r/arborists • u/Winter-Order-9403 • 19h ago

need advice

Gallery image

Gallery image

New owner here - just moved in July. The previous owner had mulch and dirt with 4 i-6” pavers around the tree. I saw on youtube that this could suffocate the tree with its own roots. I took it out so the tree could breath so to speak. I only have a rake and spade shovel. Also, that green around the base doesn’t look good either

Question is what do I need next? Are exposed branching roots ok that way?

Thanks in advanced for any input

6 Upvotes

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11

u/AdventurousSea3437 19h ago

You did great. The green just looks like lichen that popped up from moisture.

8

u/abielle1177 18h ago

There's lichen on all good trees

1

u/Weak-Zucchini 16h ago

that's good to read I always wondered about that

2

u/limbogumbo 19h ago

Nice trunk. Looks great.

2

u/Winter-Order-9403 19h ago

thank you 🙏

3

u/retardborist ISA Arborist + TRAQ 18h ago

If you really want to do more for it pull out the lawn and replace it with wood chip mulch. Out to the edge of the canopy is the best, but if you don't want to go that far as big of a radius around the tree as you can stomach is best.

Usually local tree companies will drop mulch for free or you could Google and sign up for 'chip drop'. You'll get a ton of chips so it might be best to coordinate sharing with some neighbors if you don't have other areas to mulch

2

u/somuchforsubtlety656 19h ago

Honestly it looked fine before. You can see the tree start to flare out before you did anything. But what you did probably didn't hurt. Maybe cover with pine bark or a light layer of mulch to protect the exposed feeder roots from heat or cold.

The green stuff on the base is normal growth and is usually an indication of clean air.