Silver Maple Help - should it stay or should it go?

[kashley034]

Planted a lovely maple in the front yard after we had to have two smaller cherry trees removed due to disease. Now I am finding out that it is a silver maple. Is this location going to be a problem? Our yard slopes slightly downhill, but as you can see the sewer line from the town is marked with the green flags. I think it is far enough away from the house foundation (about 30ft from the corner of the house) not to be an issue, but I am now worried about that sewer line (about 15ft away). Will this be a problem in 5,10,30 years?

 

[kashley034]

Here are some photos.

 

[TNTreeHugger]

Disclaimer: I'm not an arborist.

Short answer: Yes, silver maples can be a problem.

I have a lot of silver maples in my yard, most are from volunteer sprouts - they come up every where and I transplant them to more suitable locations..
I like the trees because I live in a rural area, they are free, and the wildlife likes them.
Problem is, from my experience, they grow fast and tend to be leggy/top heavy. They also tend to have a lot of surface roots that can damage your mower.
I've seen it mentioned here by some experts as a "junk tree."

What's the purpose of your tree? Shade, ornamental? Do you want to attract wildlife?

My advice, looking at the lovely neighborhood you live in, would be to go with something with a shorter profile.
Maybe start here:
https://www.massaudubon.org/nature-wildlife/plants/native-beneficial-plants
Then look around your local garden centers?


Also, close up look at the tree looks like the trunk has been badly damaged at some point. Idk if that's going to be an issue as far as tree health goes. Also looks like either it was planted too deep, or the mulch is too deep.

 

[TNTreeHugger]

See those humongous trees across the street in your neighbors yards?
Imagine that in your front yard.

 

[Brushwacker]

Let it grow and enjoy it until size is approaching a problem cutting it down and removing it easy and efficiently. Plant you couple or so more trees, so they have a good start and u have some shade when removing this 1. Silver Maples are more of a problem when big and they are shedding branches. Until a point they are nice trees . I have little problems with roots from my small to medium trees near the house. They get in my garden and I cut the roots out when tilling. Copper sulfate kills roots in a septic if they reach it. I wouldn't let a big tree get that far and keep going but if a you think a few roots are making their way in u can hold the roots back until the tree is taken care of .

 

[Brushwacker]

Here is some pictures of a couple silver Maples I been cutting down at the point of them becoming a problem , then letting a sucker grow back from the stump to the same point.suckers grow fast because they already have a larger tree root system and the sucker will grow to catch up to the roots capacity before the roots grow much more again . They been renewable shade trees shading the house without getting to big to be a problem. Keeps my porch on the south from sucking up a lot of summer heat and the leaves fall in the fall and let the sun warm it up in the winter.
1 pic is the roots I got out of my garden space. A little work, but not overbearing.

 

[kashley034]

Disclaimer: I'm not an arborist.

Short answer: Yes, silver maples can be a problem.

I have a lot of silver maples in my yard, most are from volunteer sprouts - they come up every where and I transplant them to more suitable locations..
I like the trees because I live in a rural area, they are free, and the wildlife likes them.
Problem is, from my experience, they grow fast and tend to be leggy/top heavy. They also tend to have a lot of surface roots that can damage your mower.
I've seen it mentioned here by some experts as a "junk tree."

What's the purpose of your tree? Shade, ornamental? Do you want to attract wildlife?

My advice, looking at the lovely neighborhood you live in, would be to go with something with a shorter profile.
Maybe start here:
https://www.massaudubon.org/nature-wildlife/plants/native-beneficial-plants
Then look around your local garden centers?


Also, close up look at the tree looks like the trunk has been badly damaged at some point. Idk if that's going to be an issue as far as tree health goes. Also looks like either it was planted too deep, or the mulch is too deep.

Thank you for the advice, I'll look into spreading out the mulch!

 

[kashley034]

Here is some pictures of a couple silver Maples I been cutting down at the point of them becoming a problem , then letting a sucker grow back from the stump to the same point.suckers grow fast because they already have a larger tree root system and the sucker will grow to catch up to the roots capacity before the roots grow much more again . They been renewable shade trees shading the house without getting to big to be a problem. Keeps my porch on the south from sucking up a lot of summer heat and the leaves fall in the fall and let the sun warm it up in the winter.
1 pic is the roots I got out of my garden space. A little work, but not overbearing.

This is very helpful thanks!