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Seven inches too deep

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roots too deep

The top-most root in the root ball is now 8 inches below the soil surface. If the tree is dug without removing this soil, two problems result: 1) a smaller portion of the root system is harvested with the tree compared to a tree with the top-most root closer to the surface; 2) the root system is too deep in the root ball which can result in poor performance in the landscape. Click on the next photo for a close-up.