Dawn Redwood root flare?

[D.D]

Hello!

After my last Dawn Redwood I purchased had such bad root girdling, I bought another 4 inch diameter field grown tree.

While there is no girdling on this one, I'm having a hard time finding an actual flare. I'll attach a few photos of what I'm dealing with.



I'm afraid to go down any more, and the roots showing are rather large. So any advice on what I should remove or leave would be greatly appreciated!

 

[BeatCJ]

I would just cover the highest root.

 

[D.D]

That's what I was leaning towards. Just worried too much of the trunk will be buried.

 

[ATH]

Keep digging. Those really look to be secondary roots. They aren't enough to support the tree long term.

Bottom left of 2rd pic - is that the top of a real flare?

 

[D.D]

I thought that was the top of the actual flare, but I dug all around that and even lower on other side of the trunk and there is nothing. Just keeps going straight down. The 3rd pic after that one is on opposite side. Hard to tell in the photo but that is lower than the other side that had what looked to be the root flare. That's why I decided to stop and wait before cutting anything. Can't find any visible flare.