Working on digging up a tree for transplant

[CliffordK]

I've been working on trying to dig up a cherry tree for transplant over the last couple of days. Perhaps it is too late in the Spring, but it is good weather. And, I did manage to let the tree get to be too big, waiting longer won't help that.

I'm really envying those people that have backhoes.

I've hand dug a trench deeper than knee deep dug around most of the tree. Undercut it a little bit.

My thoughts are that I can take a steel choker cable and shackle, and pull the cable under the tree with my winch to undercut it the rest of the way. Then, hopefully I'll be able to pick up the tree and fairly hefty rootball with my tractor bucket. It is on a bit of a slope which should help a bit with it.

I'll try to post some photos in a couple of days.

 

[powerpace]

It may be too much of a shock if you take very long in this process. A transplant spade machine (Vermeer) from a larger would have been quicker easier and more expensive. The tree may live but transplant shock will probably mean no fruit this year.

I was involved in transplanting 2000 semi-dwarf pear trees back in the 60's. Four Vermeer transplant machines made quick work of the job.

 

[Pilot]

Shoulda been a winter job when the tree was dormant. Good luck on this.

 

[CliffordK]

I realize the tree should have been dug up a bit earlier. But there was good weather now.

I don't have any very expensive transplant machines for moving this one tree.

Using the cable and winch to undercut the tree worked quite well.


After the undercut, a little dirt was pulled out of the rootball, but it mostly stayed intact. After doing it, I thought it might have been a good idea to also pull a rope, or a couple of ropes under the tree, but didn't do it. It would have been nice to pull a tarp under the tree, but that would have caused everything to slide, and would have made a mess.


Unfortunately, I quickly discovered that my rootball was way too big for my tractor bucket, and trying to pick it up with the tractor just tore the rootball.

So, a little time deciding how to remedy the situation, I decided to connect forks to the tractor bucket.

I watered the tree, but that meant a couple of days delay, and the tree already began to look stressed.

Once I had the forks on, I went ahead and tried again.



I lost a little more dirt that I had hoped, but I did get it replanted fairly quickly.

I did manage to preserve enough roots that I don't have any ropes on the tree, and it is reasonably stable. About a week later, it still appears stressed, but not dead yet. In fact, I believe that I have some new growth on the tree, so as long as I don't forget to water it, I think it will pull through.

It was blooming when I started the process, but the blooms wilted quickly as I was moving the tree (they might have anyway). There are what appear to be a couple of cherries left. I wasn't really expecting any, but if I get a few cherries, that will be a nice bonus.

I still need to top the tree. I've been debating this in my mind. At this point, I think I'll wait until it recovers a bit before doing anything more. Leaving the top intact means more foliage, and thus more tree. However, since it seems marginal about getting enough water, if I had topped the tree, it would have been less foliage to get water to, and perhaps the tree would do better with a damaged rootball. So, if I was doing this again, I probably would have started pruning the tree several months before the move.

Now, the next project will be to see if I can graft some of the limbs next year.

 

[sailfast]

Its dead Jim.

Actually 50/50 chance you killed it. How did you amend the soil when you replanted?

Don't top it yet unless it gets worse, that should be a last ditch effort at this point.

 

[CliffordK]

I had a good size hole that I put it into, so it got quite a bit of loose soil.

I added about a cart full of fir tree needles and droppings, although not the best mixing of the dirt and needles.

 

[sailfast]

What kind of droppings?

Why the pine needles?

 

[MarkV]

Pretty hard to transplant a tree that size with roots exposed and hope for good results. Lots of water is your best bet at this point. Good Luck

MarkV

 

[CliffordK]

What kind of droppings?

Why the pine needles?

I wanted to add some sawdust type stuff to help improve the soil a bit. I think woody matter may also help with water retention. I was able to scrape fir needles, a few pinecones, small twigs, perhaps some moss, and whatever off of the driveway. While the firs are evergreens, they do shed quite a bit. I need to do some chipping soon, but had more access to the needles than the sawdust.

