafing out the last few years. We had it checked for ash borer by a local arborist but they did not see symptoms of that (it’s coming but not here yet, hoping we didn’t have the first case). He did see some bulging on the trunk as a possible indication of girdling. We began excavating around the tree on the side of the bulge and did find a maybe 1/4” root making a slight impression about 4-5” long on the base of the trunk. We removed that root but kept going incase there was something larger. We haven’t found anything else of note. We did read that our fig variety can sometimes cause too much competition in the root-zone so I took cuttings and we removed/drilled the fig.
We are back filling it with some lightly amended soil (we already have good soil) but also lowering the soil level around the trunk base to allow for the root flare.
I am including a few photos from today to see if anyone has more insights. And could a small root cause that much defoliation? Or do we need to keep looking?
I don’t have a photo of the full tree canopy but there aren’t any leaves at this time either.
by Shinola79
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