I have been reading a lot about girdling roots on trees. My Chitalpa has a few near the surface that I can see. They are not very big yet, but I think one is leaning a bit on the stem. Can I remove them now before my tree establishes itself? Its only been planted about two weeks. They are still pretty loose even the one that is leaning a bit unto the stem. I am still able to easily move it with my fingers. Can I remove them now before they get bigger?
I would say: Yes, and yes.
If it has only been in the ground two weeks I would be sorely tempted to lift it to make sure the rest of the roots are spread out properly. If they are in as bad a shape as the ones that you can see it can spell trouble in the long run.
Depends on the size of the tree, I guess- if it is too big to wrangle it's too big to wrangle.
If it is larger and a nursery planted it for you I would be very unhappy- this all should have been addressed before it was planted.
Thank you very much, I did cut those two roots, they were strange, very short roots but I removed them. Yes this tree is very large, it did not seem this large at the nursery. This tree has a habit of forming long tap roots straight down from the trunk. I know this because I have tried to dig them ut of the wild and I was not successful at all. :(
I am wondering if it would be possible to do a little excavating from the top down? I did a little and the remainder roots are more fine than those odd strangling roots were at the top.
I know you just 'fixed' the problem but since planting a tree is sort of a shock in itself, cutting large roots can be even more stressful. I would strongly suggest adding some Biotone or similar product to enhance root growth and alleviate transplant stress. It has beneficial bacteria that help with those things as well as being a light feed.
Thank you Sequoiadendron4, I did actually add some root growth enhancers I was concerned about the shock as well. Now I am learning this tree does not like too much water. It does better if I skip a few days. This is sort of frustrating since the nursery said to water it daily but it seems to shoot out new leaves when I let a few days sit in between waterings even though we are in 100 degree weather right now.
Wow...well sometimes nurseries don't have all the answers and it's best to do a little investigating to make sure their story lines up with what you can find online. Good luck with it!
