Overheard a guy at the supply house talking about root flare excavation

I was picking up some wood chipper blades yesterday and this older arborist was telling the counter guy how most of the trees he gets called out for are planted too deep. He said he finds root flares buried under 6 inches of soil all the time, especially on new construction sites. It got me thinking about a job I bid last week where the oaks looked sickly but were growing fine 5 years ago. Has anyone here had good luck fixing trees just by exposing the root flare and leaving them alone?

3 comments

3 Comments

karen4101mo ago

Ain't that the truth though? Seems like half the problems people have with their yards come from builders burying things two feet deeper than they ought to be.

karen_nelson403d ago

That's the whole story right there, "two feet deeper than they ought to be." @barbaraw16's three-day dig is proof that stuff is never where it's supposed to be. It's like nobody reads the blueprints anymore, they just guess where things should go.

barbaraw161mo ago

My neighbor spent three days digging up a pipe he said was supposed to be at six inches and finally found it at three feet down.