The tree is getting a lot of water, (drip irrigation), and will probably continue to get a healthy watering all summer, and probably next year too.

 

[sailfast]

Well you need to more concerned about the unintended effect of what you added might be.

The uncomposted needles will tend to make the soil more acidic. If whatever you planted likes acidic soil, you might be good. Was it a cherry tree? You might have gotten lucky.

Generally adding uncomposted stuff like wood chips, sawdust, etc randomly to soil isn't a good thing.

The bacteria that will be breaking down the wood and needles will be wanting Nitrogen for food. They can't get it from the wood so they will be competing with your tree for nitrogen in the soil.

Don't know what to tell you at this point. Digging it up to get rid of the wood needles probably isn't a good thing. Not sure about leaving it in now either. Don't know about fertilizing the tree either, depends upon the variety. Maybe you could use one of those root feeder gadgets. You should talk to an expert, maybe go onto the arborist site and get their opinion.

Good luck

 

[CliffordK]

You should talk to an expert, maybe go onto the abortionist site and get their opinion.

Good luck

I'm not quite ready to abort the tree just yet.

Perhaps an arborist or horticulturist would be more helpful.

I haven't done a soil test. The tree seemed to be growing well in the back yard so it seems to be reasonably hardy. For now I think I'll regularly give it a good dose of water. Perhaps some fertilizer later.

 

[dave1949]

Well, you know, some trees die hard, maybe that will be one of them :laughing:

I hope it pulls through for you.

 

[arrow]

The largest trees I planted were 5-6' tall. They were all fruit trees and had no dirt on roots but they did have a shredded fiber around these roots that was moistened before I took them. Of the 6 trees I planted, 5 survived. If the tree wasn't shocked enough to kill it, roots were kept moist and you have no air pockets in its compacted back fill, the tree stands a good chance of making it in my opinion.

 

[jinman]

I think you need to get some burlap around that root ball right away. Roots like to be kept moist and don't like sun exposure. I saw a dozen liveoak trees about 15' tall moved that way by digging and bagging the roots. They didn't let the roots stay exposed to the air and sun for long before getting the burlap on the root ball. I don't know where the trees went or how many survived, but they lifted them out of their holes and sat them on a flatbed truck to be hauled away. The liveoaks were planted originally in the mid-80s and they were moved about 12 years later when a new wing was added to a building.

 

[jeffinsgf]

That's a young tree. I think you'll do fine. Be extraordinarily generous with the water. Water it way more than you think you need to. Water will also speed the decomp of your pine needles and other scrapings. Throw a little nitrogen heavy fertilizer on it once in a while. You're also in an environment where it is very easy to grow things. A normal, mild wet Eugene summer and your cherry tree will flourish.

 

[CliffordK]

A normal, mild wet Eugene summer and your cherry tree will flourish.

It turns out that Springfield Oregon and Springfield Missouri are very different in the climates. While you may get nice sunshine in the middle of the winter, we can go weeks with clouds and rain every day. In the summer, however, it tends to dry up, with both low rain, and low humidity. We can go from mid June to mid September with hardly any rain. I.E. perhaps the whole months of July/August without a drop. In fact, I have a habit of leaving my car windows open in the summer, which can be a problem in Missouri.

This is from www.city-data.com/city/Eugene-Oregon.html


I'm always amazed at how uniform the annual rainfall is in much of the country (see "average" on first graph). The summer winter difference in the Wilmette Valley is quite apparent.

We are in the middle of a very dry stretch in the Spring. No doubt it will be followed by some rain shortly, although it seems unseasonably dry and warm.


The tree is getting lots of water, to the point that I'm worrying that I'm giving it too much. It appears stressed, but also seems to have some new growth in the last week since the transplant. So, I'm expecting that it will in fact pull through. Perhaps not as much growth as "normal", but it should be ok.

