Before and After Kousa Stumping

12 years ago

A ten foot tall Kousa was planted in 2010 at what was supposed to be the end of an island garden. The tree began losing its vigor and appeared to be failing to thrive, so on June 17, 2012, I dug down to find two girdling roots - as shown in a previous post on this forum.

I'm posting this success example for anyone who may have a youngish tree that appears to be inexplicably stressed. Girdling roots have become a serious problem in the nursery world due largely to inexperienced handlers. Worth having a look at the top of the root ball before axing a tree.

One year after planting, 2011, failing:

I dug down to discover girdling roots:

Clipped whole sections of the 2 girdling roots out and stumped the tree on June 17, 2012

June 5, 2014 - tree is now 8-9 feet tall, bushy and blooming:

He's a happy tree again.
Jane

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Comments (8)

soraystud
12 years ago
Great work, the tree looks very happy indeed!
claireplymouth z6b coastal MA
12 years ago
Jane: I'll bet it was a very hard decision for you to take such drastic action, but it certainly paid off! The tree was probably miserable for several years and now can enjoy life again.

Claire
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moliep
12 years ago
Great job, Jane... you saved him and he does look very happy now!

Sadly, this problem of girdling roots often doesn't become obvious until long after the tree has been planted. And by that time any warrantee is void.

Molie
timhensley
12 years ago
Great info. Thanks for sharing.
terrene
12 years ago
Cool! So glad the tree is happy. The tree forum would probably find this interesting.
diggingthedirt
12 years ago
Interesting! I'm not sure I see the girdling roots in the photo where you dug down - was that after they were cut, or am I missing something? Was it the v-shaped root, or something else?
corunum z6 CT
Original Author
12 years ago
There were two girdling roots. The one about 4"above the V was the main strangling root. This photo is post surgery, but you can see a pale spot on the dark bark where I had pulled the root off and it snapped leaving a jagged edge. This is the only close-up picture I have. I just tried to crop the picture to show you, might be grainy, but maybe you can see the top root's jagged edge better. If anyone is interested, the link below to Google shows examples of girdling roots.

Jane

Here is a link that might be useful: Girdling Roots Images, Google
Steve Massachusetts
12 years ago
I went to a workshop by Matt Foti, a Certified Arborist in Lexington, MA last year. He mentioned that 90% of the nursery stock he sees (both pots and B&B) are planted too deep. This leads to the girdling roots you see in the pictures Jane has posted and linked.

His recommendation is to bare root any tree that you plant in order to find the correct depth, and to trim off any potentially girdling roots. With any tree the correct depth shows the root flare just above the surface. There is an important exchange of gasses that occurs at this point and if your tree looks like a telephone pole going into the ground, its life will be shortened considerably.

Professional aborists bare root by using an air spade. I used a three pronged garden tool to take the soil out of the root ball and find the correct depth. It takes a long time to do this, but that tree is hopefully going to be in that spot for a long time. You might as well do it right.

Steve