Manual Root Flare Excavation

You know what really grinds my gears?

Mulch Volcano’s. I can’t stand them and they are everywhere these days!

Most home owners don’t even know that it’s bad for their trees, so I will give them that much. But as the saying goes, too much of anything is bad for you and that goes for your trees.

Why you ask?

In short, mulch volcanoes are bad for your trees because they cover that sexy root flare. You know, that magical place where the tree trunk flares before it meets the ground.

Just think about it. Over years, layers of mulch cake up and get matted down. Moisture builds and rots the mulch which brings in pests and rodents that like to burrow and wreak havoc. The roots are also searching for oxygen and will start coming up to the surface. This will also cause your roots to girdle and choke off oxygen to your lovely tree.

I inherited the volcano above when I purchased my new home and cringed at the site of it and must have seen 20 root flare excavation videos before I attempted it on my own. I am a DIYer and didn’t want to pay anybody hundreds of dollars to come out with the specialized air spade which basically blows the dirt out with focused high pressure air. This is probably the safest method for your trees roots. I decided to do a manual root flare excavation and with nothing but a Japanese Garden Knife and a horse brush. Yes, I said a horse brush. Any Japanese garden knife will do but I used the Hori Hori just based on reviews. My horse brush of choice was the Decker 35 because of the stiff soft bristles.  

I started by filling 10 bags of old mulch and caked dirt before I actually got to the roots. Once I saw some roots I used the horse brush to expose as much root as I could all around the base of the tree and go deeper than you think you need too so you can back fill with some good tree compost. Next, I grabbed my handy Hori Hori and carefully dug around any root that I could find and came back with the brush every now and then to brush off and expose more root. Be careful not to damage any of your precious roots.

This is how your tree should look when you’re done.

Note: It’s okay to cut off any root that is girdling around your tree as long as it’s less than an inch thick. Cutting off anything thicker will probably damage your tree so ask an arborist.

This one is probably a little too thick.

When you are satisfied with your root flare excavation put down a couple of bags of planting mix for trees and top it off with a bag of mulch. You don’t need any synthetic fertilizers because your tree will love the natural nutrients from the mulches.

Be sure to leave that sexy root flare exposed because that was the whole purpose of doing this activity in the first place!!

The last step is to grab a beer and tell all your neighbors how to turn a sad tree into a happy tree. Enjoy!