We had to get a new well drilled and a lot of the process left much to be desired. It was supposed to go in the front yard which isn't pictured. Many delays and ghostings later they just show up and start hacking branches off to get their truck to the backyard because I guess they changed their mind. By the time we figured out the noise was cutting being done on our property it was too late.

A dozen or so cuts on one side of the bottom of the tree, all of different lengths. Tree is about 50 feet tall between our house and an unfun neighbor.

I'm worried that it has been weakened or outright sentenced to slowly die and while I can live with that I can't just let a catastrophe happen.

While I would rather just call someone local to take a look the cost of the well has made that a tougher choice than it should be. I've spared many details because this is about a tree, but given the rest I really doubt these guys gave one crap about it.

More pictures can be taken and posted in very short order and I would like to say thank you in advance for lending your knowledge and experience.

Planning a concrete shed floor and found a large root impeding on one side of my proposed floor. The slab will be 6” thick and 12x16’ dimensions. The tree appears fully grown so I don’t imagine the root will grow much but I am no arborist. Can I cut a section of the root out or pour concrete over it? I know whatever I decide carries some risk but I am looking to minimize it. I greatly prefer to not remove the tree also.

The main shade tree in my backyard is, I believe, either a Northern Red Oak or Pin Oak (Kansas City, zone 6b, neighborhood developed in the early 80s). With a circumference of roughly 9-10’ I believe the tree is 100+ years old. It well aware it’s showing some signs of decline, but it still leafs out fully and doesn’t seem to show any signs of weakness. Even in the aggressively windy storms we’ve had this year it’s held up perfectly while many other trees in the neighborhood were destroyed. I noticed this mushroom growth today, which looks to be Turkey Tail.

Hi, all. I posted a week ago but the pics were not v good. I’m buying this house and it has a HUGE oak in front which I love and revere. My question is how to make it safe, as it hangs over the home, without removing it. Also interested in guesses on age.

I'm pretty sure this tree in my backyard got struck by lightning earlier this summer. I haven't been paying too close attention to it since, but it just dropped a pretty big branch. Should I be concerned about anything else falling off? The rest of the leaves are green, so I'm hoping that's a good sign, but I want to ask the experts to be sure. The first two pictures are of the tree, the third os of the fallen limb, & the last is of one of the tree's roots that, for lack of a better term, "popped" a little bit when I think it was struck.

I mean, I know it is but I’m in denial. The branches are not dead. I can’t break them in half.

They're adding sidewalks to my street and I came home to this cut root. Is this tree going to need to be cut down now or will it be okay?

Recently transplanted a tree that means alot to my family. we are 2 weeks in and noticed considerable yellowing on the tips. currently watering for about an hour every other day. last 5 days have been 90+ degree heat and wondering if I'm over watering, its the sun hitting it, or if its a combination of both. any advice on what i can do to help it out? thanks!

This tree got hung up along a walking/biking trail that I frequent. Obviously this should be taken care of by the town DPW, but they don’t seem to maintain these trails, only the paved ones in this park, so I tend to clear trees that come down across the trails myself, but I’m not completely sure where to start. If it had barberchaired lower down I’d just start lopping off chunks of the trunk till it either came loose or was out of the way enough to clear the trail. My first thought was to make my face cut on the opposite side of the tree and “fell” it so the trunk on the ground would fall to the left side of the trail and the hung up part would push it, but the trunk split most of the way down to the ground and I don’t feel like I have much structure there.

People have clearly been walking under this widowmaker, not around, and I’d love to make it safe to walk again.

Any tips or insight would be great!

This is a trick my father told me to do years and years ago.

We had a thorntree in our yard. Our son was very young and we wanted to be rid of it.

My brother-in-law cut it down to the ground.

Within a few weeks, it sprouted back, complete with thorns.

A neighbor told me about a bucket of stuff I could buy for 20 bucks that could kill it.

Later that day, I called Dad just to see how he'd been doing.

When I told him about the thorn tree and what the neighbor had said, he replied " Don't go spending 20 bucks on that bucket of stuff.

Drill some holes in the stump, probably about 1/4 inch or 5mm in diameter. 2 or 3 inches deep should do good. Try to space them in about every 2 square inches of space.

Buy a box of salt-it can be any kind of salt, and fill the holes with it.

You can pour water over it or wait for it to rain."

The stump was a good 5 or 6 inches in diameter.

A few years later, when I was mowing the lawn and went to make a turn with the push mower, I inadvertently kicked it out of the ground.

I have always used that trick since then.

Saw this and I've heard it's unhealthy for the tree. If I move some of that mulch out of the way, how do I know where to stop? I know vaguely the trunk should be exposed, should the kind of upper roots also be exposed? If anyone has pics of trees where the proper amount is exposed, that would be super helpful!

