There are a few things you have to consider before you pull out.

Make clean cuts when cutting roots. Use sharp loppers or a sharp hand saw. Don’t leave ragged edges on the root ends. Try to cut them off where there are root junctions – just like pruning a tree branch back to the branch collar. Clean cuts aid in the healing process and help form a seal to ward off disease. Generally the small fine roots in the top 18 inches of the soil are responsible for nutrient uptake. Try not to harm any of these roots Estimated Reading Time: 2 mins. Mar 29, Best offers for your Garden - bushdig.bar to Cut Tree Roots Without Killing the Tree.

Trees ornament our lawns, provide shade. Where to Cut Tree Roots. To be sure you’re cutting the root safely, you need to measure a distance of at least 5 times the trunk’s width from the root.

This is for a mature tree (a baby tree’s roots hardly protrudes). This means if the tree trunk is 9 inches wide, then the safe cutting distance is Estimated Reading Time: 5 mins. A good rule of thumb is to measure the diameter of the trunk of the tree in inches. Multiply that number by eight.

The total represents the closest place where you can safely cut the root of the tree. You can always cut the root closer than that, but the odds of doing serious, irreversible damage are going to. Cut the ends of roots that need to be trimmed.

Make clean cuts through the roots, sawing through them with a root saw. From the trunk, trim roots no closer than the distance of three times the trunk's diameter. Do not trim roots beyond points where the diameter reaches the size of a fist or larger.