I have two fairly large maple trees in my front yard. We live in Charlotte, NC and have had droughts in the past several years. Roots of the trees are on the surface of my yard and are even very close to the foundation of the house. I'm needing expert advice on whether the trees should be removed and roots dug up or what to do about it. Thanks for any info anyone can give me.
Hi, How large is large, what type of maple are they, how close to your front wall/ footings are they, how long have they been in that location. If you can answer those questions, we might be able to give you some advice. Ashizuru.
They are sugar maples and the one closest to the house is around 23 feet from the front wall and is 30 to 35 feet tall. They have been here since 1991 but we didn't own the house then and don't know how old they were when they were put into the ground. Some of the roots of the tree closest to the house are on the surface and is destroying my grass and making it very hard to mow. The tree that is a little further away from the house is now showing some roots close to the surface of the ground. Any information or tips you can give would be greatly appreciated.
Hi, it is unfortunate that I have had little experience with these trees, however I have researched them in my library, and it tells me that they can grow up to 120 feet high with a spread of up to 60 feet, I would estimate that your trees are about 20 years old, in my experience with trees is that what you see above the ground, the spread of the roots will extend to the edge of the canopy. So with that in mind I should say you have a few years before they will threaten your footings, that said, it also tells me as they get older, the branches do have a tendedancy to split in storms. On reflection, I would add, if you are worried about their safety at any time , do call in your local tree surgeon, for an opinion. Hope this answers your question. Ashizuru
Thank you so much for your reply. I am going to call an arborist this week to see what they say. I am having problems keeping grass under one tree as the roots are so near the surface they are taking up all the soil. If I get any reasonable explanation, I'll post it for others to read!
Here is a link to an article that you can read about sugar maples before they get there: http://hort.ufl.edu/trees/ACESACD.pdf.
Hi, suziq128- I have always read that maples do not have particularly invasive roots (Laurie's link says the same). Any tree of this size (any tree of any size) will compete with the grass, and maples have shallow roots. Good idea to have the situation assessed by a trust worthy arborist. Having said that I would like to defend your sugar maples as a European: we do not have the wonderful fall colors of North America here, and the red and sugar maples are your great assets in that area, like the japanese maples in Japan. So, unless the trees will wreck the foundation of your house, I'd root for the maples over the grass ;). All best. (I have planted a couple of sugar maples and red maples behind our house here, and I hope they continue to make it. The colors last fall beat anything I could see around here.)
Thanks so much for your input. I agree with you that I will keep my maples as long as possible as they are quite beautiful in the fall and even now in the spring and summer. I have always favored sugar maples as one of the most beautiful tree. I will see what a qualified arborist says and let everyone know! Thanks again.
Thanks for all the help I received on line. I had an arborist come out this week and he showed me what he called a "girder" root that had wrapped around the base of the tree. Also he said that the tree would be dying because of this and I should have it removed. He came back the next day and took it out. I hated to lose it but we saved the other maple by deep root fertilizing it and trying to get the roots to go deeper into the ground. He said that maple trees have shallow roots and will extend out 3 times the circumference of the tree. Since the first tree was so close to the house it was probably better to get rid of it since the roots had almost reached the brick footing. Hope this helps someone else who needs info on sugar maples!
Hi. Too bad about that tree. If you replant a tree, you can avoid the girdling of the trunk by the roots by not planting too deep, inspection of and work on rootball before planting, etc. Just for future reference: did he say the roots would eventually have damaged the house? All best.
Yes, he said that if they hadn't already gone under the house, they would before long. He also said they were bad to wrap around septic tanks and sewers and such. I really hate it as maple is about my favorite tree. Now I'm wondering what to put in the front yard that will grow quickly and give us some shade. Do you have any suggestions? I don't think my husband will go for another maple so I"m going to have to think of something else! Thanks for any info.
Maple roots are close to the surface. Some trees like pines have deep taproots and you don't see them on the surface. Roots of any tree will grow to a water source. If the water lines do not leak, the roots do not know that they contain water. If you do not have water in your basement or crawl space, the roots have no reason to invade. Unfortunately, we sometimes need to make a choice between grass and trees. Grass needs lots of sun to do well and lots of water. Trees shade the grass and compete for water. The types of grass that grow in the SE do not do well under trees. What happens is that grass is planted when the trees are small and does fine. As the trees grow, they produce more shade and the grass dies out. Use mulch under the trees and plant shade loving plants under them rather than grass that requires full sun. If you are worried about roots under your foundation, you can use a barrier like is used to contain bamboo. Put it between the house and the tree and you won't have to worry. You dig a narrow trench (use a ditchwitch), place the plastic barrier and refill the trench. The roots do not grow through the plastic barrier. I would choose the tree and have less grass to mow. Dale B.
A note on allelopathy from Van Gelderen (1994), Maples of the World, will shed some light on underplanting certain maples: The genus Acer shares with numerous other genera an allelopathic domination, although it is not as virulent as the domination of Juglans. For example, Acer saccharum trees in North American forests produce substances allelopathic against seedlings of other trees, so that newly germinated seedlings of [black spruce, tamarack, jack pine, white spruce, northern white cedar, and yellow birch] are repressed exponentially when grown in Acer saccharum root exudate (1980). Other inhibitory Acer species, from the most to the least active, are A. campestre, A. platanoides and ssp. turkestanicum, A. pseudoplatanus, A. tataricum and ssp. ginnala, A. cappadocicum, A. negundo, and A. saccharinum. There is no reason that you could not plant another maple or two, because they do not have such a notorious reputation with water and sewer systems. Acer saccharum ssp. saccharum will ultimately grow to 130’, whereas a couple of other subspecies would give you lovely options: A. saccharum ssp. leucoderme grows to about 25’, and A. saccharum ssp. grandidentatum, which incidentally loses it leaves weeks earlier than the species here in Seattle, grows to 30'-40'. Check these out in the Maple Photo Gallery and in a google image search. Then there are many lovely alternatives to the sugar maple to add even more diversity of leaf, shape, and time of bloom and fall color, e.g. A. buergerianum. The J.C. Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh has quite an Acer collection, including rare species, if you are able to get over there some time.
I have just noticed this thread , did you have the whole tree removed because of a girdling root? that seems odd as you can remove girdling roots, depending on the size etc and keep the tree. I agree with the 'lose the lawn' statement, but I may be biased. :)
