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. Watch out for any signs of attack from pests too.



It could also be worth looking around the base of any older trees, to see if there any seeds left over from last autumn - in which case you could sprout another, ready for your grandchild, potentially giving her a couple of trees to donate to somewhere. I have a fairly substantial Horse chestnut tree that I planted when I was 11, and I'm really proud of it. Thankfully, it hasn't become infected upto this point. I'm sure she'll look back in years to come and see a magnificent specimen tree, and be proud of planting her conker, and not smashing it in game.



Work plenty of organic material into your planting matter, such as well rotted garden compost etc, as this will release nutrients, as well as help retain moisture.



Hope this helps. Good luck! Rob

Will cutting off the tap root fom a 9 year old horse chestnut tree harm it?
Probably. A tap root performs two functions for a tree: first, it provides the most stability for the tree to remain upright. It goes down deep and keeps the tree in place. Second, it's how the tree gets water from deep down in the ground during a time of drought. Without the tap root, you would have an unstable tree that would be susceptible to drought damage, it it didn't kill the tree outright.
Reply:Most likely yes. If you dig deep enough and wide enough you might get lucky, but it's going to be tough. Rule of thumb: dig twice the circumference of the leaf crown. But I wouldn't risk it.
Reply:It's unlikely that a 9yr;old tree will survive for long in a "pot".Something such as a half barrel,or a 20 litre tub full of good compost is required.

Cutting the tap root and some of the top growth won't help,if the leading main stem has been cut the result will be a conker bush.

Collect more conkers this autumn,pot 'em up in a 6" pot each and there'll be plenty of replacements next spring-they grow quite quickly and can then be transplanted as desired.