Girdled roots

[treeseer]

By the looks of it I have to wonder if there was root damage to the right of the pic, to cause those roots to arise at right angles to the buttress?

[David Humphries]

On 22 December 2017 at 00:44, treeseer said:

What makes you think it's grafted (anastomised, inosculated)? Looks like lots of bark in between. 

Red lines are obvious cut location possibilities, even if grafting is underway.  If the sgr wiggles a little it is not grafted and the orange line becomes an option.

It's really good to see someone in the UK get the dirt off the stem!  But perhaps you're a bit too shy with the tool.  Pruning wounds seal fast in that location ime.

The black crease (in the image of the Beech and not the maple) is where we scored and plunge cut the remnant of the girdled root to partially severe it rather than tear apar the two grafted volumes (girdle root and buttress)

 

Whave have had more confidence to remove large girdles, but only where there is some 'wiggle' 

 

Our urban soils are rife with Armillaria just biding their time for dysfunctional points of ingress.

 

If I get the chance I may keep an eye out for a woodland example where I would be happy to 'experiment' with exercising a large SRG.

[treeseer]

9 hours ago, David Humphries said:

Our urban soils are rife with Armillaria just biding their time for dysfunctional points of ingress.

 

First, I have to wonder how dysfunctional the tissue is behind that kind of pruning wound.  Closure of those wounds is quite functional ime.

Second, that wound was already made with the plunge cut.  If it was not completely severed, that root continues to constrict.  Partial severance made some sense to me when I first read the theory behind it, in Costello's book.  But with experience it seems like doing half a job is worse than none at all--the most critical constriction remains, and an infection court was opened.

 

A pruning wound is a point of ingress if dirt is placed on it--another good reason to follow the ZTV and backfill (where necessary) only with permanently pervious (and sterile) aggregate.

If splashing spores are a concern, then sealants are an option.

We have lots of wood decay fungi over here, yet there would be no hesitation to excise that root, including the scraping off that stem-girdling, compacted bark.  As you point out, the tree is responding well in the small area where constriction was released.  But that broad flat area above the remaining sgr remains a structural and physiological problem.

 

By the looks of it I have to wonder if there was root damage to the right of the pic, to cause those roots to arise at right angles to the buttress?