Can someone tell me how to expose the roots without damaging the tree. I have several trees that need this done to, I can't find a company willing to come to Denton where I live to do it for me, and I'm very scared to try doing it myself. We just had two trees planted in early spring and I know they are too deep and the burlap was not removed before planting, although I did insist that it be removed from the top of the ball. Will the ball have girdling roots too?

crk-
I am sure no expert but if you have any kind of air compressor that would force air on the area, that would work, or a steady strong stream of water. Important thing is not to damage the area you uncover. Use gloved hands to scrape away the soil. I bet you can do a 'search' & come up w/more hints.
Good luck-Patty

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Plano Patty & Jim

If you go to the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens, there are a group of magnolias. One of them is the biggest one in Fort Worth. It is very beautiful tree. And it also have beautiful, above-ground flares. Go to the Compost Trail, there is one of the biggest magnifcent cedar elm that I have seen. It very tall and wide. It has big trunk and above flares. If you go across the road from the trail, it looks look someone have expose most of the trees flares. I don't remember them being exposed before or not. I do know the trees sure look better than before. Another great tree there is big bur oak. It is near the front near the entrance. That is an enormous, beautiful, majestic bur oak! It looks like the oldest tree in the Gardens. It must be 80-85 feet tall with equal width, and it has flare above the ground.

Now cross the Gardens into the Trinity Park, there are some large bur oaks that lookss like they are 5 feet down in the ground. I think it happened naturally because they are right by a creek. So I figure that this was cause by floods that piled against the bur oaks. I notice one day, some guys were pruning some of the top of the trees. I did not like that at all. But on some other day, I notice that the pruned branches were almost hollowed looking. Can this be the result of high soils onto the trunks?

Tree Dude

Everyone says to "just pull back the dirt from around the flare or use an air spade or leaf blower. Well, the dirt around my trees is pretty compact and it will take scraping or digging to remove it. This scares me in that I will damage the tree.

The air spade will remove the compacted dirt. Last year I had the root flares exposed on 7 small oaks, and this year I had the flares exposed on two very old pecans. All these trees were in black clay. It took the crew awhile, but they did get through the clay w/o hurting the trees.

Did you do this yourself or did you have a service do it for you? If someone else did it for you who did you use?

I used Root Flare Services, they are a branch of Moore Tree Care. They are listed in the business directory.

crk, I sent you a detailed answer to your PM yesterday. Did you get it?

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Shepherd of the Trees
It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields we know so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.

I'm sorry but I continue having trouble getting into the personal messages. I seem to be doing something wrong with the password. I hope to get this resolved before long.
I got a call from Root Flare Services this morning indicating that someone would come before noon today to give a consultation. This is great and I should be able to get some answers. If not, I'll let you know.

Yes I too look at tree root flares constantly. Especially in the 'wild' where they are extreme. It would be nice if all of my trees were planted like that but they are not. So the question becomes, how much is enough? Most of my trees show a definate widening at the bottom, some have even pushed up a mound all around themselves, which wreaks havoc when trying to mow with a wide mower. But none have that extreme flair as shown currently at the bottom of the Dirt Doctor home page. Unfortuneately a couple of trees look like telephone poles coming out of the ground and those I am working on. As for the others, if they are widening at the bottom is that enough to let nature take its course?

I guess the best judge is when you actually get those root tops exposed.

Different trees will have different flares, but you'll know you're there when the roots at the true rootball top are exposed.

_________________
Shepherd of the Trees
It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields we know so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.