Tree Roots and Mulch Ring

6 years ago

I'm attaching 4 pix.

2 pix show the extents of the average deciduous tree's fibrous exploring feeder roots. 1 pic is of one of my Chinese Chestnut trees that shows a very distinct grass-dry-line under the perimeter of the canopy. 1 pic shows my Pin Oak with the same line of dead grass about 5 feet outside the canopy. The Pin Oak line is not as distinguishable on these pix, sorry, but some years in dry weather it is really noticeable.

The rings are caused by the tree roots that are stronger than the grass roots, so that in dry seasons the grass gives way to the stronger tree roots. I have a few trees a year that accentuate this.

The other 2 pix I attached are showing one of my Dawn Redwoods which I decided to mulch in response to the aforementioned phenomenon. The mulch ring is huge, but I still need to go out about five feet farther this fall. smile. Every year I take it out about two to four feet farther.

Randy Allen of www.WhiteHouseArboretum.com

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Featured Answer

Randy Allen
Original Author

6 years ago

Funny. I like it morpheuspa.

I meant to also note that I have confirmed the presence of fibrous tree roots in those dry-lines. I’ll never forget, about 8 years ago while examining a nice Dawn Redwood near me, and finding some of those fine fibrous roots way out from the trunk, like 35 to 40 feet. I’ll post a photo of the tree.

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Comments (7)

User
6 years ago
I kinda dig it. Pun intended.

The tree is saying, "What's mine is mine. And what's yours is mine, if I so choose."
User
6 years ago
Tree roots also run a deeper layer than the grass , so unless frequent rains occur, the tree will suck the area dry a foot or two deep, leaving little for grass.
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L Clark (zone 4 WY)
6 years ago
Very interesting
Randy Allen
Original Author
6 years ago
That’s right Bill-minn.
Steve Gall
5 years ago
Randy, Where is THAT dawn redwood? I too would like to examine that tree.
danielj_2009
5 years ago

I use a tree service that comes out and helps with feeding and pruning, etc trees on my property. They said that a study came out (can't remember the source) that said mulching under a tree was very beneficial to the tree. Compared to trees with grass under the canopy, trees with nothing but mulch ended up with something like 5x more root density. I want to find that study to see for myself, but they discouraged allowing any ground cover other than mulch under trees. Because of this I put a large 11' radius mulch area under my blue atlas spruce.