Took me 2 days to figure out a maple that kept dropping branches

I thought it was root rot or some pest, but after digging around the base in Portland it turned out the previous owner had buried the graft too deep and the root flare was totally choked. Is it worth the extra time to excavate and fix these older trees, or is removal the smarter call when the canopy already shows stress?

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allen.iris1mo ago

Did you try cutting the girdling roots at the base? Saved mine that way last spring.

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amy_craig281mo ago

Funny you mention that, my neighbor spent a whole weekend saving a maple that looked worse than yours, and now it drops these weird black sap spots on everything. He swears the tree talks to him when he waters it, but honestly I think he just needs a hobby. Either way, if it still has solid wood at the base and you got time, excavation beats a stump grinder every time.

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