Will cutting off the tap root fom a 9 year old horse chestnut tree harm it?
Horse Chestnuts, Aesculus hippocastanum, do form tap roots, and could be harmed if you’ve removed a significant amount of it, or if it’s damaged and gets infected. Many trees can be bonsai’d, and I have seen this tree grown this way, although they are typically managed this way from their very early stages of life, with tiny bits of roots cut off at a time, rather than a major piece of a large tap root. Horse Chestnuts in the UK have been suffering the last couple of years, with potentially 50,000 affected, and many of them may now die – if yours lives, it will be a great addition to the natural landscape, and help replace what could be lost. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/ar… I’d recommend that you don’t let your tree stress too much this year, and water carefully as its ability to uptake water and nutrients is now diminished, due to its root damage. W
