Those roots certainly are not ideal, I'd get my snippers out and clip them off where they meet the trunk.

how about you get out a stout brush.. and expose another 6 inches.. AND FIND OUT IF THEY CIRCLE ... or are they half way to the neighbors house already..

then clip them if the FACTS suggest such ..

and btw.. if you decide they BOTH have to go.. cut one now.. and the other in fall or next spring... no need to hurry..

tree time is counted in decades.. and i figure you have at lest 10 years to figure out and solve this issue .. so do it right..

and if yits been a year in the ground.. its time to get rid of the planting stakes.. it should be rooted in enough ...

ken

You can see there's a sorta "waist-bulge" there where the roots want to flair out, but something is constricting it, prb'ly a girdling root alittle further down. Not good.

Yes, If you look at the base of the tree in the last picture, there appears to be more problem roots that are further down showing.

Carefully remove the soil around the base of the tree so you can see what's going on. The sooner you correct the problem, the sooner the tree can recover and begin vigorous growing again.

Thanks for all the info! I think I will try to use a razor blade to just slice through those roots.

Should I try to pull out those roots as well, if not too hard?

Thanks for all the info. I did end up removing as many roots from the surface as possible including small surface roots. I didn't want to dig down too far (4 inches), but I did remove some half inch roots that look troublesome and pulled most of those out after cutting. Tree looks to be growing now since after cutting these roots. I didn't go down much below the flared root on the tree but did cut some roots leading off of it as well.

What about adding some weed retardant material around the hole and adding 2-3 inches of mulch?

Here are some more pics after removing roots:

Looks like a decent job and you did expose the root crown. Leave it exposed, but you can put mulch up to a couple inches from it.

'What about adding some weed retardant material around the hole'

An emphatic No.

As good of an idea as this may sound, it is not a good idea for a number of reasons.

Wood mulch only is the best method as far as the tree's health is concerned. Leaving a few inches of bare soil around the trunk is also a good idea.

Uncorrected roots in containers or landscapes will create chronic water stress problems for trees.

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