Moving in ground trees?

[Kay]

We bought new land and want to bring the smaller trees at our old farm with us.  mostly wax apple, persimon, mango, annona species, some citrus, jaboticaba and come abiu.

they range in size, but they are 1-4 years in ground, and kept small.  trunk size ranges from 4-10cm diameter down below.  not huge but i wonder if already too big? 

My plan was to heavily prune the plants and wait a month.  then dig around about 70% of the tree (about 1 meter root ball?) to sever the big roots and let heal.  wait a month, then do the other side and move the tree.

Anyone see this working or not?  time is  no issue.

[MangoFang]

Kay - I wonder why you'd want to dig out 70% of the root ball and then "let heal" for a month and then dig out the rest - seems an odd thing to do.  I think better would be after pruning (and again, why wait a month?) is just to  dig it up and move it all at once.  The stress will be created immediately and I think the "healing" that's needed will take place when the trees get back in the ground and can send out new roots.

Did you hear about this method of "healing" somewhere else?  My experience has always been - get
as much root ball as possible and move it into it's new home as soon as possible.....

And a 1 meter root ball is pretty big, but if you can manage it, I think all the trees should do fine...

Obviously water A LOT and for a good while after transplanting....

GOOD LUCK

Gary

[natsgarden123]

We moved trees- they do just fine-dig a nice sized root ball and try to keep it intact- then water the tree daily, I actually watered 2x day for the first 2 weeks.

[Kay]

great thanks guys.

the 70% trick is for certain species of mountain trees used here to transplant up in the hills.  the reasoning seemed logical to me, let me know hat you think.

the dirt here is hard clay, so there are not nice fluffy root balls, but more long hard strands of roots growing through u p to the topsoil  so cutting around 70% of the tree will sever most of the roots.  30% is left to allow the tree to still take up good water levels.

waiting a month (i made up a month, 1-4 weeks i guess) later the cut roots have put out many new fibrous roots, so the remaining primary roots can be cut, allowing the new roots to take up lots of water for the flushing leaves.

Maybe its all not needed with these commercial fruit species?  dig, move, water...that easy?

[FRUITBOXHERO]

I agree why stress the trees two or three times when you can just dig them up replant and water, a lot less stress on the tree and work on you! Good luck with the move!

[Kay]

OK, thanks.  I will just do that then, dig and move fast. 

Thank you.

[fruitlovers]

In my opinion what kills most moved trees in not the way they are moved but how they are treated after the move. It's good to try to dig up the tree during cloudy/rainy period. if you have to do it in full sun then it's good to give the tree some temporary shade protection for a few days and keep very well watered, better yet misted.

[Kay]

great thanks.  rainy season is starting here so we have near 100% humidity daily and on/off rains right now, seems the perfect time then.  If need be, i will watch for wilt, i can put up shade cloth above them no problem.  Would maybe doing it at night be better?  its better for heat with me anyway.

[fruitlovers]

great thanks.  rainy season is starting here so we have near 100% humidity daily and on/off rains right now, seems the perfect time then.  If need be, i will watch for wilt, i can put up shade cloth above them no problem.  Would maybe doing it at night be better?  its better for heat with me anyway.

Yes it's best to move the plants in the evening.