Cherry Roots

I have a fantastic cherry tree on the grass verge outside my house (belonging to the council), problem is I also now have a root running along the surface of my lawn which has ruined the lawn.

If I was to remove this one root would the tree live?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

Hi Apprentice,

Most of the trees water-absorbing roots are found within the top 2-3' of the surface of the soil. This is so that they can absorb the majority of the rainfall before it evaporates or drains away. The small, fibrous root system is more important that the bulky main roots inasmuch as they are the parts of the root that actually absorb water, and the larger trunk-type roots transport it. Damaging either the fibrous root system or main root would be bad for the tree as it would firstly reduce the amount of water and nutrients the tree can absorb, and secondly it will open up the tree to infection from soil based decay organisms.

My advice would be to leave the tree as it is if you're really looking out for the tree itself. If you're more concerned about the lawn then remove it but be prepared to deal with the potentially fatal results to your tree.

Hope this helps.

Matthew