Post hole by trees??

[MinnesotaMike]

I have a friend that is putting in a fence and he came to the point where he needs to drill a 12" hole close to some pines trees, he asked me if it would do damage to the tree if he augered through some roots.

I did know so I pose the question to ya'll.

Will he kill the tree if he augers too many of the roots?

Thx,

Mike

[Steve Foss]

It could range from being just fine to almost killing the tree. If the hole is far enough out that it's severing a couple feeder roots, the tree should be OK and recover. If the hole takes out a primary root right near the base of the tree (thus eliminating all the roots coming off that main stem), the tree could easily die or get enough damage that it'll look horrible and need to be removed eventually.

If the tree's not healthy to begin with, even cutting a few feeder roots could cause too much damage. Conifers as a rule don't recover as well as or in the same way as deciduous trees, either.

Couple other considerations. If a fence is going that close to trees, long-term growth issues could easily crop up. Fences and trees don't play well together, and sooner or later a person may have to decide which to remove.

[upnorthvoice]

use the tree as the post?

[Steve Foss]

use the tree as the post?

I've done that. It works, but not everyone is willing for their fence to take a bit of a sideways jog to make it happen. Not to mention trees grow over time, skewing the fence. I've actually screwed the post into the tree rather than using the tree as a post. Makes it easer to unscrew the post to set it slightly differently on the tree trunk as it changes over time.