Transplanting trees and shrubs

Factual Questions
1

what is the best way to do this?

I have purchased balled and burlapped trees before, and have had success planting them. I have also purchased and planted bare root stock and have had the same success with the plants surviving and thriving.

However, I have had little success in extracting and relocating any tree. I have watched videos on youtube that show how someone takes an arb, for example, out of the ground, wraps the burlap around the root ball, and it is just fine. These people are not using some large extracting machine with calipers… They are using a regular shovel.

I have tried both leaving the soil on the roots and also have cleared most of the soil, leaving just the bare roots. Both cases end up the same… The tree dies fairly quickly after transplanting.

I know trees experience shock, and will not grow right away. However, they never survive the shock. When a tree dies, especially an evergreen, i have never seen it come back. Once the color leaves, the tree is dead. I have also transplanted deciduous trees with the same results.

Maybe there is a small window of time during the year that I have missed. I read (and was told by nursery owners) that transplanting can be done in the spring or fall. Fail. I tried this summer to transplant two evergreen shrubs. Fail. (And I watered these two regularly).

I have let the trees and shrubs sit for a year, giving them an opportunity to come out of shock. Fail.
I once received 10 trees from the Arbor Day Society, and they were no more than sticks, with a little paint on the bottom to help me identify which was which. I thought they were never going to survive, but after planting them, they all did. Clearly, it isn’t my soil. And clearly, these bare root sticks from Arbor Day were out of the ground for sometime, shipped with no special material wrapped around the bottom, and were able to survive the transition.

What am I doing wrong? Is there a method that a nursery will preserve the bare root stock, or am I just unlucky?

And is there any possibility for an evergreen to come back to life if given enough time in its new location? Or once the needles go brown, those will never come back. I assume this is the case, and if the tree DOES come back to life, I would have to remove all the dead and wait and see what, if anything, sprouts out the following spring.

Thanks.

Brown Thumb

2

I’m with you on evergreens. All-over browning generally means dead.

Deciduous trees with taproots (like sassafras) generally do poorly when transplanted. Fibrous-rooted trees should be easier. Aside from transplanting during a cool period (like early spring), getting as much of the root ball intact as you can, watering in well and keeping things moist for an extended period I don’t have additional specialized advice.

One thing I did when transplanting a young redbud tree some years ago was water in with a solution of Superthrive (a vitamin/hormone concentrate). I thought that tree was doomed, since 1) I got only a partial rootball when digging it out, 2) there was a late freeze that killed the foliage, and 3) we had a bad drought that summer. Still, the tree made it and has done well since.

I have always suspected that Superthrive is part of voodoo gardening, but experiences like that keep me using it on transplants.

3

Hehe, Superthrive. Yeah, read the ingredients and the seller’s literature, reads like woo.

People who use it swear by it. It is very popular among a subset of cannabis growers. I bought a bottle once, mostly out of curiosity.

Check out the packaging. Sorta like that Dr Bronner soap.:smiley:

4

I worked at a nursery for six years. Deciduous trees were *never *dug once the tree started budding in the spring until after all the leaves fell in the fall. Coniferous trees could be dug later in the summer after all the new growth had “hardened in”, if the species had needles, such as pines and spruces.

5

I do a lot of transplanting, some trees, though mostly bushes.

One of my rules of thumb is to keep as much root intact as the periphery of the leaves… since rain mostly drips off the leaves around the outside of the tree, I figure this is where it’s counting on picking up moisture. This rule of thumb means I conclude that an awful lot of things are just too big to transplant and I don’t try.

I don’t usually wind up with a root ball as much as a root pancake. I think that says more about Pacific Northwest clay from hell than horticulture, but perhaps a factor in my success is that so many of the roots are easily accessible with a shovel.

I don’t spend a lot of time trying to keep dirt on the roots unless there are those really fine roots that would tear before you get the dirt off. Whatever dirt stays, I keep. Whatever falls off is great.

I do my transplanting right about this time of the year - the heat is off, and our winters are mild and wet so that freezing isn’t much of a problem. We certainly won’t ever have the ground freeze here. If it’s the type of plant to lose its leaves, make sure it has lost them before you transplant. At the very least, make sure it is not flowering, fruiting or growing anything new.

You mention watering the evergreens a lot… have you considered that you might have over-watered?

In terms of deciding when something is dead, I usually look less at the leaves/needles than the branches. Living branches generally bend and flex; dead branches snap and break. If you’re still not sure, you can try cutting one. A living branch will still be moist inside and is a different color than a living one. (Though I suppose that color varies by species).

If you do the test from the outermost extremities down to the trunk, you should be able to tell if it’s alive or not without doing any real damage. If you ever got to the point of cutting into the trunk, for example, you’d have already confirmed that all the branches are dead.

I never use fertilizer or other additives when I transplant. I don’t know if fertilizer would be bad, but it’s certainly never been necessary for me.

6

With few exceptions, plants should be transplanted no deeper than they were previously planted. Professional practice here is to plant slightly higher than previously with nursery supplied trees and shrubs. It’s usually also not recommended to amend the backfill soil. The roots need to grow outward and not stop where the amended soil ends. Fertilizer should not be added as the plant should have an acclimatization rather than stimulation to grow. The addition of Mycorrhizae however may be very beneficial.

