Digging up pecan trees to replant

[schoolsout]

Buddy has a few fairly decent-sized trees he is getting rid of. Probably caliper no more than 3"

I'm wondering if we can safely transplant them with just a shovel to dig them up.
I plan on busting the lateral roots around dripline (depending on spread of tree...if not actual drip line, I will try and get as much as possible) and leaving it in the ground (root pruning, so to say) for a week or so. Then I'm going to try and bust the taproot when we get ready to transport to our property.

Any suggestions?

I will be replanting with RTI Booster packs (Fertilizer packs for Hardwoods) and some mycorrhizal fungi as well. Trees should get a good dose of water every week. That's about as often as I can get out there at this time.

 

[dmccarty]

I would ask your county extension office and see what they have to say.

I would think a 2-3 inch diameter tree would have a very big root ball.

Later,
Dan

 

[jinman]

I don't think you will be successful with a shovel. A 1" caliper pecan will need a big hole of 3' diameter or more even if it is a bare root transplant in winter. I believe survival of a 3" caliper tree you dig up with a shovel would be a real fluke. I'd expect you to need machinery to move a tree of that size with any success. As Dan suggested, check with your county ag agent, but don't expect this method to produce transplants with a high success rate in my opinion.

 

[samhudson3]

Sounds like it may work, this is a good time of year to do it and we've had plenty of rain (here in central NC). Not much better than a roasted pecan, go for it, as the price is right!

 

[schoolsout]

Sounds like it may work, this is a good time of year to do it and we've had plenty of rain (here in central NC). Not much better than a roasted pecan, go for it, as the price is right!

The guy is going to throw them away if we don't take them. I will try and get as large of a rootball as possible. I've planted ball/burlap sawtooths before that were about that size and, yes, the rootball was huge. I'm just hoping we can eek them by until they start to take root. Maybe not.

My real fear is wasting another year hoping these will grow and they end up dying. Only have a few places to plant some trees now until we clear cut some pines. I'm ready to start the process with trees so I can eat some pecans before I'm 80

Thanks for all the suggestions, all. I will be doing some more research and will try to post events as they go along. Fingers will be crossed

 

[Bird]

I don't think you will be successful with a shovel. A 1" caliper pecan will need a big hole of 3' diameter or more even if it is a bare root transplant in winter. I believe survival of a 3" caliper tree you dig up with a shovel would be a real fluke. I'd expect you to need machinery to move a tree of that size with any success. As Dan suggested, check with your county ag agent, but don't expect this method to produce transplants with a high success rate in my opinion.

Unfortunately, I think this is right. I'd be surprised if the trees can be transplanted and survive unless you have machinery made for that purpose. I'd hate to be the guy even trying it with a shovel.:laughing:

 

[schoolsout]

I'm assuming they are this large. The guy bought them a few years ago and planted them under some pines he was going to cut, but never did. I'm halfway thinking about cutting as many lateral roots as possible and then tying the trees at the base to the 3ph on his tractor to lift and pop the main tap root if they are large.

 

[Craig Clayton]

I planted thousands of trees on my 10 acres which was bare dirt when I purchased the property. I held the 6" saplings in plots for up to 2 years. I then redug these trees up and planted them all over the property. I lost a small percentage but the trees were not always happy about the replanting. The biggest problem was shock to the growth rate, they did nothing for several years. The other problem was it caused some of the leaf trees to grow sucker shoots from the root area.
For the trees that you want to relocate I would suggest you find out if they were from seed in place or tree ball.
If they were from seed then I think you might need to dig a very large root ball ie dig them out with a backhoe or tree spade.

Remember , green end up. ( there is a long joke about that ).

Craig Clayton

 

[schoolsout]

They're not from seed. He bought them from a place in GA and carried them back on the roof of his Yukon. He has more money than he knows what to do with and spur of the moment, not thought out ideas are his forte.

I've got somewhat of a greenthumb, but have never really done anything quite like this. We also have some walnut trees on the property that are much smaller I will be trying to relocate as well.

 

[Gary51]

I think I would prefer to just go to the local nursery and get the variety I wanted in a size I could handle. You might spend quite a bit of time and effort on a project that fails in this effort to transplant the larger trees. Your odds of eating pecans in a few years will go up with the smaller purchased trees.

 

[jcliburn]

A pecan tree has a strong and deep taproot, from what I've read. (I know from experience a hickory tree does, and they're related.). Prepare yourself for a big dig.

 

[tallyho8]

Our pecan trees are so hardy I don't think you could kill them if you tried. Every time a pecan falls on the ground and a squirrel doesn't get it, a tree grows that is about 2 feet tall by the time I bush hog it in the summer.

Katrina blew down a lot of our large pecan trees but not the oaks so I am guessing the pecans don't have as much root. One of the 12" pecan trees is still lying on the ground with half the roots exposed and bearing pecans since Katrina. I've even bulldozed some pecan trees up and into a brush pile and they remained growing there.

I guess if it was a good tree and I wanted it to live then it would probably die.

