I have several different conifers in my yard and I am wondering how deep their roots go. The reason I am asking is that I had an occassion to replace a piece of a sprinkler system and found tonnes of little roots from an Emerald Green arbor vitae around the sprinkler head. The conifers I have are: Arbor Vitae (Emerald Green and Tom Thumb) Berckman's Golden Dwarf Arbor Vitae (not a Thuja sp.) Colorado Blue Spruce Mugho Pine I am thinking about maybe getting either some Leyland Cypress or Arizona Cypress for a hedge. How deep would their roots go?
the thujas tend to be shallow (although densly) rooted. most large trees will have the majority of their roots in the top 18 to 24 inches, it is however based on soil type. the better the overall drainage, generally the deeper and more expansive the root system.
Not necessarily, for conifers, and even less so in the rainy NW. A lot more factors go into growing which tree where, but any seedling (like yours) that's left next to a water source when very young will respond by growing, though a lot of conifers, no longer seedlings, prefer dry sandy, gritty locations.
I'm in the inland NW...it isn't very rainy here (think south Okanagan). The dry sandy conditions are for good drainage I'm guessing. Heavy clay is the course of the day here, though if they can get through it, the dirt down about 2 feet is primeau!
