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maple planted too deep?

16 years ago

I had a very young autumn spire maple(1 1/2 diameter)planted last August. After doing some reading about planting trees, I suspect this tree was planted too deep. I did dig around in the soil with my hand and cannot find any large roots, just a lot of fine spidery ones. How can I tell for sure and can I remove, add some soil underneath and replant it? I plan to do this myself.

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Comment (1)

musicalperson
16 years ago
You want the root flare exposed and even with the ground or a little above the ground level. The root flare is where the trunk expands wider where the top most roots are.
The presence of fine spidery roots or adventitious roots if you want to want to use that fancy word, doesn't mean you're in the clear. In fact it probably means it's too deep. So keep digging until you find that root flare.
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