Girdled roots

[David Humphries]

Discovered this beech to have a major girlding lateral root that appears to be restricting the growth of the root butressess over a section of the root crown of the tree.

Possibly caused by a deflection at some point.

 

I think that there must be a significant constriction at play, restricting not just structural developement but also the potential uptake of water & nutrients.

 

 

.

[silky fox]

Fascinating:)

[David Humphries]

Fascinating:)

 

Indeed Mr fox, enough to make us want to look a wee bit closer.

 

 

 

.

[18 stoner]

Interesting David, is it also possible though, the tree has compensated for this restriction by a greater development of the butresses away from the girdling?

[David Humphries]

The constriction ran along about 150 cm of the trunk.

 

 

.

[David Humphries]

Interesting David, is it also possible though, the tree has compensated for this restriction by a greater development of the butresses away from the girdling?

 

Thats more than possibly true Pete, but is only really tackling the structural aspect and not the vascular issue.

 

 

.

[Andy Collins]

Thie is interesting to me, only on Monday I went to inspect and carry out some formative pruning on some plantings done around 5 years ago. 10 of the trees were well established, got their feet down and were storming away nicely.one had died some time ago, 2 copper beech were out of sorts, signs of deficiencies in the uptake, and three had girdled roots. I carefully trowel led around the roots, and they still looked as if they come out of containers. I should have photographed them really, but just didn't think. The rocking of the whole trees doesn't bode well for their future.

So I carefully severed and drew out some of the roots, sprinkied in some myccorihzae and re-staked. Personally, I'm not sure if it's a case of too little too late in this case. They were "professionally" planted, by a reputable company, though I think a jobbing gardener couldn't have done a worse job. I got the feeling the first ten or so were planted with care, and the remainder were shoved in as time was ticking away and they had to be elsewhere.

Sorry for the derail DH:001_smile:

[James]

That's interesting David. What happened next? Did you prune any roots?

[David Humphries]

Did you prune any roots?

 

Yes James, although up at Barchams on the iPad listening to a fascinating talk by Peter Thomas on Phenology.

 

Will get some shots of the pruning up later this evening.

 

 

 

.

[David Humphries]

So, here's the root prunning part.

 

Not 100% successful in that the first part of the root is too fused to the butress to remove completely without damaging the parent trunk/butress cambium behind.

 

So we severed the 2 ends and took out as much as we could revealing the channel of the constriction.

 

The remainder has been severed as far toward the begining of the root as possible to hopefully stop any further constriction from this part.

 

The gouge down the centre of the retained section is to allow for the expansion of the butress behind where the retained severed section will become compressed.

 

The girth at breast height and at point of girdle has been measured, but I'd imagine it will be some time before any noticeable incremental growth will take place.

 

Will check back annualy to see how things develop.

 

 

 

.