 

[jinman]

My brother and I replanted several seedlings around 12" to 16" tall when we were teenagers. We simply dug them up with a shovel and dropped them into a post hole. Those trees grew so well that they became very good producers in about 10 years growth. They were large thick-shelled natives, but had excellent taste. They certainly were not 3" caliper trees, but it didn't take them long to get there. The area where they were planted had been a hog pen and then a chicken pen in years past. I suspect the soil was pretty rich.:thumbsup:

 

[Jose263]

Schoolsout,
I'm new - actually this is my 1st post on the tractor forum - i was surfing for info about transplanting pecan trees. I have several large 80+ft trees, Stuarts. not wanting to move them but they produce seedlings each year - I've ignored those in the garden and flower beds they are now 5 to 7 ft tall about 1 to 1 1/2 inch caliper - wondering how much luck you had transplanting those 3" trees -
a buddy wants my saplings - i planned to dig them up anyway - no tractor just shovels..any recommendations from anyone. He plans to use as root stock for grafting.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

A place about 30 miles from here used to grow and transplant. I don't know if they are still in business or not. Maybe the rate of success killed the business too. They used the huge tree spade implements on the back of a big rig. I suggest purchasing from a nursery and using a post hole digger to plant the long tap root. It will take about 3 years for them to kick in and grow.

 

[schoolsout]

Schoolsout,
I'm new - actually this is my 1st post on the tractor forum - i was surfing for info about transplanting pecan trees. I have several large 80+ft trees, Stuarts. not wanting to move them but they produce seedlings each year - I've ignored those in the garden and flower beds they are now 5 to 7 ft tall about 1 to 1 1/2 inch caliper - wondering how much luck you had transplanting those 3" trees -
a buddy wants my saplings - i planned to dig them up anyway - no tractor just shovels..any recommendations from anyone. He plans to use as root stock for grafting.

They are growing fairly well. Grew them in 5 gallon buckets until end of Summer then planted them and watered them every weekend for first 2 months. Planted another I found growing at work that was 4-5' tall, but didn't put a cage around it and a buck scraped it pretty good all the way around trunk so I am actually planting another beside it tomorrow (store bought pecan) and seeing how long the damaged one will live. Sprayed it with pruning spray a few weeks after the scrape so I'm sure it won't make it come spring, but will be interesting to see how it does. Still have some in buckets that aren't very big (not in a very sunny area) and I'll probably toss them, though. Have a few others from store we got for $12/ea that haven't found a spot for yet.

 

[schoolsout]

as for digging, I'm sure you can get them with shovels. The 4-5'er I got from work was growing right up against building and next to some shrubbery. I probably only got a root of about 1' long. Grew it in a bucket where I could get it established then planted in ground and it did well until the deer got to it.

If I were you, I'd go that route unless your buddy can take care of it on a regular basis wherever he puts it. I used some fairly decent soil (Fox Farm, I believe) and added mycorrhizae (spelling?) fungi to the soil as well. Just do all of the digging when plant is dormant.

 

[Jose263]

as for digging, I'm sure you can get them with shovels. The 4-5'er I got from work was growing right up against building and next to some shrubbery. I probably only got a root of about 1' long. Grew it in a bucket where I could get it established then planted in ground and it did well until the deer got to it.

If I were you, I'd go that route unless your buddy can take care of it on a regular basis wherever he puts it. I used some fairly decent soil (Fox Farm, I believe) and added mycorrhizae (spelling?) fungi to the soil as well. Just do all of the digging when plant is dormant.

Thanks - one of the 7 footers is in a fig bush - probably planted by a squirell -trees are dormant we are going to dig in January. how big a perimeter did you dig and how deep did you go? I believe my buddy plans to pot.

 

[schoolsout]

what I dug up is much less than you think would take for the tree to survive. Not saying it is 100% surefire, but I can confidently say that all the talk of being as careful as can be and get a big root ball (talking smaller stuff here) as machinely possible is not necessary...all the time.

Even the small ones I was digging up, 8-10" seedlings, were having the main taproot getting ripped in the process.

f you can baby it for a few months after the main ripping and digging session, it will live.

Dig it in winter (dormant) and put in pot. Soak soil in pot when you transplant it (I'd use 7 gallon grow bags) and then just keep it moist. All I did and most everything I've ever dug up (walnut, hickory, pecan, etc) have lived.

Good luck!

Oh, and FWIW, I just used an organic regimen of ferts while in pot. Bought a "GO Box" (General Organics) from my peppers/maters and used it for trees as well. I modified the recipe with more of the Nitrogen type stuff and less of the flowering concentrate.

 

[Paddy]

Schoolsout,

I saw a strange method when I was in China. They move trees 6-7" in diameter. They start by cutting the top off at about 12'. I mean not a single branch, looks like a log with a small root ball. As I would drive down the highway, there would be miles of these "logs" planted. Latter in the trip, I'd see older logs with massive amounts of sprouts. finally, nice full grown trees all exactly the same height for the first branching structure.

All I can guess is if the top is removed, much less roots are needed. kind of like a stump growing back after being cut off. As side note, I had a 6" dia wild cherry blow over in a storm once. As it was laying down, I did a major hair cut. Then I hooked up the tractor and stood it back up. Tied a rope to it to secure. Tree is now about 12" dia.