Southern Utah Tree Service
Southern Utah tree service handling pruning, removal and the root problems desert irrigation creates.
Southern Utah Tree Service works on trees across the St. George area. Trees fail here for a reason that has almost nothing to do with the part of the tree anyone looks at, and it is created by the way we water them.
Background
A tree stands up because of its root plate - a broad, shallow disc of structural roots that acts as the anchor for everything above. That plate normally extends well beyond the edge of the canopy, and its extent is set by where water has been available while the tree grew. In a landscape watered by a few drip emitters placed near the trunk, the tree has no reason to send roots outward, so it builds a small root plate under a canopy that keeps expanding. The result is a top-heavy tree on an undersized anchor, and the failure mode is not a broken branch but the whole tree tipping over in a summer storm, often with the root plate lifting a visible disc of soil on the windward side.
The fix is a watering pattern rather than a pruning schedule. Emitters are moved outward as the tree grows so that water reaches the zone around and beyond the canopy edge, which is where a mature tree's absorbing roots are anyway, and deep infrequent irrigation encourages roots to follow water downward instead of staying at the surface. The other common contributor is a lawn or a bed watered daily right up to the trunk, which keeps the root collar wet and rots the bark at the base - a slow failure that is usually well advanced by the time it is noticed.
Related on the site: landscaping and lawn care companies and garden centers and nurseries. See every listing under Tree Service.
Categories
Contact
- Work Phone: 435-619-2090
- Website: https://southernutahtreeservice.com/
Frequently asked questions
Why do trees blow over in St. George?
Usually because the root plate is too small for the canopy. Roots grow where water is, so a tree watered by a few emitters near the trunk never extends its structural roots outward, and it ends up top-heavy on an undersized anchor. Summer storm winds then tip the whole tree rather than breaking branches.
Where should drip emitters be placed for a tree?
Outward, and moved further out as the tree grows. The roots that absorb most of a mature tree's water sit near and beyond the edge of the canopy rather than against the trunk, so emitters left where they were placed at planting water the wrong part of the root system and encourage a shallow, undersized root plate.
Is it bad to water right against a tree trunk?
Generally yes. Keeping the root collar constantly wet - a lawn or bed watered daily up to the trunk is the usual cause - rots bark at the base of the tree. It is a slow failure that is often well advanced before anyone notices, and it is one of the more common reasons an established tree declines without an obvious cause.
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