eucalyptus tree

[nickjr]

Eucalyptus Trees, how deep do there roots go down when growing on chalk with soil of no more than 18 -24 inches of soil, they are 40+ft tall in a very windy situation on made up ground, we as resedents who life within 14ft of these trees would like them cut down as home insurance is invalid with trees over 25ft tall within 25ft of proberty.

[alan30]

The roots will remain in the soil layer. They will not penetrate solid chalk unless there is the odd soil filled fissure. Most tree species root in the top 600mm (24") of soil - that is where the moisture and useable nutrients are usually found.

[nickjr]

Thank you Alan30, like I said we live in a mobile home and the insurance would be invalid if one was to come down on ours or two other homes, so in a stong wind they could be blown over like you see beach/oak at the side of the roads, know wonder we wont them to come down, also one has been dieing over the last few years

[brenda]

Who do the trees belong to?

[nickjr]

Hi Brenda, these 3 Eucalyptus and 4 weeping willow belong to our landlord, who dose not like spending any money.The willows are all growing out of shape due to the Eucalyptus blocking all the light to the willows. The willows are all growing at an almost 45 degree side ways which means they are almost over my fence.
I live as I said before in a mobile home on a mobile home park and this part of the park was an old railway cut that was filled years ago with nothing other than pure chalk, a bit of top soil was laid over it after the road and mini round-a-bout were put into place before the homes were moved on to the site. I am into gardening here myself so am always digging holes to plant stuff, and in my garden the soil is anywhere from 6 inches deep to 14 inches deep before I hit pure chalk, I hope this helps. The landlord said he had had a tree surgeon to look at them and said they are safe?????? we don't believe him as my two neighbours who these trees affect don't ever go out and they've not seen anyone looking at then, also with one dead I am sure a tree surgeon would not say a dead tree is safe . One would think that a test hole would be dug to ascertain the depth of the top soil, rate of growth what there final height would be etc, I hope this helps...

[Lonnie]

Further to the above answers, my neighbour has two,approx twenty feet from the houses, huge, I had voiced my concerns, but now the roots are appearing above ground, in his garden luckily enough, Now he's decided to have them removed.

What is little known in this country, is that in Australia, they are known as 'Widow makers', because when they reach a certain age, (I don't know what it is), they can suddenly shed the odd branch, Self pruning if you like.

They got that name, because unsuspecting families would picic under them, then suddenly a branch would decide to join the fun.

[Lonnie]

Here you are, got this from one of the online encylopedias.


Eucalypts have a habit of dropping entire branches off as they grow. Eucalyptus forests are littered with dead branches. The Australian Ghost Gum Eucalyptus papuana is sometimes called the "widow maker", due to the high number of tree-felling workers who were killed by falling branches. Many deaths were actually caused by simply camping under them, as the trees shed whole and very large branches to save water during droughts. For this reason, you should never camp under large eucalyptus branches.

[nickjr]

Thanks everyone for your answers but I really need hard facts about these tree's to put a case together in an attempt to get them removed or pollarded, we need a tree surgeon to see and add his advise to this topic but please keep your answers coming in, it all helps my case, this I am sure.