Avamom, do you know what species of maple? This matters, because although that is clearly a "girdling root", this phenomenon only seems to negatively impact Norway maples. As for the Y split, you are correct that this is a problem in the making. I would shorten up the less-vertical of the two main leaders-to a branch junction, preferably one which faces outward. This will slow that codominant stem down and make it behave as a branch rather than a codominant main leader. This is known as subordination pruning, and if you would be interested in a more ocmplete treatment of the subject, look up a guy named Ed Gilman at U of Florida. Good stuff.

+oM

10 feet is too close for any tree that can get to the size of a maple ...

this one has no indication that it is some small variety ...

if you are willing.. yes.. just get rid of it ...

though it could be pruned and probably recover.. its still only 10 feet from the house ...

and i dont really see it as worth moving ...

get rid of the guy wire in the mean time.. before you decapitate someone ...

is your property line in the pic???.. is that why you are space limited on planting so close to the house???

if you dont have a lot of space.. and noting all the trees in the pic... if you want a tree there.. you ought to look into much smaller potential trees ... and moving another 10 feet out ... e.g. redbud, dogwood, etc ... or even some of the shrubs that can be trained into tree form ...

if you decide to plant new... look at this link

https://sites.google.com/site/tnarboretum/Home/planting-a-tree-or-shrub

ken

I wouldn't hesitate to plant what you want next-spring (further away.)

Dax

Thank you all, +oM, no, we don't know what species Maple it is. Hard for me to understand how a sapling's roots would gird the tree like this as they are so malleable and shorter than mature trees. I think it was planted below the trunk flair and suspect that contributed.

+oM, Ken and Dax, yes too close to the house too for this size tree. Better a colorful shrub or small dwarf tree there. I will remove the guy wires.

I will ask we just take it down now. It bothers me for all your reasons. Ken, thank you for the link.

Consider the growth of the plant: So, next year, that root will gain in girth. So will the trunk of the tree. Knowing that, it's easy to see how this could cause a constriction of the sap flow just under the bark. But in all maples other than Norway maple, these overlapping structures are able to graft together, rendering the sap flow still effective. Or at least, so the research suggests. Keep in mind, I'm dialing up something that I read probably more than twenty years ago!

When trees are harvested from the nursery row, many roots are cut in the process. Wherever these cuts take place, new roots initiate at roughly right angles to the existing, now-cut root. So that leaves them in perfect position to turn into these girdling roots. keep in mind, this is something that only happens in transplanted trees, not those that grow from seed and remain in that place for their entire lives.

+om

There are a few smaller maples besides the "Japanese" acer palmatum ones.

If you are in the cloudy foogy pacific northwest some Japanese maples may take full sun per their labels. In Hot humid St Louis summers they tend to crisp and tolerate it without looking good after June.

So considering the sun in your other planting space you may want a paperbark Acer gresium (spelled wrong), or other similar maple. Some fellas on here have touted this shantung maple down in Texas and peaked my interest. I have not seen it personally though.

I would start by taking out the stake/untie it because that just weakens the tree even more as for the Y shape that will always be a problem you can try to train it but however I must agree with ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

Thank you Logan and all. Yes, tomorrow I will undo those ties less something happen like I walk into them.. I think the tree might even fall over then and there, it's that unsteady, and winds are coming this weekend. Doesn't weight a lot, so not worried if it falls over. We have decided to remove it. Lesson on planting location, root flair, and pruning learned.

you are welcome, avamom2012(7a) I was told by a horticulturist who works at Biltmore estate that you shouldnt stake trees no matter how strong the wind my 1st year I had a japanese maple I let the wind beat it to the ground but now it has a very strong trunk and is extremely healthy

Two to many, right Logan? Better to let it root well on its own or go down in the wind.

Absolutist statements-whatever the subject-are often overly broad. Staking trees is sometimes advisable. I like to not ever stake trees "unless it is necessary" which is, of course, a little joke I like to play on myself or whomever. Simply put, you often don't know beforehand which tree is going to need staking. Here in this community, we plant right around 1000 streetside trees a year, along with many others in parks, and in my case, around stormwater management practices. For those street trees, every one does get a couple T-posts and tying material, but all is removed after a year. Studies have shown also that in high vandalism areas, which BTW can be completely passive-the kid walking to school casually banging on a young tree with a bat-that sort of thing-a couple or three stakes around the tree can be protective in that sense.

All that said, those above decrying the staking of young trees are onto something. If at all possible, it is best for the tree to not have stakes-unless, of course, it's going to get blown over by the wind. Which you don't necessarily know!

Those trees coming up in nature do not ever need staking of course, but that's a different situation. Those trees are not ever transplanted, never have most of their roots severed, etc. and are likely coming up in a dense patch of their siblings and other trees. Completely different case.

+oM

+oM,

What I find incredible is the number of organizations now leading consumers to believe staking of any tree is a terrible idea and will most certainly lead to a weak, poorly established tree.

