silver maple
A question about silver maples: I live in a condo complex and there's a beautiful silver maple about 40 feet from my balcony. It's 40 to 50 feet tall, and it's about twenty years old. It has grown very quickly since I moved here 13 years ago. This week, a contractor dug two parallel trenches, each about five feet from the trunk of the tree (one on each side of the tree) and each about a foot deep, for the purpose of laying some conduit for some high-speed computer cable/TV access (which I know almost nothing about). Many of the roots were severed, and I was extremely upset, and I'm afraid the tree will die. The condo manager offered little consolation, other than to say that the company would "replace the tree" if it died. (How do you replace a 40 foot tree?) Can you give me some information about the likelihood of the tree surviving, given its root system? Is there anything that could be done to save the tree? Thank you.
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MaineDesigner
- Green Thumb
- Posts: 439
- Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2006 11:17 am
- Location: Midcoast Maine, Zone 5b
Silver maples are fairly tough, if there is enough root expanse in the other two directions and it gets enough water it may survive. I think the bigger concern at this point is the tree blowing over as it has lost a great deal of anchoring structure.
This could (theoretically) have been avoided as most of the roots are within about 2' of the surface so it should be possible to bore a tunnel two or three feet below the surface and avoid much of the root disturbance. Why they needed two parallel trenches ten feet apart escapes me but my field is plants and design not telecommunications.
At this point providing some additional water is about the only step you can take to increase the chances of survival.
Trees can take a long time to die. You won't know definitely whether or not it survived this insult until it leafs out in the spring of 2010, assuming it doesn't die or blow over before then.
This could (theoretically) have been avoided as most of the roots are within about 2' of the surface so it should be possible to bore a tunnel two or three feet below the surface and avoid much of the root disturbance. Why they needed two parallel trenches ten feet apart escapes me but my field is plants and design not telecommunications.
At this point providing some additional water is about the only step you can take to increase the chances of survival.
Trees can take a long time to die. You won't know definitely whether or not it survived this insult until it leafs out in the spring of 2010, assuming it doesn't die or blow over before then.