How easy is it to relocate a mature fruit tree

[Orkine]

I have a couple of mango trees and a recovering avocado tree, all mature, that I may need to move 10 to 15 feet.
Unfortunately they are holding fruit which I assume I will lose.  They are also multi variety grafted trees so heavy pruning will likely involve removing some varieties completely.

First is it possible with the correct equipment to move a 15 to 20 year old tree with the trunk a foot across (only 1 of those)
Is the best practice to trench around the tree and let it grow some new roots before digging it out
I have other mangos, and I don't mind grafting the varieties all over again, is it better to remove the old tree and restart with seedlings?
Avocado with trunk 8 inch across, can that size cado be moved?

Kindly share your thoughts.

[stephen]

I think it can be done, but it will be quite a bit of work that would pose some major risks for your trees.

Here's a video from Truly Tropical and how they were able to move a mature fruit tree: https://youtu.be/mqgEcBL0UqE

[850FL]

You can try.. however avocados don’t respond well to root shock.. not sure about mangos but I assume the same for them, since both mangos and avocados are usually grafted to seedling rootstocks, which have large taproots. A while back I dug up a 12 foot sour orange rootstock and sawed the coppiced base (it was multi trunk) down the middle longways and split the tree into two halves. I planted the first half back where the tree originally was and took the other half tree to my property and planted it. Both were basically planted in shade or partial sun. They handled the surgery and transplants surprisingly well. In fact the half I left in the original spot is doing just fine. However my half succumbed to termites.. I believe because the tree was under stress and the chopped root zone was easy access. I finished it off on accident by dosing too high with pyrethrins/sulfur and Spinosad to the root zone. I I go by a protocol when transplanting trees. I hack down about half the tree’s height and almost completely defoliate it. This is very important..
Because last year I tried to transplant an 8 ft x 5 ft satsuma. I defoliated it, but didn’t chop down enough of the branches. You have to do this because a severed root system can’t support all the original branches and leaves. Also leaves wick out water from the plant quickly.. Since I failed to chop down enough branches, i put a real strain on the transplanted root system. It was planted in an area that gets partial sun and I thought it would do great there, but somehow the tree went into collapse. Too many branches, no leaf cover, and sporadically-intense partial sun actually killed it. that one really pissed me off.
Another one last year was a 12 ft nectarine. Mind you, All these trees I have mentioned had bottom trunks you could fit almost 2 hands around for perspective. The nectarine was planted right over the dead satsuma and this one actually survived and grew for at least 6 months. However I had to battle boring beetles occasionally. I think the beetles are able to sense shocked trees because they came when I first transplanted it and then came for a second round when spring hit. The damn beetles killed this big nectarine. I think the beetles infect the trees when they bore in and fester a bunch of fusarium fungus into the wood. The fungus I believe restricts the movement of water and nutrients around the plant and kills it.

[SeaWalnut]

Ive tryed to move quite a few big trees with zero success.
The one you see in the picture still died even if i cut its branches heavily ( like somewhone allready sugested- good idea).

Now if id have to move a tree i would use a chain hoist to lift the tree by force from the ground without damaging the bark (using towels over the chain to protect the bark from scratching).
This chain hoist method is used normally to take stumps out of the soil but i think it would work with the tree and its extracting the tree out with a lot of roots.

This is the chain hoist method im talking about.
You Can water well before pulling the tree roots and also if the roots are big you can cut them easy on the edge with a strong scissor.
I reccomend the 2 ton or 3 ton chinese chain hoist wich cost about 35 dollars and you would also need to build a strong tripod.
This video explains the method with the chain hoist and a 2 ton chain hoist is used.French language but you get the idea.
https://youtu.be/NWuM0Dm0u-g

[Tommyng]

Orkine, I’ve had trees moved before, professionally and with friends, with great success. The key is to get the largest rootball possible, the larger it is the less you will need to prune. You also have to do it In at least three stages while cutting the rootball, cut a third, then so on, space it out in month and water it well. Need help, let me know.

[sc4001992]

Orkine,  don't use the crane method, it's dangerous if you don't know what you are doing.

