HUGE tree growing next to foundation, dont think its a big deal.

9 years ago

People always talk about how trees are planted to close to foundations. Here is a pic of a tree that is right next the the front door of the house. It is a large mature tree and it does not seem to be posing any problems as it was never cut down.

Two cars are parked in the front yard and the tree is right next to he front door, probably less that 5 feet away, The house is on a slight hill and the tree slants at an angle to reach the sun.
If its such a big deal, they why was it never cut down?

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Comments (13)

User
9 years ago
If its such a big deal, they why was it never cut down?

Because it hasn't cause noticeable foundation damage or landed on the house after a windstorm ... yet.
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needinfo001
Original Author
9 years ago
And here is a house that is right next door to the previous house shown that also has a HUGE mature tree growing next to the front door. There is also a southern magnolia to the left of the house....
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I think this tree is dying and I don't know how to save it.
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I know this is long, Heidi, but I've got personal experience with your situation. To be brief, I'm confident that this tree is not even close to death's door, and would be much better served by fixing the causes of its decline now so it can green up and be much healthier to deal with the stress of repotting next summer. In particular, your ficus was thriving until three months ago, and we know that the decline was caused by low light and poor watering, which means that fixing the root congestion and soil aren't an emergency. To be clear, gardengal is probably right that you could repot now without killing the tree, but because it would be easy to get it green again by correcting the biggest problems now, you would be best off waiting until summer to do major root work and put it in a great growing medium. Then you will be rewarded with a burst of new growth, and you'll soon be pinching growing tips and pruning to control its enthusiastic growth and tell it to fill in all those gaps left by dropped leaves. My experience: I have two smaller roughly five year old ficuses that were completely rootbound and were stuck in a dim corner. I often forgot about watering until leaves started yellowing and dropping, and the I'd fill their tall plastic 'saucers' and left the water there until they stopped soaking it up. In other words, I drowned the roots every time I watered, and maximized the amount of deadly mineral deposits in the soil. Aside from feeble attempts to maintain a few leaves, they had almost stopped growing entirely because their depleted energy reserves made them more vulnerable to attack and only allowed them to put our a few leaves at a time, and most of the buds and leaves that appeared were killed by spider mites. But these are tough plants, so they clung to life for about three years before I finally cared enough to search for answers and found these forums. I immediately started treating the mite infestation, thoroughly flushed the pots (I swear I could hear them sigh with relief), fertilized with a weak solution of Foliage Pro, which has a great ratio of basic nutrients plus all the micronutrients plants need, moved it in front of my best window, which only provides mediocre light, and added bright white (not soft white) 5000k 100W led and cfl bulbs in clamp-on fixtures. Two months later, each branch has about half a dozen new leaves, including some emerging near the stem (a sign that the tree is getting better). It's wonderful to see them getting so green, and I'm already reading up on how to prune them when they get growing again. So Heidi, if I were in your place, I'd start by checking the leaves for spider mites with a bright light and a magnifying glass (they're tiny red dots on the leaves, and you may see little bits of webs on the leaves our branches). Ask about treatment if you find any. Then I'd flush the pot (details below), fertilize with a 3:1:2 ratio fertilizer (miracle gro general purpose granules are easy to find and the right ratio), move it to the best window I had, and put two 100 or brighter led or cfl bulbs in it for 12 hours a day, using a timer. From then on, check soil moisture by pushing a sharpened 3/8" dowel all the way through to the bottom of the pot, and DO NOT WATER until the dowel comes out completely clean and dry (at that point there's still a lot of water inside the soil particles). When that happens, water until about 15% of the water exits the drain holes, let it drain, and then either tilt the pot at 45 degrees for 15-30 minutes after watering to remove excess water, or insert a wick into a drain hole and raise the pot up so the wick won't come in contact with the drained water. You can wait until the surface of the soil is dry to start checking the soil moisture, but after that you should check daily until you have a feel for how long it takes for the poor to dry up. About flushing: flush with lukewarm water, using about ten times the pot's capacity, then give it a weak solution of fertilizer. Use R/O (reverse osmosis) water if possible; water from supermarket water machines are usually $.39 per gallon, and that little pot will maybe need two or three gallons to do the job. My water is hard, so I used R/O water to flush, and because my tap water is hard I use water from my cheap faucet-mounted filter for regular watering. And the reason midsummer is the best time to do something stressful is that 1) ample summer sunlight generates much more energy from the leaves than even a lot of winter sunlight can provide, and 2) the plant is programmed to put energy into new growth in summer, whereas in winter it wants to store it for use in the spring. From several people's experience, including Al (talks), who knows whereof he speaks, if you take two healthy plants and repot one now and one next June, the second will be in better shape next fall than the one you repotted a year earlier. Sorry for my rambling post, and I hope it helps at least a little.
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Kippy
9 years ago
Maybe it is a rental and no one really cares

After all, they park in the front yard too
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wisconsitom
9 years ago
Being located on Medical Center Dr. I'd assume they know help is right down the street, should a portion of that tree fail and hurt someone.

