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Pro tip: A city planner in Boise told me they're seeing a spike in tree failures from a specific planting error
We were reviewing a site plan last Thursday, and she pointed out three recent limb drops on new developments, all from the same issue: planting container-grown trees without properly scoring the root ball. She said, 'We're writing it into the code now because the girdling roots show up in 7 years, every time.' Has your municipality started pushing for root washing or scoring on your jobs yet?
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jadeg814mo ago
Scoring is different than washing though.
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eva_owens5mo ago
Totally seeing the same thing on our sites. Our inspector just failed a whole row of oaks for tight root balls last month.
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jamiesingh5mo ago
Wait, did they check the soil first? I've seen oaks get flagged for tight roots, but sometimes it's just heavy clay holding them. We had a site where the roots looked bound, but they were actually fine once we washed the soil off. The inspector just saw the outside and failed them.
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reed.eva4mo ago
Yeah the "washed the soil off" part is key. So many inspectors just do a quick look and don't actually check if the roots are circling or if it's just the clay sticking. It's lazy. Like @eva_owens said, a whole row can get failed over it and then you're stuck replanting. We started asking them to wash a spot clean right there on site before they write it up. Saves so much hassle.
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