One concerned homeowner recently turned to the r/arborists subreddit with a question about best tree care practices. Unfortunately, they likely had a strong suspicion about what the answer was going to be.
"Is the mulch too high around these trees?" the poster asked. "Per our landscapers it is perfect."
The other members of the subreddit answered with a resounding yes, followed by a good amount of complaining about landscapers who don't actually understand what is good and bad for trees.
"A few of the landscapers I know have no business being near any tree," one commenter wrote. "Need someone to mach-3 on the zero-turns banging a few root flares and girdling saplings with weedwhackers before blowing some mulch volcanoes and burning rubber on to the next job? They're your guy. But if you want someone to properly install and care for a tree? Not so much. Pick very carefully."
"Your landscapers are umm.. untrained lol," another said.
"Your landscaper is a hack. Ask him if he thinks the root flare should be visible. I would put my money on him not knowing what a root flare is," a third chimed in.
As the third commenter alluded to, trees grow optimally and healthily when their root flares are exposed — not when they are covered by too much tightly packed mulch. Unfortunately, this style of overmulching the base of a tree, commonly referred to as a "volcano mulching," has become extremely common.
Not only do mulch volcanoes bury the root flare, essentially suffocating and often killing the tree, they can also cause rot and fungus to develop on the tree trunk. This stops young trees from growing into healthy adults that provide shade and fresh air.
"So unfortunately our landscapers were picked by our contractor before we bought the house," the original poster said in a follow up. "We have a year warranty with them but they are denying this is a concern. I have not seen any other trees in our neighborhood planted with a mulch volcano like the ones we have so I'm thinking of bringing it up with the contractor instead of the landscapers, maybe they can talk some sense into the landscapers? I dunno. We paid a lot of money for our landscaping and I'd hate to have things die."
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