In article ,
Judith in England wrote:



They concluded that the number of visitors had compacted he earth over the
years, over the root system - and that was what has caused the tree to be less
than perfect with little or no growth. They also checked various research and
were actually surprised to realise that the majority of tree roots tend to be
only between 1m and 2m deep (a fairly unknown fact) - and that hence all the
compaction had caused significant distress to the tree roots.

Actually, it's been well-known for a very long time - as has the
fact that the feeding roots tend to be the shallower ones. The
deep roots tend to be more for anchorage and water. Of course,
on low-lying (clayey?) ground, there are often/usually very few
deep roots.

You can easily see that when you pass blown-over trees - very
often, there are no major roots below HALF a metre!

They embarked on a change of policy - and started to aerate the roots of their
trees - forcing compressed nitrogen (later air) in to the roots to a depth of
about a metre. They also forced water and various feeds in to the root system.

The results were astounding. They now use a modified process of forcing
compressed air in to the root systems of all of their trees.

Now, that I didn't know.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.