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.