Mission Impossible

[JimMorrissey]

The intent was to try and remove these trees gently /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif and transplant them to a lower lot. Below is a series of pictures of the days activities.

Here are the trees in question. They are too close to the pool and really closed the back deck in. What a gorgeous day for tractoring in VT.....finally.

 

[JimMorrissey]

Here is the root mass exposed after gently digging them on the sides /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[JimMorrissey]

Here she is in a downed position. I gently pushed it over with the backhoe.

 

[JimMorrissey]

Here the hoe has the grab and pulls the tree free.

 

[JimMorrissey]

The rig is pulling a 28 foot blue spruce with diameter (DBH) of 2'7"......pretty big tree to try and transplant. At times it was difficult to keep the front wheels on the ground.

 

[JimMorrissey]

She's now at the location of choice and I've slipped the hoe underneath the middle of the stem to lift it into positon.....yeah right. It was truly a mission impossible. There was no way my L39 could lift the tree and steady it safely. I tried to lift it up and hold it with a 2x6 then push it into position with the loader....nothing doing. On top of all this my wife is watching from the side and says "what are you going to do when we get our next storm?". It was at that point that I realized this was stupid.

 

[JimMorrissey]

Well....the specimen has finally landed in its final resting place.....the burn pile /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Too bad, I really wanted to keep it alive.

 

[JimMorrissey]

Here a pic of the area with all the trees removed. It's pretty amazing how much light and space is now available....definitely worth the work.

 

[JimMorrissey]

One last picture of the L39 with a huge double-stemmed stump and dirt clod in the loader. I am continually amazed at its ability. Certainly not for everybody, but it is a great utility machine.

 

[Ryno1]

Good try Jim, not stupid or impossible but pretty tuff without the right equipment.

 

[npaden]

Certainly impressive!

It was sad that you weren't able to save the trees though.

 

[AndyMA]

Jim
In order to safely move a tree you need to basically move all the roots out to what is called the drip circle. Typically pro's (which my father was) will dig a square trench around the tree and build a packing box around the root ball. They will then take a number of pipes and drive them under the root ball next to each other until they form a solid bottom. At that point either forks or a crane can pick the tree up. The minute you expose and tear the fine feeder roots, you've basically lost the tree. On smaller trees you can wrap teh rootball with canvas tarps and nylon straps and pick up or slide the tree. You just need to keep the air off the fibrous roots.

Andy

 

[JayDavis]

Yeah, when I saw the pictures of all the exposed roots, I cringed.... You cannot just rip a tree out of the ground and place it in another hole and expect it to live, though I've seen it work. My dad did this to one tree. It took about 3 years before it finally would leaf out good. It must have been one tough son of a gun to survive that.

Either way, saving the tree was secondary. The primary mission was to move the tree. You certainly did that. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif