Digging Up Established Cherimoya Trees?

[MasonG31]

Anyone have any experience with transplanting / digging up established cherimoya trees, and replanting them elsewhere?  I plan to move a 9 foot tall, 4 year old Fino de Jete tree.  Has the trunk thickness of a soda can.  I have to drive it to another location and plant it there.  I'm about 0 for 15 on moving avocado trees, but I've done it successfully with peach and other stone fruits.  Wanted to get an idea of how cherimoya is on the spectrum of transplanting, with avocado being in the "No way" category and stone fruits / figs / mulberries being in the "definitely possible" category.  Thanks

[sc4001992]

Mason, that's a good question. I have only dug up large cherimoya trees to get rid of it so didn't need to worry about transplanting it.
But I have moved/transplated large loquats (4-6" diameter trunk), pluots, figs, and citrus. What I found is that if the tree you are trying to dig up for transplant has only a large/long taproot then it will be difficult to survive the move since you probably will end up cutting off the tap root. If it has many smaller roots or more roots besides the tap root then it should be good.

Since I will also be moving some fruit trees before summer, I should know how the large avocado tree (5"diameter trunk) and citrus (4"diameter citrus, 15yrs old) will do. Always good to try and leave as much of the dirt on the smaller roots if you can, but it can make the weight to much for you to carry out of the hole. Dig at least 1-1/2 ft away from the trunk around the tree, maybe 2ft deep. You should be able to see how much roots it has, if it only has the main tap root going down then it might not make it so leave it alone.

[sc4001992]

If you are not in a rush to move it, you might want to air-layer one of the branches so you can save at least that branch before you try to dig it up. This is what I did with my large avocado tree, got a few large air-layers before I will be digging it up soon.

[K-Rimes]

I've had very little luck transplanting established trees, even supposedly extremely hardy ones. I personally think it's all about the distance and how you get the rootball out. If you can take a monster rootball with you, you should be fine, especially if it stays wet the whole time. If you have a ton of exposed roots they'll all dry out in the wind.

The only tree I've successfully moved that large is a white mulberry and only a 10 min drive. 400lb rootball. It was the heaviest deadlift of my life to get that sucker over the gopher basket and into the hole.

[spaugh]

The cherimoya trees grow fast enough I dont think its worth the effort of digging it up personally.  I would just start some new trees.  Thry have 15gallon trees in falbrook for like 60$

Even seedling trees are pretty big after 4 or 5  years they start getting huge. 

[greenerpasteur]

Cherimoya is pretty easy to transplant. I have dug 3 myself. The roots isn't as wide spread as other fruit tree or as deep. Try to dig wide to get as much roots, prune hard and keep it in  the shade until it recover.

[Longranger]

This sounds like more trouble than it is worth. It will take multiple hours of difficult labor. Even if you are successful it will be a couple of years before it can recover and produce again. You could take scions from the tree and graft them to vigorous seedlings. After 2 years in ground they may be ahead of the transplant.

[greenerpasteur]

If anyone has a huge cherimoya, let me know. I'm interested in paying for it.

[sc4001992]

Agree with Brad, its more hassle than it is worth. I moved an old mango tree, and it didn't make.

[spaugh]

If you insist on doing it, I would probably stump it down to 2 or 3 ft with a few small nurse branches and then transplant it.  Moving the whole 9ft tree will almost certainly kill it.  Same thing with an avocado tree. 

[Kada]

Will be lts of work, and probably an excavator.  But they are certainly moveavle.

Here is how we move trees, big t o small.


Prune most the foliage off the tree to avoid dehydration.

Dig circle around it.

Trim roots with sheers/fine saw.  Use a sgarpened sovel to shave soil smooth into a circle. 

Clip and roots left stickin out from aoil.

Wrap in plastic.
Tie

 move













The tree vehind is Annona muicata.  About 6 stems of 15 plus cm diameter from the base.  We moved that too but no pics same method.  It isnt pruned yet.



Want to keep the bark from dehydrating if your sun is hot.

[sc4001992]

Kada, Wow, excellent job of digging and wrapping the roots. That is a professional job, way to much work for me. My cherimoya has a larger trunk than yours in the photo and is about 18 ft tall. I will just air layer many branches. then just chop it down, get minimum root ball and see if it survives in a large planter.

Looks like your digging and careful root wrapping may take about 3-4 hrs to accomplish. Very nice though.

[MasonG31]

Good Info Everyone.  Thanks.  Kada I like your method.  Thanks for the pics.

[Plantinyum]

Kada, Wow, excellent job of digging and wrapping the roots. That is a professional job, way to much work for me. My cherimoya has a larger trunk than yours in the photo and is about 18 ft tall. I will just air layer many branches. then just chop it down, get minimum root ball and see if it survives in a large planter.

Looks like your digging and careful root wrapping may take about 3-4 hrs to accomplish. Very nice though.

i did not know that cherimoya airlayers. What is the succes rate for the layers ,if done properly ??

[sc4001992]

Don't know what the success rate is, I read and hear from others it will take about 4-7 months for the roots to form where it can be cut from the tree. My avocado air layer took 6 months to have good roots, same with fig tree and lychee tree.

[Plantinyum]

Don't know what the success rate is, I read and hear from others it will take about 4-7 months for the roots to form where it can be cut from the tree. My avocado air layer took 6 months to have good roots, same with fig tree and lychee tree.

i found a old tread in which people discuss its next to impossible to air layer cherimoya, takes a long time and a very low success rate, so they have discussed.....
I am also going ro airlayer some branches on my avocado  and several guavas, good to know avo takes alot of time, seems like i need to do it at the end of march to have all summer long for the sets to root.
Fig for me takes around two months to strike, althought i jenerally severe them with not many roots visible, but they always take when planted.

[Kada]

Kada, Wow, excellent job of digging and wrapping the roots. That is a professional job, way to much work for me. My cherimoya has a larger trunk than yours in the photo and is about 18 ft tall. I will just air layer many branches. then just chop it down, get minimum root ball and see if it survives in a large planter.

Looks like your digging and careful root wrapping may take about 3-4 hrs to accomplish. Very nice though.

For  atree your size probbaly would take us about 1 hour for top work and 2 hours for root ball wotk (with excavator)  maybe 4 hours by hand.  Its amazing how rocks slow down the process dw to spil breakage.

I agree its nt worth for cherimoya.  But sometimes people have sentimental reasons for keepin therwise common trees


I too have had terrible success air layering herimoya.  Have had success with A. montana and muricata though.

Why not graft?  They are easily grafted and perhaps rootstocks are easily available?  All commercial annona here in taiwan are grafted.