Are Limes resistant to being buried??

[Rupe]

Hi all. Just ground out the deepest lime Stump Ive ever seen. The ground had been built up around the tree, over the years by about 2.5m.

 

We were on a site with a digger, so after I have gone as deep as I could go with the stump grinder he managed to get the rest out. Where I ground down to was still about 1m above the root flare! It had been putting on new roots all the way up through the new soil levels but nothing big enough to really hold the tree up so I was a bit surprised it was still standing (we dismantled it the day before) and very healthy.

 

Is it possible then that Limes are resistant to having the surrounding soil levels changed? Most trees would have died from this. I cant remember any other cases so just wondering if anyone else has experience of this. Thanks.

[Gary Prentice]

Absolutely no personal knowledge but all my research and reading would make me say no. What was the soil like? I would imagine that it should be really light and sandy otherwise air and air couldn't percolate through. Any idea when the level was changed?

[daltontrees]

Why was it cut down?

 

I too am curious about the soil. If it is permeable granular stuff then some trees could tolerate that because they can still 'breathe' at the roots.

[Brett]

Rupe, I have similar experience as this. we had to remove a multi stemmed Lime from the top side of a retaining wall. we ground down to at least 0.5 / 0.75 m and still didn't find the root flare, we are going back to dig it out when the retaining wall is dismantled and I'm curious as to how deep it goes.

 

Edit: the soil on mine was built up with mainly construction rubble / soil.

Edited October 31, 2013 by Brett

[likeitorlumpit]

we had similar with sycamore a few years back

must have been built up about 700mm- I know thats not as much as your lime but it goes against what I thought I knew.

Ground was flaring away so I guess the roots away from the tree had not been covered so much. Was this the case with your lime?

[Rupe]

Oh, ok, so it might be more to do with the soil route then. I've seen sycamore rot pretty quickly when soul is raised around them. Also I can now remember that garden waste e esp. Grass cuttings are really bad.

 

In this case the soil was a bit clay but had quite a lot of rubble in it so maybe it was well enough drained.

 

Part of the raised area was within a retaining wall around the t tree, but after that was removed there was still another m below ground and at that level all the ground was raised so not flaring away from the tree.

 

 

Why was it being cut down?? What's that got to do with how some trees survive in raised soil???? Odd question!!

[Stephen Blair]

I think moisture would have a lit to do with it, like you say Rupe Rubble and clay may of helped.

I find its more the area where the digger has tracked that causes root damage rather than build up of soil around the bowl.

[David Humphries]

I don't think this is about limes specifically Rupe, most trees given favourable conditions (soil structure) and the time (tree time) to adapt to that change, will readily challenge the boxes we place them in.

 

for example, these oaks (not swamp trees by any stretch of the imagination) in the middle of a continual pond a meter or so deep, for decades growing incrementally and going through leaf, flower and seed production year in, year out.

 

Text books tell us that this shouldn't be.

 

.

[Stephen Blair]

That's nuts! Great pics

[Goaty]

Whilst something like beech would rot in a similar situation. Limes and other freely suckering/stool type trees are propagated this way. Even the american acer species are trench layered, that is buried in a trench with only a little stem tip above ground. They will send up shoots to make a new tree from the underground buds. This is obviously with juvenille growth. However stooling beds can last decades, bit like coppice and pollards.

 

I imagine the tissue that makes new root or shoot growth is more adaptable to changing environmental factors, whether soil erosion or accumulation. But only in some tree species.