The Glade 4.0

Yes Kaffis, of course I have, tripped over it occasionally when I wasn't paying attention. Some trees have a great deal of root showing above ground too. Trees are a very diverse plant family when it comes to that.

Aethien, I've been told that in the past, couldn't find any quick documentation on it. I've removed one huge amount of roots each time I've taken a tree out though.

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My memory is fuzzy on the source, too, Micheal, but I do recall something similar; namely that the root system rarely spreads beyond the footprint of the canopy. That doesn't say anything about mass, though.

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I can buy that. However, 6.6 pounds is still a hell of a lot more than 2 ounces - around 50 times more. That means his watering needed to add around 6 pounds to the soil in order to account for that much of the tree's net gain in mass.

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This. Spread, yes, but mass? Hell no. Think about a tree that has blown over. A big massive tree, has a big root wad, but think about that in terms of its canopy.

Or he overdryed it, or there were still some roots in there, or whatever. Not attesting to his methodology. However, biochemists with modern equipment have worked out the problem.

According to a study done in 1989, averaging a collection of tree species over a year, 50% of a tree is water, which is primarily taken up through the roots.

Which if I recall correctly from my materials class, is pretty close to the difference between green and dry lumber (though I recall it being 60% weight loss, but its been years).

Regarding roots... if I recall correctly, and I could ask my dad about this given his profession, but some trees, such as oaks, the root mass does equal the crown mass (which doesn't include the trunk). When you see an uprooted tree, you only see a portion of the root system.

Also, some species of plants, more half of all the carbon absorbed by the tree is locked in the root system.

I had a conversation about this with one of our engineers who does a lot of roadway design. He says that they used to operate on the assumption that the diameter of most trees' root system was roughly equal to the diameter of their canopy. However, in recent years this has changed. Now they assume that it is roughly equal to the heigt of the tree (quite a bit larger in most cases). I don't know what this says about mass.

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

It has been my experience that if you are on a job and want to save a tree, you put up your tree protection fencing at the drip line (approximate canopy diameter). They'll be some roots here and there that extend beyond, but the tree will survive without them.

Well, the concern from our perspective isn't protecting the tree, it's protecting the roadway from the roots and the subgrade from the moisture fluctuations. In clay soil like we have here in Dallas, the soil volume fluctuates wildly with moisture content.

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.