Then hand dig around the roots and pass the pipe under the roots
<SIGH> Oh Bernard stop it, or you sticking your oar in trying to pull my leg
- an 'oh sorry i didn't realise that' is always welcome after reading this.
So this is the talk i was given about the roots from the forester, which is more or less what i knew already having worked as a volunteer in a park many years ago, just googled and found something similar, have a read. Then have a pause for thought. It isn't just locating that big tap root and digging round it with a hand spade
you've already done far more damage getting there.
(i would like to add i am far from a thicko just because i don't have a degree in plumbing i do research alot of things in alot of ways so)
About 90% of tree roots are in the top 10" (26 cm) of soil, and 98% are in the top 18" (46 cm). A tree’s roots extend, unless there’s an obstacle like a road or building, two to three times the length of its branches. This is a tree’s root zone: a broad, shallow, vulnerable mass of roots.
It’s true that trees such as oaks and walnuts have a taproot when young, but in maturity their root systems look like a pancake, not a carrot. Most of us have seen trees which have been uprooted by a storm, but that monster taproot has yet to be spotted. It’s no coincidence that the flat root system one sees on a windthrown tree is referred to as a root plate.
To survive, roots need to get oxygen directly from soil pores.
Compaction from vehicles or equipment operated within the root zone will permanently compress pores and exclude oxygen. Adding soil to the root zone to raise the grade (for instance to lay sod) has the same effect. In these cases, roots slowly suffocate, and trees will eventually show symptoms of decline. In wet soil conditions, such damage potential is far, far greater.
Excavation or trenching activities within a root zone will sever some tree roots, and probably will compact the rest. Photo: Peter Bedker, Bugwood.org, Creative Commons, some rights reserved
Excavation or trenching activities within a root zone will sever some tree roots, and probably will compact the rest. Root damage may kill a tree outright within a few years, but more commonly there will be a prolonged decline over 5-10 years. Because of this time lag, oftentimes it is secondary, opportunistic agents which get the blame.