I don't know..........there is no way to answer that question! Things either happen or they don't.............or they do, just not when people from an online board which is dedicated to discussing trees are watching. Just don't let Ken see this! He will come right through the wires of your computer to shake you by the collar!

+oM
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needinfo001
Original Author
9 years ago
lol, yes i do think it is a rental, but i cannot be to sure of that.
These houses are located close to my workplace and i always wondered why the trees were allowed to get so big.
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wisconsitom
9 years ago
You may be making the mistake of thinking all you see before you is the result of deliberation! Trust me on this, a huge percentage of "what is" is just a random collection of events and artifacts from those events, much of which is actually more properly considered non-events!

+om
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arktrees
9 years ago
For the south trees planted similar to these are the norm, and not the exception. IMH there are a couple reasons for this. First, few houses have basements, and since there are few basements, there are few internal walls to be collapsed. Also foundation tend to be of the slab type, so that they in effect act as a large stone. Next most foundations are poured in concrete block settings, that sit upon footings that are several feet deep. Deeper than tree roots will typically go, and since there is earth on both side of the blocks, possible pressure from any roots have to push the blocks AND backfill soil. In short, acts more like rock again. The sun is much more intense in the south, and the sun angle is almost directly overhead, so to be effective, trees need to be planted close to homes. While tree roots can and do sometimes cause issues in the south, it is in no way a common occurrence. Lastly, people typically do not think that far ahead, and/or don't understand the long term of a tree and it's impacts.

Arktrees
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mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
9 years ago
When I was a kid, most of the old houses had trees like that. Even here, for a tree to provide shade on the south side in the middle of the summer, it has to be planted quite close to the house. Tree roots never seem to be an issue. My grandmother had a large maple *right next* to her front porch that was the porch width away from a hundred year old dry laid foundation. If the tree had caused foundation problems, I would have heard about it (and heard about it and heard about it - just like the time my oldest cousin climbed up the massive hemlock in the back yard)

You don't usually see them any more because when the tree starts to show any signs of structural problems, it has to go. And by the 1970's, people though more in terms of adding AC than planting shade.
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edlincoln
9 years ago
Planting a tree too close to the foundation *CAN* cause all sorts of problems...but it doesn't always. I'm personally aware of a couple houses in New England that have basements and had big trees inches from the house without it causing any foundation problems. (One huge pine inches from an old summer house that never caused any problems at all, one large tree a couple feet from an apartment building that was ultimately taken down because it provided a highway for ant and squirrels...in my experience more common problems with trees to close to the house then foundation problems) It's like going for a drive without wearing your seatbelt...risky, but most of the time nothing goes wrong. Going forward, you really don't want to plant trees too close to the house. On the other hand, it bugs me when people hysterically clear any tree within 50 feet from the house as soon as you buy the place.

Similarly, trees can destroy septic systems, but often don't. On the other hand, removing existing trees can also destroy septic systems.

This post was edited by edlincoln on Tue, Oct 7, 14 at 11:10
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
9 years ago
asking me.. us.. why people are oblivious to risk ... is a non-starter ...

there are idiots everywhere ...

ummm..

like the ones that build mansions on cliff edges ...

like the recent spate of peeps who fell to there deaths trying to take selfies on cliff edges ...

like the ones that build homes on the side of large rivers in flood plains ... [ya know.. its called a flood plain for a reason.. dont you ... lol]

like .. like. like ...

ken

ps: oh.. i know.. i am driving a 2 ton vehicle at 35 miles per hour.. i am going to tweet my friends .. instead of watching the road ... what maroons ... see link

Here is a link that might be useful: link
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corkball
9 years ago
That is funny Ken - I was just going to say that there are a boatload of folks who have bad risk assessment skills (see also lottery, stock market, gun control, anthrax in the mail, etc)...
But to your question, yeah it MIGHT happen on my watch, but I am hoping not.
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krnuttle
9 years ago
There is an old house near us. It may be 150 years old. In the side yard there is and old cedar tree that I suspect is at least 3 feet in diameter. It is less than 10 feet from the back porch.

There are several other less majestic trees dogwood and magnolia that are closer to the house.

I don't think any one will be cutting them down soon unless that become diseased and died.
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
9 years ago
hey!!!!

i play the lotto ... but only if its over 100 million .. i mean really.. who can deal with less ... after taxes and all ..

AND.. i only buy one ticket .... because it isnt worth trying to change the odds with more than one ... you would need to buy like a million of them ... [and if i had the million to buy such.. i wouldnt need to play the lotto ... such a vicious circle ... lol]

knut... the question is.. will anyone be looking for disease .... of which.. probably not ...

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: read at the first link .... yes.. staely old pines ... and 12 stiches ...
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HUGE tree growing next to foundation, dont think its a big deal.

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needinfo001
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Kippy

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wisconsitom

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edlincoln

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

corkball

krnuttle

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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HUGE tree growing next to foundation, dont think its a big deal.

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