>It's hard to believe they don't realize there's a problem. Makes one wonder if they can really be that out of touch, or, if they just don't care< You could be talking about most of the industry - pretty much anything woody that has been in a band, liner or 4 inch pot at some point in the production cycle is very likely to end up being offered to the retail public with terrible root deformities right at the base of the stem, where you often can't do anything about it. Despite being a retailer Burnt Ridge is an actual grower that produces their own finished stock. I have been to their property at least a couple of times, the quality and value of the trees their field growing operation generates can be stunning. And they have a hillside planted with all manner of chestnut cultivars and other edible theme trees; if they were located in Britain they might be the holders of the National Collection of just the chestnuts alone. So I would keep watching what they offer over the years (catalag seems to have a number of new and interesting items every year), and just keep in mind that - same as elsewhere - there is a tendency for bare-rooted dormant stock to have better roots than potted stock. Also with mail order in general, because you are not able to inspect the plants before purchase it is a good idea to limit your catalog/internet purchases to those items it appears you really can't get somewhere you are willing or able to travel to yourself. I've been known to drive as far as the San Diego area to shop plants myself.

I would go a couple of thoughts further about nursery grown trees. First, natural seedling trees establish their own level of root flare. Typically, no cultivation occurs around them. Liners at nurserys are "man-planted" and may be set too deeply from the beginning. Also, as soil cultivation around nursery planted trees recurs over the several years that it takes to develop the tree, the surrounding soil often builds around the base of the tree, "sinking" the original level of the root flare. Advantitious roots occur because of these various causes of deepening and the decreases of available oxygen as the flare gets deeper. I honestly don't know if advantitious roots occur because of severance of main roots during transplanting, but genereal root regrowth certainly is stimulated when root loss from digging happens. hortster

I agree with bboy, the situation does need to be addressed, and the two smaller roots in the picture also look like they will eventually cause problems. If you do decide to saw through the larger girdling root, you'll probably have to carefully cut just beside the trunk on each side and leave the root section, that's already embedded, where it is. It doesn't look like it would be likely to come out easily. The tree will grow around the root section. I can't tell from the picture how far around the root goes behind the tree or exactly how the attached end of the root looks (behind the tree in the picture). All this makes me wonder what's just below the surface. This situation could have probably been taken care of when the tree was first planted.

Hey Houzi, I just saw your post. Thanks a lot, yes my trees seem to have survived. I'm starting to believe the Japanese Maples are much tougher trees than I thought earlier. This will be my 3rd summer with many of them and despite all the negative factors (deep planting, too much watering, hot weather etc... ) not even 1 died on me. I had little hope for many of them last fall as I had removed a major portion of their root system. Some of them I had even bare rooted and it looked as if it wouldn't survive with such a small root system. Now with better conditions hopefully, (hey at least they are planted closer to the "right way" this time with the visible root flare and raised bed) I have much higher hope than before that they will be present in my garden in the long term. The tree marked as Corralinum seems to be like a sango kaku although it is probably a seedling rather than a true type. I still enjoy it, with its shape and colour. The bark was much more pink in winter though. Here are a few before & after photos of only some of my trees which I had posted in this thread