Though not always practical or doable, generally the planting hole should be around twice the width of the rootball. After the plant is centered and straight in the hole, backfill about half the depth with a firm but gentle foot. No stomping. Fill the hole with water to the top and when it completely* drains away, repeat the process of backfilling, tamping and watering again to the top. When that water drains, fill in any holes created by soil washing down into any air pockets. Make a ridge of soil around the outer edge of the rootball, creating a saucer to keep future waterings where they need to be until the roots establish. No soil on top of the rootball.

That initial watering is very important to ease the shock, supply water, and very importantly, eliminating the air pockets that would cause roots growing into those areas to dry out. Subsequent watering should be according to need of climate, weather, season, soil conditions et al. Mulch should not be too thick on top of the rootball and very thin by the trunk.

Additionally, some plants are considered fall hazards to transplant and need to be done in spring. Summer can be done for certain plants under certain conditions but generally not advisable.

  • Soil types and conditions determine how long this may take, very sandy soil may drain in a minute, heavy clay in an hour or more.
7

It’s is certainly possible, but I really have no idea. I didn’t water every day. And when I did, I’d give them a couple of gallons. But I have no idea if that was too much or too little.

Interesting. I have never seen a dead evergreen come back. In this case, they were junipers. They both were silvery-blue,mbut now just about all foliage is a light tan… There is very little color left.

The branches are still bendable, but this (IMO) is because the plant hasn’t had enough time to dry out completely. I would be fine leaving these in over the winter, but they look terrible. And how would a juniper come back? I would assume if it IS still alive, everything that is currently on the plant would have to come off, and it would have to grow back. Even if the trunk is alive, all of the branches with all of its “leaves” are dead and will not come back to life.

8

I’ve never tried to transplant a whole tree, but I have successfully transplanted lots of other stuff.

Actually, I take that back, I have a small lemon tree that I move from a pot to my backyard and then back to the pot every year, and I’ve moved small Apple trees a year after first planting them.

I avoid digging when the plant is actively growing. This is a different time of year for different plants. Deciduous things often transplant best in early spring, right before they break dormancy. (Winter is dry, so if you transplant in the fall, the tree may struggle with an inadequate root system through that drought.) Many plants transplant reasonably well in mid-to-late summer if you are good about watering them.

Try to get as much root as possible. I never actively remove soil, because that would damage little feeder roots. But I expect a lot is soil to fall off, and don’t worry about it. Put it back in soil as soon as possible. I dig and plant the same day. If I can’t do that, I temporarily move the plant to a large pot. Don’t bury too deep. Too shallow is generally less damaging. That’s about it. I agree with the stuff about removing air pockets, etc., but that’s the same as for potted plants and bareroot stuff you buy.

I read somewhere that you can reduce transplant stress by covering the plant for a while after moving it. I guess to let it focus on it’s roots rather than it’s leaves. I’ve never tried that, but respect the woman who suggested it.

9

The only sure way to know is to dig down around the plant at least six inches or so. What’s going on down there may be way different from how it looks at the surface.

10

It’s likely to protect the leaves from the sun, the more healthy leaves that persist, the better. Re-leafing is pretty stressful for the plant, and more so after the root loss that accompanies transplanting. I’ve seen plants lose all their leaves, re-leaf and with proper care and good luck, thrive. I’ve never seen one that loses those second leaves (other than seasonal deciduous loss) survive.

The best wholesale nurseryman I know will put newly dug plants under shade, with sprinklers going through the hottest part of the day for 3-5 days, or sometimes keep them in the barn for a few days. I’ve seen him do it very successfully with big Japanese Maples dug in July and August.

11

does anyone know if a juniper (or a conifer) can actually come back to life (assuming it isn’t actually DEAD inside the trunk and the root system is alive.)?

I looked at those 10 sticks I received from the arbor day society, and they were all deciduous.

Conifers shed needles through out their lives, and occasionally a branch dies, but once removed, the tree does just fine. However, once most of the tree’s needles go brown, even if I remove those dead branches, nothing really recovers. Even if the plant is actually alive, i can’t imagine how long it would take for the tree to re-generate each branch and all of its foliage. Any juniper or arb I have ever grown rarely shows any major dead areas. Whenever a deer browses on my arbs, the area where the deer eats never comes back, but the root structure isn’t damaged and anything above the feeding area lives. They are not pretty, but they are alive. But I have never seen an arb fill back in where they’ve been eaten. Maybe that’s because the deer will continue to snip off any new growth, but when I look at the trunk, their doesn’t appear to be any new growth.

The junipers (as most of you probably know) have a soft, “fern” like leaf structure. They are not needles, and they are not leaves. They usually keep their color throughout the year. Even those that change colors in the winter do so predictably and return the following spring. I have never seen a juniper (or any conifer) regenerate its branches and foliage.

Does age of the plant also have something to so with it? The younger the plant, the easier it seems to transplant. These junipers were about 10 years old, and had been in their pre-transplant location for probably 8 years. Perhaps they were too old and established to move with a shovel. Maybe they would have had to be dug up with a machine that would keep as much of the root ball intact as possible, and then could be transplanted.