No burlap. Transport from hole to hole was quick. Within an hour of pulling it up, I was already planting it, and watering it perhaps 2 hours after pulling it. As mentioned, I failed at my first attempt of transport, so it went a couple of days in place, but dug around and undercut as in the second photo. And, I did water it during that time, but it did begin with a little stress.

It is about 20 feet tall, and about 3" at the trunk but I will cut the top off once the tree seems more stable. I cut most of the rootball to less than 4' in diameter, and about 2' deep, but a couple of roots extended to over 6' from side to side (and cut). Hopefully I'll attempt grafting next year.

I saw on Craigslist that there was a pruning exchange in town this year. Hopefully next year I can trade some apple prunings for cherry prunings.

 

[sailfast]

So it sat for 2 days with the roots ends in the air and the sun.

Good luck.

 

[CliffordK]

Sailfast, you are a little pessimistic.

It sat for a couple of days with a 4 foot rootball, mostly intact, more or less as in the second photo, and regularly watered, of course.



A shallow root on the back/right of the photo was only partly covered. And a few roots had been cut with the digging process. Many of the twiggy things seen in the photo were from other plants.

From pulling to planted & watered as viewed in the tractor bucket was less than 2 HOURS. I told myself that there was no water for myself until my tree could also have a drink.

it appears to have been stable for the last week or so, but now seems to be putting on a few new leaves. Still stressed though. At this point, time will tell what will happen.

This has been a hotter/drier end of April/early May than I can remember which has been nice for working outside, but the trees have to deal with hot sun daily.

If I do loose the tree, it isn't the end of the world. It couldn't stay where it was in the middle of the flower bed. I don't know if it has good cherries. It didn't have a lot of blossoms before I started working on it. But it seemed generally healthy before transplant, and will be something that I can experiment with grafting and etc.

 

[CliffordK]

Its dead

Well, the "Dead Tree" still has quite a bit of foliage, now 2 1/2 months later.



It does seem to like a lot of water, and my well pump dying a few days after the transplant didn't help matters much. Anyway, it seemed to be stressed, but stable about 2 weeks after transplant so I decided to top the tree.

It promptly lost half of its leaves the next day. Anyway, I still think there may have been a benefit of foliage reduction, but not topping the tree in the middle of the transplant process. Perhaps doing it a couple of months earlier. Although, a larger tree might have helped grow better roots.

After struggling to put out a few small leaves early, it seemed to go into a phase of no growth until mid July when it started putting on new growth all over the tree (see second photo). It is still pretty scraggly, but many of the branches will eventually be grafted anyway.

Overall, growth for the first year post transplant will likely be minimal, and it may require extra water rations next year too. But, the transplant shock was survivable.

I did actually buy 5 end of the season close-out bare root dwarf trees for graft donors in mid-June. Of course well prepared, kept with sawdust and well watered before sale, but still over a month later than the transplant above. I potted them, with 100% survival.

Anyway, the main point of this whole thread wasn't as much about a single tree as proposing the method of using the choker cable for the undercut which worked remarkably well (and hasn't killed the tree yet). And, the bucket forks were very helpful for the transplant of a moderately large tree.

 

[LD1]

I like the choker cable idea :thumbsup: Way to be creative.

I think cherry trees are pretty hardy in general. About the only tree I have transplanted that is more hardy is walnut.

I have dug probably 50 trees and transplanted around my yard and pond. Only had to replace maybe 5 of them. But I do pick smaller trees

As to the cherry, I have done about 10 of them. One of them at the back, and not the greatest soil, my dog chewed it off. All I had was a 1" high stub about the diameter of a #2 pencil. I was going to plant another cherry in its place to replace it, but this was mid-late summer and was going to wait til spring.

Next spring, I had a new tree shoot growing out of the old stump/stub. I was shocked. Now 2 years later, the tree is ~6' tall and healthy as ever.

Same thing happened with 2 of the walnuts. Dog got one, wife on mower got the other :mur: Both came back the following year.