Breaking the tap root?
 

Jones wrote:
Hello all,

I have a big mahan pecan tree in my yard. This is a self-fertile
cultivar, and every year about this time, I find lots of baby seedling
pecan trees growing under it.

I want to transplant some, but I keep finding that I cannot dig them up
deep enough to get all of the tap root, especially among the seedlings
that are last year's stock. These "trees" are only maybe 12" tall and
1/8" or less thick, but their tap roots are often more than 12" long and
1/4" thick.

I've always heard that if you break the tap root of a young tree, that
it will either die or fail to thrive, but I wondered whether that's true
or just an old wive's tale.

I mean, we can take cuttings of trees and woody shrubs, and they will
grow, so why can't a tap root regenerate itself?

Thanks for any help or info.



My father planted a bunch of bare-root pecan trees. I don't recall any
of them having uncut tap roots when he bought them.

Bob