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krm27_gw

Can I plant Modesto Ash or Kurrajong/Bottle Tree over sewer line?

krm27
9 years ago

I live in the San Fernando Valley, in LA County. We currently have no street trees east of our house, and we want to put one there to help shade the house/yard. The County's pre-approved list for street trees includes only two choices for street trees: Modesto Ash or Bottle tree a/k/a Kurrajong (Brachychiton populneus), I think because they are relatively low-water. (We could seek a permit to put different trees on the street, but we want to go low-water anyway, and we like both of these trees.)

However, the sewer line runs from our house to the street east of us, under the area that is our first choice for planting a street tree. I think it's at least 5-6 feet deep (a few years back, we had an issue I think caused by a root from an Oak street tree on the south side of our house, and a contractor had to dig up the yard to access the sewer line, so I got some idea of its depth & location).

Some one told me that Modesto Ash trees are notorious for having invasive roots that disrupt sewer lines. But if the Bottle Tree grows into as large a tree as the Modesto Ash, wouldn't it have the same problem? I would think the laws of physics require a tree of a certain size to have a root system of a certain size to keep it from blowing over. Maybe both of these are problematic?

But then I've read some people saying sewer lines are sealed pretty well and it should not be a a problem to plant a tree over them if they are around 6 feet deep (though those writers were not specifically talking about the Modesto Ash or Bottle Tree). And we did have that prior problem with a root disrupting our sewer line...

Does it depend what the sewer line is made of? (e.g., concrete, poly-something plastic, etc.?) I don't know what ours are made of, but I could find out.

Ken

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