Tree Roots

[Bigmallly]

Tree roots are doing my head in, they are as thick as my arm................I'm digging down to them then attacking them with some ratchet loppers..........any advice on how I can remove them & make life easier for myself?

[RedThorn]

Dig somewhere else

[Bigmallly]

Dig somewhere else

Oh well, it beats "Get in a JCB"................

[Aberdeenplotter]

Dig somewhere else

ooh tsk that is hard. .

How's the budget matey? A half hour with a mini digger would be the answer. Up here minimum 4 hour charge which is a bit of an ouch but maybe worth pricing. If it is really pricey, digging down to them then attacking them with some ratchet loppers might see a more attractive proposition

[Bigmallly]

Sounds good in theory AP but I don't know where they are till the spade vibrates up my arm.........

[bearded bloke]

Get one of these BM ....... Roughneck 5lb Mattock Fibreglass 33" | Screwfix.com

[Bigmallly]

Cheers BB. I was thinking of going down the route of using a pick axe.

[Bren In Pots]

We got our Mattock from B&Q was about the same price as the one BB posted and according to Mr Pots with out the Mattock he'd have still been digging up the tree roots now.

[bearded bloke]

Cheers BB. I was thinking of going down the route of using a pick axe.

Pick axe will split the roots bud,a sharp mattock will cut like an axe

[Bigmallly]

Ok mate, you've talked me into it. I need to get them out somehow.

[Snadger]

By chopping the roots out are you not just root pruning which will cause a mass of secondary root growth? Might you kill the tree if it loses a lot of its roots Is it your tree?Do you care?

[Jeanied]

I was going to ask the same as Snadger. I had to get rid of some big ash saplings that had grown at the back of my plot - I used a hand axe for the smaller roots and a big axe for the bigger ones. Eventually I got the stump out but I left quite a few roots in the ground. Some trees do not regenerate from below ground level.

[Bigmallly]

It's a mixture of established trees & some that have been cut down. Yes, I suppose you could call it root pruning but as long as they are not running straight through the middle of beds which they are at the moment I don't really care.