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Vent: tried a 3 inch mulch ring on the maples at the Miller job and the roots did the opposite of what I expected
So last month I was out at the Miller place over in Springfield doing cleanup on three silver maples in their front yard, and I got it in my head to widen the mulch rings out to 3 inches deep instead of the usual 2 or so, mostly because the grass was creeping right up on the flare and I figured more mulch would smother it and hold moisture better going into summer. Two of them did fine, but the third one started pushing surface roots up through the mulch within about three weeks, which I did not see coming at all. Turns out I piled it a little too heavy right over the root zone where the soil stays wet, and the roots went up looking for air instead of down. Pulled it back to maybe an inch and a half, feathered it out away from the trunk, and the thing settled down. What I took from it is that depth matters more than the ring size, and my old habit of eyeballing it was doing me no favors. Has anyone else had a tree throw roots up after you widened a bed, or am I the odd one out here?
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johnson.laura5d ago
Check if that spot stays wetter than the rest.
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