Will some severed roots hurt my maple?
Question:Some workers digging up shrubs appear to have lobbed off some shallow roots belonging to my nearby silver maple.
The tree is about 50 feet high, with a maximum canopy of 60 feet. It gets full sun, is otherwise surrounded by grassy lawn, and appears to be perfectly healthy and happy here in northern Illinois.
The severed roots are about 2 inches in diameter. The damage starts about 10 feet from the trunk and occurs in an arc of about 1/8 of the tree's canopy. I'm sure that only a portion of the shallow roots in that arc have been damaged.
How likely is my tree to be harmed? Will it just ignore the whole incident? Should I treat the root stumps in any way?
Answers:
your tree will be perfectly fine.
With less then 1/8 of the roots severed, nothing will happen to the tree. Remember, all those roots still ahve feeder roots (the hair like roots that actually take up water) intact for the first 10 feet. On top of that all the other roots radiating out in different directions are fine, including the vast majority ofthe trees roots that extend downward.
Also, most top roots are actually used as sancors, not as feeder roots as the surface of the soil is the first to dry out - the radial roots extending on the surfacear mainly to keep the tree upright.
In bonsai, many people collect wild trees to turn into bonsai. To do this you have toremove most of the roots just to get it up. The way of doing this is severing 1/4 of theroots every few months - this causes new roots to grow closer to the trunk so there are rootswhen you dig it up and removes the anchor roots. This practice has been used for a very long time and is extremely successful.
As you removed less then half the roots of the technique described above, you absolutely have nothing to worry about.
No. The major root structure is as big as the area the branches cover. You should be fine.
probably won't hurt much, but just to be safe, you can thin the tree branches on that side, so the root system does not have to support so much foliage, while it regenerates.
I think your tree will be okay. Sometimes we landscapers have to cut into tree roots. As long as the cuts are clean and not 'ripped' and ragged the tree will probably stabilize itself. (However, the right thing to do would have been to discuss it with you before they did it.)
If you do see any signs of damage you'll see them first in the canopy on the opposite side of the tree from where the roots were cut. The leaves will look wilted and some may even turn brown and drop off. The tree is doing that to adjust for the amount of water it will lhave available to feed the leaves. That's still okay.
The best thing you can do for your maple is to be sure it gets extra water until it has had time to sprout new roots from where it was cut.
Sprinkling a little fertilizer or adding tree fertilizer spikes would be okay but probably not necessary. I'd definitely fertilize it next year, though.
Your maple shouldn't be affected in any way.It is the tap root that needs protecting, and that will at bottom of tree underground.You can get a special root paint from garden shop,but I don't think you need worrry. Good Luck!
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