Hi - Thank you for reading my mercy. I have an approx 20 ft (20-30 years old?) Japanese maple that just got injured today (11/02/09). A plummer, against our instructions, decided to dig a 4 ft deep hole (2 by 3 feet wide) and approx 5 inches away from the Japanese maple's tree trunk to access our home's sewer line. How much damage did this do to our loving tree (one of the main reason why we bought our house)? Is there anything we can do to treat it? Is there hope for the tree? Or should we expect the worst? Our Japanese maple is approx 20 ft tall, 20 ft wide, about 4 feet away from our house, unknown age. Truly a beauty. Thank you so much for your help and input. Grieving Japanese Maple owner, Nikki
You should bring in an ISA certified Arborist to evaluate the tree's roots and see how severe the damage is. A hole that close to the trunk has probably torn major roots of this tree. Any damaged large roots should be cut cleanly, and if there is major damage to the root crown, you may lose a portion, or all of the tree. http://www.treesaregood.com/treecare/treatment_construction.aspx http://www.treesaregood.org/findtreeservices/FindTreeCareService.aspx Good Luck, and enjoy the tree while you can.
5" (inches) away? Sounds like they must of cut roots in that case. If not, that would be a surprise. Take any photos?