Have been to meetings of Trees Forever, Department of Natural Resources, Extension, etc.... where this kind of language is used. It has really gotten to the point of absurdity and they forget that we are doing something unnatural (taking a bare-root, container grown, or B&B specimen and planting it out) when we plant these trees.

We put our stakes about 3' away from the trunk of the tree and this gives the consumer an incentive to mulch that entire area so that they will not have to trim around the posts........ many people who would otherwise place no mulch around the tree during establishment are more than happy to do so when it makes their mowing hassle less.

Bruce

I agree completely. It's almost like some kind of Ayn Randian philosophy has taken hold in the treecare world...."trees should be able to take care of themselves, damn it...no handouts from the government"! Your description of the way placing a few stakes can allow for a nice mulch ring is exactly how ours look. And so long as the hardware gets removed after around one year, all will be well.

Now, if planting little 3-footers, etc. I don't think stakes are ever really needed. So in my stormwater work, where we're typically working with relatively small Rootmaker stuff, we don't stake. But again, that's a different situation and those very small plants just don't have the windsail of the larger stock used for street trees. Nor are they usually subject to vandalism, being out in the hinterlands somewhere.

+oM

"When trees are harvested from the nursery row, many roots are cut in the process. Wherever these cuts take place, new roots initiate at roughly right angles to the existing, now-cut root."

I used to think that, but ran across a contrary article before. So I did some quick Googling. Here's an article on cutting circling roots from landscape plants - http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/remove-circling.shtml - stating:

"Cut roots at the point where they begin to circle so new roots that grow from the cut will point away from the trunk. New roots will grow more-or-less parallel to the direction of the root section just behind the cut, but some could grow in as much as a 90 degree angle to the cut." Some site called 'TreeBag' is a page on root pruning - http://treebag.com/research-article/root-pruning-a-touchy-subject-2/ - and down aways states regarding new root growth "After digging, storing, and pruning, bareroot shade trees typically have several primary roots with relatively few fine roots. The primary roots are relatively thick, and would have been pruned either by the digging process or secondarily by the work crews that grade and bundle the trees. For the trees species used in this experiment, and most tree species to my knowledge, new roots emerge from primary roots at or near the pruned root tip. If trees were planted in an open field, roots would emerge from the pruned tips and grow out away from the tree."

This is a point of curiosity to me, since from what I understand a common practice with pot bound trees is to make vertical cuts to the exterior root ball to prevent girdling roots. I wonder if it's beneficial to make lots of cuts around the root ball, not just a few? So fewer new roots would encircle?

Richard.

Richard,

While not all-encompassing, I think the articles make a good point. Say you find a girdling root on a tree that has been in the ground for a few years- many people will cut it just so it is off of the stem of the tree. Much of the time the root will grow right back where it was before. You will need to try and excavate a little bit to find the source of the root (if at all possible) and cut it off there.

The key is checking trees on an annual basis. Even if you have 20 or 30 trees it usually takes no longer than a couple minutes per tree to ensure their root health.

It is also important when purchasing trees to find out how they were grown. We now stay away from trees that have been grown in containers for their entire lifespan. Pot-in-Pot production systems, while nice for the growers, are terrible for circling and girdling roots.

One of the things J. Frank Schmidt (our main tree supplier) does right is containerizing trees- they prune a bare-root tree's root system and then establish it in a container for a season. This virtually eliminates root circling and IMO is the best way to produce container trees. It is important for us to have trees that we can handle so we stay away from most B&B specimens, but when grown right they are also very good.

And of course each tree species is different, as +oM has mentioned several times. If you go and look at a local woodland you'll see girdling roots, roots grafted together, and all other manner of root deformities. Each species handles root issues differently.

I can accept that what the report states is true some of the time. I also know of individual cases where girdling roots were cut and new roots indeed followed pretty much the old path, going on to cause trouble later-and often not very much later! I suspect that individual species/root stock choices, and all other manner of variation will be found to matter in this situation, just as-to use my well-worn comparison yet again-a cat at the vets would and should not be treated exactly like a dog, even though on a very superficial level, they are "the same".

+oM

Tom, red maple seems rather poor in melding roots together, tho not as bad as Norway. Wish I had a pic of the pin oak I saw w/criss-crossing surface roots melded smoothly together like poured pewter.

Right? I've seen that sort of thing too. I just happen to live in a limestone belt where red maple is not a good choice, so honestly don't see much of them as transplanted trees-the only kind we're talking about-but in the woods to our west and north, A. rubrum is as common a tree as anywhere, but again, those are wild-grown and don't count in this discussion. The Freemanii maples will be interesting to watch as they are going in around here by the thousands. But given their half silver maple parentage, I don't expect problems with girdling roots on those. Just lots of V-crotches, included bark, terrible structure, lol! I do like them, but def. not plant-it-and-forget-it trees!

+om