hey

what advice do you want??? sounds like you are doing what need be done ...

it would easiest to deal with a potted tree .. at the appropriate time of year.. with a FULLY DORMANT leafless tree ...

and then bare root the thing .... do the root surgery .. and plant it properly ...

you would never do that with a potted tree that was leafed out.. unless you were to bury the pot and all for the season.. and then do the surgery at the right time of year ... and then plant it properly ...

i hope that is understandable ... if not.. ask ...

it took me about 2 decades to figure that out .. lol .... that just because i buy it.. doesnt mean i NEED to plant it immediately ... duh!!! on me.. lol ...

ken

Thanks Ken :)

I guess that is about what I am doing. I am digging them up one by one and root pruning all the circles of death out. I have noticed that the ones I have dug up are putting out quite the rootball since I planted them last September (with leaves still on). Oh and the buds are looking a tad larger but no bud break yet (silver maples are leafing out pretty well, though) but they should any time now I think.

My question is really do I need to dig up all of the trees regardless of species or do some of them form root grafts with themselves later on that won't girdle the tree. I really don't what to dig up the other trees (approx 8 more in addition to all the maples). If it is suggested that I do, can I do it over a couple of seasons? All are around 1 inch diameter trunks for now with a couple of exceptions.

I also had 5 large Autumn Blaze maples planted before I knew anything about anything green. The one that took off last year has a visible root flare. The other do not. I am now afraid to remove the soil around the trunks of those if fear of what I might find!

I would look at them all. The trouble is nurseries pot and re-pot and frequently bury plants in the process. The big nurseries are production factories and it is usually not a plant person doing the potting but a minimum wage worker.
As for timing they are small and there is probably no hurry, so you can wait until they are dormant.
Below is a link with far more information then most people probably want to see.
The link thing on these forums does not except PDF links so you will have to copy and past it.
arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/1906.pdf

Nice read there IpmMan.

So if I understand correctly I can keep root pruning and replanting until they begin to leaf out then stop until early next year?

As long as you are careful. Make sure that you give them water if it gets dry, but don't keep them wet. Also no Nitrogen until they recover.

"The link thing on these forums does not except PDF links so you will have to copy and past it.
arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/1906.pdf";

You just forgot to add the "http://"; part. BTW, it may take a while to load this page because of the size of the file (lots of pics).

Here is a link that might be useful: Your Link

We're having the lawyer draft something to purchase ~75 trees this week to replace some of our dead-declining in the ROW. During my inspection I found a half-dozen-ish with girdling roots that will have to be replaced, but not in this wave - I have several years before they are a hazard, but the point is that I expect them to become hazards.

Dan

only pines dependably graft trunk to roots.

Johnson's Arnoldia good, but sketchy advice on management due to their lack of experience--I've pruned a lot of SGR's that were 100% girdling with no ill effects. Trunks will not be damaged if reasonable care is taken. If we remove all trees >50% girdled, we lose millions.

Find the topmost roots on all your trees!

Treeseer,

When you say that this Harvard professor lacks experience, what do you base that on? In what way do you consider the article "sketchy"? Can you provide specifics on how your experience differs from that presented in the article?

Can you provide specifics on how your experience differs from that presented in the article?

I'll wager 'no'.

Dan

he's not from harvard but MN
sketchy advice on management due to their lack of experience
he's not an arborist but an extension guy--and a good one!
help the op--which species tend to graft?

Page 8 here:

Here is a link that might be useful: sgr

Seems to me that the link IpmMan gave has considerably more relevant information (was actually less sketchy) than that TCIA article. Nothing wrong with the TCIA article, and it did propose some worthwhile ideas, but I can see no way in which it was really superior to the first article (even for an arborist audience).

Another helpful article, thanks!

I can see those maples I corrected looking every bit that bad in 20-30 years. I may possibly live at a different location in that amount of time since I am 28, but I will at least make the occasional drive by to see how things have progressed.

As a side note: I bare-rooted 6 viburnums, 2 red maples, 2 kousa dogwoods, 4 sourwoods, and a sugar maple in the last 2 days. Bare rooting always seems like more work to me, but the peace of mind is unmatched!

Arnoldia article had superior documentation of the problem,
but I saw nothing about treating it besides a 50% 'give up" number pulled out of some nether region. Or did I miss something?

TCIA piece did not just propose, but demonstrated. also have a peer-reviewed book chapter on pdf.

What would you like to wager, Dan? :)

Trees and other plants are not an exact science or our jobs would be easy. We look at all research, make the best decision we can, and hope what we do works. Even a tree that is perfectly planted and cared for can; though rarely, develop girdling and nasty cross roots. OP said that most of the trees he was concerned about are young which gives them good chance of recovery with root treatment. Sure the OP may loose some trees to the root surgery but left alone with the problems he described they have little chance of growing up to be nice trees. I have worked with both scientists, businesses and the public and scientists do work in a different thinking zone. They present facts that in science are definitive to them, that is just the way they think. The research that they do has to be used and considered by us, but is not always practical to the real world in which they do not live.

I made a webpage for my girdled tree. Two of three tree people give me no chance, so there is hope! I attached 3 root pics. and one tree pic at the link below. I have some branch ends dead, and light green leaves, girdled root symptons from what I've read. The tree guru who thinks there is hope intends to remove the bad root, does anyone have positive experiences with a girdled tree?

Here is a link that might be useful: girdled tree pictures