Found out tree roots can grow 3x the canopy width from a soil study I read

I was looking into why a client's oak kept lifting their driveway 20 feet from the trunk. Turns out roots spread WAY further than I thought, up to 60 feet for a 20 foot canopy. Has anyone else had to adjust their planting distances after reading research like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

taylor_fox26d ago

120 year old houses in my neighborhood have sidewalks buckled 50 feet from the biggest oaks. City forestry guys told me the roots just follow water and oxygen pockets underground. Makes you wonder what else is hiding in plain sight. My neighbor's foundation crack turned out to be a silver maple 40 feet away. That's the thing with trees, they're working underground way more than we give them credit for. The canopy is just the tip of the iceberg.

calebm4626d ago

Roots aren't that aggressive. My grandpa planted a silver maple like 15 feet from his house. Nothing ever happened. No cracks, no buckled concrete. Sometimes people just look for something to blame. Trees need water but they're not mindless destroyers. Most roots stay in the top foot of soil. They don't go hunting for foundations. Soil conditions matter way more than tree type. Could be your neighbor's foundation was already weak. Settling, bad drainage, whatever. Easy to point at a tree when you don't want to pay for real repairs. Those forestry guys probably see a hundred normal trees for every one that causes problems. Survivorship bias. You only notice when something breaks.