How far away from a Silver Maple can I add backfill?

eleanorrgb

I bought a house last year with a 50 year old silver maple in the back. Total acreage is .13 acre, so small yard, about half of that is the back yard. I had a certified arborist thin it out last fall and he says it is in good shape. I have major grading issues tho and have had to add a lot of fill dirt to the back yard to get water to drain away from my house out to the back alley. This work started last week, and it just occurred to me that silver maples have shallow roots and I might be smothering it. But I can't have water in my foundation either. I had asked them to leave a 5 ft distance ring around the tree already, mainly because I wanted to plant some ferns and maybe hostas there. Past the 5 foot it is probably about 5-8 inches of fill dirt (pretty much clay in central ohio) and a little top soil. I know the roots were spread all throughout the lawn, some right on the surface as far as 20 feet away (but then again I had a very low dirt). Is the ring enough to keep it alive? Or is this going to kill it?

Also, this thought just popped into my head. Do you think the reason that I had such a lower level of dirt than my neighbors is because of the silver maple? I know that the house two doors down also has a silver maple gets really bad standing water too...could just be a coincidence.

Thanks, and I did search a bunch of threads but didn't find my exact situation from the results I got.

Aimee

Eric Frei

We need pictures, and measurements.

We need to know canopy spread, tree height, diameter at breast height.

How deep is the fill?

What is the fill?

Is the fill compacted?

What is on top of the fill (lawn etc)?

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windthrown

With a maple I would not worry about it, unless you are compressing or compacting the soil. The roots will just sucker right into the new top dressing like they knew what to do with it. I have had many type of maple trees, and in all cases they are very fast at invading planter boxes and higher level fill areas above their original root level. They are also tolerant of excavating around the roots, even in large areas for planter boxes, play houses, and putting in footings. Unless you are piling the soil up more than 3 feet or something, I do not see it as being an issue. Maples are incredibly tolerant of root pruning and canopy pruning as well. You can stump prune them (cut them down) and within a year there are a hundred and one suckers coming up.

Eric Frei

So you are saying the original buried root system will live or die?

Most trees when subjected to fill will grow additional roots, however the issue is the original root crown decays which is also the anchoring root crown.

The new adventitious roots keep the tree green and healthy but offer little support. This is one of the most common causes for tree failures and is what was the major ingredient for the tree failures at New Farm Park.

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windthrown

I seriously doubt that the old maple roots will die off with a few inches of soil added. Maple roots grow fast and furious, and they will create a matte wherever they grow. Like in a year's time. I have seen that on native maples here in the west anyway. They are very invasive and aggressive root systems. Dig up and put in a new lawn, and the next year the maple roots are all growing into it, thanking you. This is specific to acer though, not all tree species. I grow a lot of Japanese and native maples here in my nursery. Never killed any of them over or under potting. Its really hard to kill a maple, actually. On the ranch they only died from old age, or being overgrown and crowded out by taller connifers. I have cut road swaths through BigLeaf maple root systems, and they were not affected. I have piled up road mounds around them, and they were not affected. I have cut them down, and they just sprouted back. The related BoxElders were the same, but they tended to get hallow trunks with age. Vine Maples here commonly grow around errosion areas along creeks where they get a foot of soil deposited or removed in flood years, and they grow like nothing happened. Exposed roots or buried roots, they just keep growing. I had a small leaf maple at my house in California, and we dug the dirt down 8 inches on one side to put in a deck, and we mounded it up 8 inches on the other side and planted a lawn. The tree was 30 feet tall, and mature, and nothing happened. It grew into the lawn dirt in a hurry. They came and lopped half that tree the following year to clear the power lines, and again, the tree was not affected. Maples are pretty indestructible in my experience. As trees go anyway... cannot really over water them, cannot grow much around them becasue of their invasive and crowded root system. But try to kill them?

eleanorrgb

Thanks. I kinda feel like this tree is tough, and I know it is spreading into several neighbors yards who are not regarding, but I got a little worried. Since Ekka asked for photos, I went ahead and took some.

I dont' know how to estimate canopy spread, but I would guess 50-60 feet. I would guess the height around 60-70 feet. (I am usually pretty good about estimating) Using my highschool geometry, it is 3.5 foot in diameter. I don't know what breast diameter is, but the highest part where it is still one trunk is about 2 feet in diameter. Guessing that is what that means.

The fill is clay dirt, some top soil. It will have been compacted somewhat by the bobcat and/or small backhoe that is doing the regrading and tearing out some smaller trees and honeysuckle in my yard. I have asked them to loosen it up before I put on a thin layer of good topsoil (I'd like to put more, but too expensive). Then I'm going to grow a fescue lawn on top of that.

From what I'm hearing I think it will be okay, but providing this information in case someone has further direction. None of the big roots have been needed to be cut. I know some of the roots showing through the lawn did get scraped by the bobcat.

Thank you for all of your feedback!

PS. That is not a new sidewalk...they are pouring concrete on top of the existing one. So the tree was already used to having a sidewalk there and they did not need to take out the old sidewalk which was disfigured by the tree roots already.

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