Dug up a Crepe Myrtle tree.

[TractorGuy]

This is the first project I've done with my new to me 855 JD. My wife planted this tree many years ago right between the septic thank and drain field. Guess why I needed to dig it up?


I started digging with a dirt scoop and while I had dug around pretty good the tree was still solid in the ground. I had it in my mind I was going to build a 2" receiver type hitch and make various attachments I could use in it. I ended up buying the hitch off ebay but at the end of the day I should have built my own. The one I got is usable now that I welded patch plates on the top link holes with the proper 3/4" holes. The one I got had loose shards of metal not removed from cutting and the idiot bored 7/8" holes in the top link connection. I bought a 3' piece of 2" square tube with 1/4" walls. Milled out some offset holes for a piece of 1"x2" SS bar I had laying around. I cut an angle on one end of the bar and drilled the bar and tube for a pin or bolt. I used this to dig around the tree and break many of the roots loose, then wrapped a chain around it and tugged and pulled till it came up. I plan to try to replant it in a different location.

We cut this tree back to nothing a couple of years ago and it had already grown over 20 feet tall. I cut it back again before I started digging on it.

 

[Bob77064]

Good job.

 

[TractorGuy]

Moved to it's new location. Time will tell if it lives.

 

[hosspuller]

If you care at all... water it. It's lost a lot of the little feeder roots.

 

[Stimw]

Be sure to water it in good, they say that if there are any air pockets that it will kill a transplant.
I have heard that you can just stick cut offs in dirt to start another C Myrtle.
The Garden Rebel (radio guy out of Orlando) covered C Myrtles, you might check his website for more info.

 

[flusher]

Nice looking crape myrtle. They're used a lot around here in the North Sacramento Valley for landscaping. I have six of them along my driveway--nursery plants about 7 years old. They do well in this climate but are slow growers. Some of the older CMs in town are 15-20 feet tall. Mine are more like 7 feet.

Good luck.

 

[TractorGuy]

I'm sure this tree won't like it's new location as much as it did my drain field. I did water it in good right after replanting and tonight I shoveled more dirt around it and watered it in again.

This tree was cut back to this same level a couple of years ago and had already grown over 20 feet tall again. Here is a pic of it before cutting it back to move it.

 

[Stimw]

They really like our Florida climate. My neighbor has them along his driveway and has to prune every year.
That Garden Rebel talked about how people trim them wrong giving them the knots that are so common. I can't remember how he said they were supposed to be trimmed.