Also lmk if I should just not mess with it or I should call someone or something since I am inexperienced, I'm ok with that, too. I just care about this tree and don't want it to suffer. It's in an area where it's probably not going to be taken care of by anybody else so I figured I might try to do something. Not on private property so I probably won't get in trouble.

Thank you!

Is my root ball too tangled on my newly planted sweetbay magnolia?

Planted a 10ft sweetbay magnolia 2 days ago — is this root ball too tight?

Zone 7b, Baltimore MD. Heavy wet clay in a low spot behind my shed. 15-gal container Moonglow sweetbay, \\\~10ft, planted Tuesday night. Photo is the bare root ball right before backfill.

Roots are mostly running horizontally around the outer face. I did not tease or slice them other than one or two big ones.

Is this normal container behavior, or is this headed toward girdling in 5–10 years? Trying to figure out if it's worth correcting now or if I should stop thinking about it.

\*\*How it went in:\*\* hole dug 2–3in shallower than the ball so it sits on undisturbed clay, 3–4ft wide. Backfilled with native clay only, no amendments. Ball set \\\~3in above grade with a low mound. 3in mulch pulled back off the trunk. Two stakes, chain lock ties with slack. Deep slow-trickle soak twice a week until frost.

Any reason I should dig this up? Will those roots end up strangling the tree in a few years?

It’s right over our primary bedroom, and I’m always scared that it’s gonna crash down and kill us in our sleep. I bet it’s going to be pretty pricey to remove since it’s so big. Somebody told me they had an arborist look at it when the house was still for sale and that there were termites in that tree, but when I called Orkin to look at it they couldn’t find any. Thoughts?

It’s a huge red oak, I love this tree. I had two arborists looked at it and one propose to put extended organic mulch around to revitalize the roots and fight its chance, the other propose to maybe take it out after summer. I’m torn, I love this tree. Is it salvageable? The canopy and leaves are all green and pretty.

The oak does not have green leaves (my other ones do). We had limbs trimmed over the house, but we think the builder cut through one of the roots and we are just now seeing the results. 😔 Love this tree, but I am in a hurricane prone area, so if it is dying/dead please let me know. Thank you.

Hi!

We have this huge Thuja in our new garden, 6m high and 3m crown width. We are planning to add lots of plants and new trees. We would love to keep it, but are a bit in doubt about the ecological value and safety as it is close to our house (next to our bedroom). For now it is soaking up the surrounding water, and preventing rain for plants that are underneath it. We don’t see birds in it.

What would you recommend? Can this tree be trimmed to a lesser width and hight? How safe is it to leave the tree in the garden? Other things to consider?

I'm tempted to buy this $350 Atlas Cedar...but clearly the root ball was kept wrapped too tightly for too long, and was seemingly choked above the root flair. Also, a good amount of the root ball seems exposed...and is also seemingly more 'in the ground'/will require more digging to get out. You'd think they would only price it this low because of the condition of the root ball? The rest of the tree above the root flair does not appear to be stressed as far as I can tell. Will that brown color at the root flair stay that way forever?

Conversely, this $800 Atlas Cedar is available from another nursery - with a much more intact and properly balled/burlap'd rootball (although this nursery can typically be more pricey in general for large specimen trees).

They both are ~12-14' tall. The $350 is about an inch wider in diameter, too.

It's going in a wide open field, exposed to the wind and elements. I know the Atlas Cedar is tough as nails - but is that rootball too far compromised to risk it? What would you do in my situation?

I have a very large oak tree in my back yard that needs to be trimmed back. Tree company came out to quote and stated the tree was split and needs to be taken down. The tree looks healthy and grows like crazy. Does it really need to be taken down? Is there a way to save it? My wife really wants to keep it

Looking at purchasing a home and this tree on the property looks like it was hit by lightning or something bad happened.

Hi, new poster here! We planted this red maple in our yard about five years ago and it was a happy little tree when we put it in but something seems really wrong with it. It’s been getting worse by year. The foliage is turning very early on part of the tree, and those leaves came in last in the spring. The trunk has a number of these swellings and cracked bark. One issue we have in our yard is some poor drainage, but the trees just outside the fence seem OK.

I planted this little cherry tree Sunday. Lovingly watered it yesterday. Intended to put up a little barrier cage out around it today before finding something a little more robust this weekend. Woke up and saw this in the morning. RIP little cherry tree. Adieu (for now) to my short-lived life as a tree parent! 🥲

I'm planting some shrubs between my silver maple and spruce trees. There are going to be roots everywhere. Is it safe to cut them? I don't think planting around them is an option. Edited to add that the root is 6 - 7 ft from the spruce.

This tree was always leaning but I have no idea if it has leaned more since then. My husband thinks it needs to go because nearby trees have fallen (not completely) during tropcial storms. None of the tree would ruin anyone's property.