Accumulation of years of leaves and debris covering root collar

Somewhere adjacent to the M+S building along Beach Road.

North-east facing heap approx. 0.5m height

 South-west facing heap approx. 0.3m height. One large surface root damaged.

Recent soil disturbance due to construction of the M+S building. Distance from edge of trunk to "heap cut" is 0.8m for both sides. The accumulated material was hard but a bit spongy. Width of planter 2.0m.

Peltophorum pterocarpum (Yellow flame tree) - 2.0m girth, 9m height, 12m spread. 

Recently crown thinned and topped.

Reminded me of some years ago, I spent nearly two hours breaking and clearing the accumulated material at the tree base of a Gymnostoma nobile (Bornean Rhu) with a hand hoe (see photo below). In this photo, my colleague Eina is putting on the finishing touches by filling up the depressions with a good soil mix and contouring. On the right was a tree that still had a compacted tree base.

Hand hoe

 The area where the bark did not develop fully the bark was decayed was the height of the accumulated material.

What seemed like a before-and-after photo but its not. The tree on the right, which was doing better to begin with had its accumulated material removed, and the tree on the left had not been worked on. This photo was taken just 4 days after the accumulated material was removed.

The root collar excavation should have been done on the tree on the left as the leaf density is lower than that of the tree on the right, which indicated a possible defect in the root collar.

Taken on 26 Mar 2016