[petejulie]

Our raised veg patch seems to be a mass of fine clumps of roots with the occasional large thick very long root, these are in 3/4 of the patch but not where the potato bags and bean pots were last year any advice on what they might be would be much appreciated

[Yorkie]

Do you have any perennial plants or trees nearby?

[petejulie]

No our patch is against ours and neighbours fence he has trees but not close to the fence ,the problem was mild in previous years but this year suprisingly more

[drmoonshine]

do you think it looks like this?

[JayG]

No our patch is against ours and neighbours fence he has trees but not close to the fence ,the problem was mild in previous years but this year suprisingly more

What do you mean by "not close"?

I have found roots from a street tree (Swedish Whitebeam) in my front garden which is at least 12' away laterally and about 5' above where the tree is situated (I suspect the tree roots are encouraged to grow upwards towards the additonal water and food supplied by cultivating the soil.)

The root spread of trees varies enormously both with the variety and size of the tree but a 10 metre spread is quite modest for many species of a decent size.

In law if you own your land the tree roots are "trespassing" so you can remove them without having to ask the owner's permission; my advice would be to try and "follow" one of the larger roots to get an idea where it is coming from and what it is (it could be from a hedge or an established deep-rooted perennial "weed" but I can't help thinking from your descpription that the trees are the number 1 suspect.)

[petejulie]

moonshine
no it doesn't really look like that
heres a picture of it

[Flump]

I have a similar thing on my plot,moved my rhubarb only to have Asparagus  popping up under it later on !I'm not sure if I'm digging up couch grass or asparagus roots nearby!

[mumofstig]

They look like tree roots to me

[drmoonshine]

ok just ruleing couch grass out

ya dont have anything above growing looking like this a take it

if not then thats good if there just tree roots or something like then there going to b easyer to get rid of

[8doubles]

They look like tree roots to me

And me.

[BabbyAnn]

actually, they look a lot like marestail!

[savbo]

Horsetail doesn't have the fine fibrous roots in the pic (at least none of the hundred barrowloads I've dug out of our plot has...), and couch roots are white, so I'd be thinking of tree too, but aren't those shoots forming in the bottom right of the pic?

[mumofstig]

IMO It just looks like the mass of new roots that form where a tree root has been cut or damaged the year before

[sachkrimbo]

I have got rootslike that too.  Have got neighbours hedge growing on the other side of fence and always thought they were the roots from that.

[dexyblue]

do you think it looks like this?

arrrggghhhhh