I planted bare root wild apple trees a few springs ago. I mulched them heavily with wood chips late last summer. To keep ants from girdling them, I moved the mulch away from the base of the trees to spray with grafting ‘paste’. On many of them I see what looks like roots growing out into and at a slight downward trajectory through the mulch (3-4” deep layer). The trees look very healthy at this early point in the spring. Questions: Are they roots? Is it ok (again, they’re wild so there was no grafting done) to push the mulch back into place? Should I avoid spraying the paste onto the roots? Thanks for your help!