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Hot take: I thought that air spade stuff was a sales gimmick until I saw roots come back on a maple in Boise
Three seasons back a client on the north end of Boise had a silver maple with a driveway buckling over the roots, and I quoted him for a full removal because I figured the tree was done. Then this older guy who runs a small crew out of Meridian told me to try an air spade on the compaction before I cut anything, and I flat out told him it looked like an overpriced leaf blower that just made a mess. He let me run his for 40 minutes on that tree, and I could not believe how clean it opened up the soil without chewing through the feeder roots like a shovel or a mini excavator would. We did a radial trench pattern out past the drip line, backfilled with compost, and mulched it 3 inches deep. Two growing seasons later that maple pushed new leaders along the trunk and the canopy filled in better than trees half its age on the same street. Cost the homeowner around $900 versus $2,200 to take it down and grind the stump, so he came out ahead and I got a repeat client out of it. Anyone else running air tools on compacted urban soil, or am I late to this party? Curious what psi you run and whether you bother with vertical mulching after.
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