Looks like my tree is doomed :(
I posted last year about my 20 year old Japanese maple not leafing out. We called an arborist out this year and it looks like the tree it dying of girdled roots. He gave it 10% chance of survival, due to the fact that epicormic buds are present and there is twig dieback. I ended up digging up the roots and sure enough the roots are a mess and wrapped around the trunk. I cut the ones that were wrapped around and hoping for a miracle! What are your thoughts?
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It was a valiant effort, but for most trees, you cannot cut roots close to the trunk. Those roots transport water and nutrients from the fine roots further out. Cutting the large roots essentially kills off the feeder roots and weakens the tree even more. I think the roots you cut are still primarily surface roots the really badly wound roots will have been deeper.