In my opinion, in the many years it will take before this tree even considers becoming a problem. you will have sold the house and moved to another

Thanks. I'd be actually interested in knowing exactly how many years are we talking about. The guy who planted this said something like it may be a problem in 50 years, or more specifically he said "after we're all gone"..

Silver/silver-hybrid street maples that must have been planted 5 years ago when the street was developed aren't so big, like 10-15' in height. But they are street trees so roots are in between concretes.

There was another guy saying it will reach the mature height in 15 years (which is 30-50'?) and that just feels unreal. But I know where the calculation came from. The tree is about 10' now. If it grows 3' every year as advertised, it will be 25' in 5 years and 55' in 15 years.

A part of me really is wanting to keep this tree and provide shade for the kids playground. Another part of me is just so scared of something I cannot exactly predict.

This post was edited by ttonk on Fri, May 10, 13 at 17:28

Maybe as someone said, I'm trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist.

==>>> bingo .. bango ...

where will you be in 50 years ... when this MIGHT be a problem??/

ken

I would leave it alone. It looks great, and far away enough from the houses from the 3rd pic. Besides, you would want to wait until fall to move it now, and it will have grown bigger by then.

Those two houses are on the west, at least 50' away. I took the pic from my house. If I let it go, I will remove not move. I've never knowingly seen AB fall color in person and I'm curious about 3' per yr claim. So I wont take it down like right now.

Ken, I don't know my whereabouts in 50 yrs. My son will be vacationing on Mars..i guess.

This post was edited by ttonk on Fri, May 10, 13 at 20:38

I have 7 of them. They do grow fast, and the fall color is beautiful.

We had a house built in 1968. The original owners planted a maple (Silver?) about 12 feet from the garage and 8 feet from the drive way. Last year when we sold the house, the canopy was about 30 feet and the trunk 14 " in diameter. During the 10 years I lived there I periodically had to be trimmed some of the outer limbs from the house. These were minor limbs.

Having a cement drive way on one side and the house on the other, the tree had just started to feel cramped, as part of it started to die.

There were two other similar size and age maples on the other side of the driveway, one died and had to be removed . The other was dying and the new owner will have to have it removed. This was done in the 10 years we owned the property

I had to cut one root about 1.6" in diameter that was pushing into the sidewalk. I had no other problems with the roots on these three trees. While the others on the lot had surface roots they were not insurmountable problems.

Thanks guys. So after 40 yrs, it may require some attention.

The maple stays then!

The question "where will you be in 50 years?" has been resonating for the entire evening. I should spend more time on retirement plans and dear son's college funding than I do on maple surface roots that MIGHT piss off someone who would be living next door in the year of 2053. lol

FWIW, The last of the 1950's vintage silver maples on the old property here just died.

Here is a pic of my Autumn Blaze maples, planted maybe 9 or 10 years ago, 1 1/2" bare root.

Oh wow~ they are so beautiful. I didn't expect them to have such a nice oval shape and deep multi-color. And they aren't monstrously large! All the larger AB pics online felt like they were Photoshopped and I couldn't really find any pic of it in a certain number of years.

Thank you so much for sharing the pic. Now I can look forward to instead of worrying about the tree's growth!