Pro tip: a park job in Seattle showed me why you always check for girdling roots on young trees

I was working a removal for a client in the Queen Anne neighborhood last fall. Their 15-year-old maple was just failing. No pests, no disease. My foreman, a guy named Carl, pointed at the base before we started. He said, 'Bet you a coffee it's girdled.' We dug down maybe six inches. Sure enough, two main roots had crossed and were choking the trunk. The tree was basically strangling itself. I'd heard about it in classes but seeing it kill a healthy-looking tree was different. We cut the bad roots and staked it open, but it was probably too late. Now I look for that swelling at the base on every young tree I assess. How often do you guys actually find this on routine inspections?

3 comments

3 Comments

wendyg431d ago

Spot the same thing in how we raise kids sometimes. We box them into tight expectations early on, just like @mila_murphy21 said about those pot-bound trees. The damage builds up quietly until the whole structure is weak.

janarivera1d ago

That "damage builds up quietly" part @wendyg43 mentioned is so true. It's not just the big expectations, but the tiny daily limits. Like a kid who always hears "be careful" instead of "go explore" during play. Or always having their schedule packed with adult-picked activities, never any empty time to just figure out what they like. The roots of their own curiosity never get to stretch out.

mila_murphy211d ago

So you're telling me that tree paid for fifteen years of growth just to commit suicide? I find this crap way more than I should, especially on those cheap big box store trees. The root ball is always a tangled mess from the pot.