Soils & Roots
A tree in a forest exists within a massive and complex support system, being directly and indirectly helped by microbes within the soil, neighboring trees, and even by animals. A tree in the urban forest exists in isolation from most of the complex systems found in its natural habitat, which often results in difficult growing conditions for the tree.
Taking care of the both roots and soil are the most important parts of keeping trees healthy. And in order to do that, we’ve got to go underground. Adverse soil conditions are a major contributor to poor tree health in the urban forest. Part of a complete tree care profile includes addressing the soil and roots, not just tree pruning.
The symptoms of soil and root issues aren't obvious until long after the problem started. To the untrained eye, chronic symptoms are easy to miss.
What can Tree First do?
We use a pneumatic air gun to blast soil away from buried tree trunks to help mitigate girdling roots. Troy, MI
Each situation is different. In some cases, a dedicated soil improvement zone is needed. In other instances a tree’s trunk flare becomes buried when soil is added around its base.
Most trees in the urban landscape benefit from some type of soil improvement. Those include vertical mulching, soil improvement zones, aerating, trunk & root excavation, and the careful addition of soil fertilizers. These are based on the results of a soil analysis for each tree.
Damaging the roots is most easily done by digging. Digging for a new driveway, or to install pipework. So any mechanical digging is best avoided near trees. However when it is necessary, use of air tools such as an Air Knife excavates soils with minimal damage to roots.
A very large soil improvement zone we developed beneath an old sugar maple, Rochester Hills, MI