Girdled roots

[David Humphries]

Amazing height on that beech sgr!

 

The cherry seems to have taken care of that nicely--

 

Nature worth emulating.

 

 

Would be interesting to sever a few of these girdles and also look at ungirdling roots of similar dimension to compare growth rings under tension.

 

 

 

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[David Humphries]

Beech here, with different parts of the canopy unfurling at different stages.

 

The base of the tree appeared to have fluted butressing on one side (seemingly associated with the portion of the canopy opening up earlier than the other sections)

 

The side of the tree where the canopy is further behind, appears to be associated where the butressing was flatter in profile.

 

 

 

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[David Humphries]

Beech here, with different parts of the canopy unfurling at different stages.

 

Intrigued,

 

as we had the compressor out on the way to a decompaction job, thought we'd take a closer look.

 

 

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[David Humphries]

The first 150mm depth uncovered 15-20mm roots girdling across the butressess.

 

We removed these as they were obviously going to become an issue as they grew larger.

 

 

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[David Humphries]

Once the smaller roots were out of the way the older and larger roots were accessible and it looked to be that it was these that were constricting & affecting this side of the tree.

 

These were removed where possible or severed and left to hopefully allow the butressess to adapt and grow less hindered.

 

 

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[David Humphries]

Other than the girdling & late unfurling of leaves across sections of the canopy, this tree appears to be in a good growing environment.

 

I've noted Amanita rubescens & echinocephala fruiting within the rooting zone of this and neighbouring treees over the last few years, so there is a healthy micorrhyzal association in place.

 

 

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[sloth]

Very interesting posts, thanks for taking the time to document and post it

[NI Tree]

nice one

[treeseer]

These were removed where possible or severed and left to hopefully allow the butressess to adapt and grow less hindered.

 

 

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David, great documentation! I'm wondering if, after that last handsaw cut, that severed section could be wiggled.

if so, automatic that it should come off, even if some of the stem tissue lapping over it is damaged.

if not, I would still be inclined to chisel a V or 3 in it, and try wiggling again, and remove it or even just lengthwise sections taken off. imo what you did so far is good, but the main problem is still there so the benefits will be minor at best.

Avoid the arboreal version of Dunlap's Disease (in humans in the SE US, where the belly done lapped over the belt) by tracing away compressed bark. Ya gotta free up the phloem to expand outward, to see benefits, and avoid included bark.

[David Humphries]

I'm wondering if, after that last handsaw cut, that severed section could be wiggled.

 

Didn't have a range of appropriate tools at hand at the time.

 

Looking into purchasing a couple of gouge chisels to improve options for removing whole parts of girdles as opposed to just severing and getting what we can with cutting tools.

 

 

 

 

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