Working on digging up a tree for transplant

[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.