Transplanting a biggish tree

[fastfredracing]

I've got this dog wood. It grows out of the creek bed in our back yard. The root ball is exposed on the water side and over the last few years, it has been eroding , and slowly falling over. We've had really bad storms for days now with the water running really fast, and checking it out tonight, it is now completely down on it's side .
It is by far , the nicest tree on our property, it has beautiful pink, and white flowers, and is a really healthy nice looking tree. I hate to let it just sit there, and die . I'd love to dig it up and move it to the front of our place, near the driveway. . I am sure I will tear up some of the roots getting it out. Think it will survive ? Any advice? It is pretty large, maybe 25 feet tall. I assume that I will have to tie it off for a while , till it takes root . I'll get a photo tomorrow .

[masraum]

There are companies that can move trees. If it's 25' tall, I think (no experience, just my opinion) it's going to be too heavy for you to move. I think you're going to want to take a bunch of dirt with the rootball.





Maybe Baz will know more about this and respond.

[Bill Douglas]

If the tree can be managed by hand this method tends to work. Cut three sides of a square around the roots. Make it as big a square as you (and your friends) can manage. Leave it a month or two for the tree to get over the shock of having some of it's roots cut, then cut the other side of the square and underneath the roots. It's best done during the winter when the tree is in shutdown mode other than full bloom.

[Baz]

The most important component of moving a tree is to try to maintain the root ball as undisturbed as possible.

What Bill suggests is ideal....but unfortunately your tree is down now and you can't wait for the (ideal) dormant period to move it nor do you have time for root pruning (the method described in his post).

The job of the tree spade illustrated above in Steve's post is to accomplish just that. That is the ideal piece of equipment, usually. In your case, Fred...now that the tree has fallen over and half of the root ball is already exposed...your best bet is to dig away at the rest of the root ball and while doing so try to keep as much of a mass of roots as possible to survive the move. It's not easy here in Florida with our sandy soils but you probably have more clay and organic matter in your soil to help maintain the root ball.

You may also find it easier to move if you prune off some of the branches. This is also helpful to reduce transplant shock as it eliminates some of the foliage that normally acts to wick moisture out of the plant.

Dig the hole it's going into first....then move the tree. Do as much as possible not to disturb the existing roots. Plant at original depth. Prop it up as needed with braces. Keep it watered so soil moisture is maintained. You can also throw in a little Milorganite fertilizer when you are back filling as it is 100% organic and won't burn anything.

One more tip...when you are backfilling with soil stick your hose down into the hole while the water is running to push out any air holes. This is very important to avoid leaving air pockets where root damaging fungus can develop more easily.

Dogwoods are deciduous so even if it drops all it's leaves from transplant shock, if it survives the tree will re-foliate at some point.

That's all I can offer at this point, Fred....good luck and keep us posted.

[greglepore]

Professionals move deciduous trees when they're dormant, but you may not have that choice. The rule of thumb is that the rootball is as wide as the width of the canopy.

25 ft dogwood is a big mature tree. Assume you can get the backhoe in there?

We've had a mild wet early summer, but moving a tree in July is pretty much out of the question. Otherwise, Baz's advice is pretty good.

[not sharp]

Orient the dogwood to the sun in its new home, as to its old.

[MBAtarga]

I've always heard Dogwoods are very difficult to transplant successfully, but I've never heard the reason. I hope you are fortunate if you try though.

[Baz]

Yo Fred...was thinking about this some more.

Without seeing the tree in person....it sounds like a big one - maybe making this re-location idea not very practical - especially given the wrong time of the year to transplant.

So...another thought would be maybe you could cut off the part of the tree that's lying down and a new one would sprout up from the old stump. You'd still have your tree without the transplanting hassle. I used the word hassle because without the right equipment and under certain circumstances....it indeed is a hassle.

Feel free to post a pic when you get a minute. It would help those of us in the peanut gallery...