I guess I totally didn't fill you in with the total story of my root cutting situation. So I planted two Autumn Blaze maples at my lakehouse in Michigan in 2007 (I know Ken I should've planted oaks). The taller of the two was about 9 feet at the time of planting and the smaller of the two was about 7 feet. In 2008 each grew about a foot each, however in 2009 and for each year after the smaller of the two maples grew about 3 feet each year, while the larger of the two only put on it's one foot of growth a year. So obviously the smaller one became established, but the larger one was not.

In the summer of 2010 I had a theory that the larger of the two maples at planting might have had it's root ball bound up in the container it grew in. I dug up one side of the tree and found a larger root, about 3/4" across, wrapped around the bottom of the rootball and then back up into the rootball. I cut the root at the bottom of the rootball and relaid it away from the tree with the hope that the root would regrow away from the tree to promote more vertical growth.

Last spring (2011) the slower growing maple put on it's typical foot of growth like I normally does. My question is, do you think that the root will regenerate from the severed end? And why was the larger of the two trees the slower one to grow after it was planted only 15 feet from of the other one, with the same soil and watering? Any ideas?

Jeff