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Skeptical about the air spade until I saw what was under a 40 year old silver maple
I always figured air excavation was a gimmick for guys who wanted to charge more. Then a customer in Naperville asked me to look at a silver maple with a girdling root, and I rented an AirSpade for 90 bucks just to shut him up. Forty minutes in, I had exposed a 3 inch root wrapped most of the way around the trunk. I cut it, backfilled, and that tree leafed out fuller than it had in the 6 years I'd been watching it. Now I keep a spreadsheet of every root flare I dig, and 11 of the 14 I checked this spring had some kind of burial or girdle issue. Has anyone here had one come back to bite them after cutting, or am I still in the honeymoon phase with this thing?
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jana_shah9620d ago
Cut three girdlers on a red oak two years back and it pushed new growth like crazy that first season, but last summer one leader started dying back, so keep an eye on yours for a few years. Watch for decay at the cut site too, some trees seal better than others.
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