Am I the only one who never knew to check the root flare before planting?

Killed 3 maples in my yard in Boise over 2 years, all planted at the same depth as the nursery pot, before a guy at the co-op told me to dig until I found the flare and plant it so it sits above grade. Pulled my last dead one and the roots were wrapped in a circle like a ball of yarn, so what's your go to method for untangling girdled roots before you drop a tree in the hole?

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rowan_butler939d ago

Root flare stuff gets passed around like gospel but plenty of trees survive being planted a little deep. Nurseries sell trees in pots with buried flares all day long and most of them live. The girdled root thing is real though, that circle of roots never fixes itself once it starts choking the trunk. Honestly the bigger issue is Boise dirt and how much people water new trees, not a half inch of depth either way. Untangling roots by hand and cutting the worst circling ones with pruners is fine but it won't save a tree that's drowning or baking.

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