I have personally moved/transplanted 6-10 adult size trees and can give you some advice from my experience (50% success).
1. Forget moving a large avocado tree, not worth the effort, their roots are long and will not take the transplant.
2. Mangos that are large, 6" diameter trunk or more is difficult to move unless you have machinery to dig deep. They seem to have longer tap roots. I have not had any survive the transplant.
3. Link from Stephen by Truly Tropical is the best method of removing/transplant fruit trees or any other large trees. Key is to trim back branches as much as you can.
4. Best to get professional help, they have the trench diggers and equipment to move the heavy tree with rootball, you will have a hard time moving the heavy tree with soil attached.

-trees I have transplanted/move: Aprium (6" trunk), Citrus (3-5" trunk), Avocado (6" trunk), Mango (5" trunk), Plumeria (5" trunk), loquats (6" trunk), pine trees, redwood trees by myself and its a lot of hard work.

[achetadomestica]

Last year I went with my neighbor and we dug up a 10' Lancetilla
We tried to dig a big root ball out but the roots went striaight down.
When we got it out it was pitiful how little roots we got. There wasn't
fruit on the tree someone already had stolen it. We put it in a small pickup
and drove about an hour away and planted it his yard. Luckily afterwards, it was
cloudy for a week last Summer and rained every day. Some leaves died
and my neighbor trimmed it back. He watered heavy for a month.
Fast forward today and it's holding 8 fruit and looks a little lean on leaves.
He doesn't have any other mangos holding and there is no way he's going to
sacrifice the fruit. I thought this is easier then what I read? We really got
lucky and after that tree flushes new leaves it's going to be a great tree.

[Orkine]

Thanks for the comments suggestions and video.
My conclusion is that my avocado should not be moved and the large mango is way too large to move without losing all the grafts on it.  It is my nurse tree that is holding several varieties while I figure out where to put them.  It started life as a Tommy, highly productive and made great fruit but I decided to top work it to other varieties.  It got a reprieve when my wife insists she really loves this fruit (yes she has tried many of the newer varieties), taste is subjective.  So the tree it will remain a third Tommy two thirds nurse.  Right now it is holding several named varieties plus many seedlings I am trying to fruit.

My decision is to keep the trees and see if I can change the project.



For the curious:
My property gets some flooding from a unpermitted culvert my local  drainage district installed.  They created one problem while trying to fix another.  They did not build a getaway ditch to divert the flow through their culvert into a nearby canal and it just discharges into a neighbors property and mine, causing flooding.
 
I talked to them about it and they want to come back in to build a swale or ditch to divert the flows from the culvert to the canal.  Only problem is they need a flowage easement through my property to do this and may need to take out some of my trees.  They will have earth moving equipment and I wondered it that would make the move easier but the chances are good these trees will not survive the move so on to Plan B.

Thanks again, I appreciate the feedback.

I might update this if the Plan B is worth sharing.

[850FL]

Well if they’re going to kill the trees anyway, I would honestly just dig them up! If you’re trying to get it done easiest just chop the trees down to about 3-4 ft of trunk and some large branch stumps. That way if you break off major roots in the process and stress the trees out, they may still survive because you chopped the branches way back. And plant them in shade for SURE! If your grafts all have to be chopped then so what, at least you saved a thick rootstock that can be top worked later, instead of the entire plant getting demolished. I would find a spot that is not super deep shade but a bit more shady than just partial sun if that makes any sense. Something like a scattered light understory.. you may have a fair chance with these trees if you take this advice and also water a lot, add light solution of fungicide to the irrigation water, and also maybe add some rooting hormone to the water during the first couple months (fungicide especially for the avocado). Don’t fertilize until you know they are re-established which will be 4 months or longer.. unless they’re obviously malnourished but you should really feed them pretty heavy with fertilizer right now while they’re still in the original place so they can store as many nutrients as possible before you go to hack em up

[SeaWalnut]

You can prune the tree less in order to keep the grafted parts on ,if you strip the tree of 80-90% of the leaves.
You can try not to prune the tree at all if you strip the leaves because its from the leaves they loose water and dry out.

Pruning is done to avoid stripping the leaves one by one wich takes more time but if you consider your trees are worth the effort its not that much work.

[Sandiegojane]

Try root pruning well before you want to move the tree.  Dig down and sever the roots as deeply as possible in as big a circumference as you can and are planning for the move, preferably at the drip line or beyond.  Place markers around the circumference of the cut roots (or measure the radius of the cut from the trunk) so you'll be able to find it later. Then refill the dirt loosely, water the tree, but don't move it. Allow the tree to grow for several months to reestablish new, fine roots at the point where they were severed.   You may see some signs of water loss initally. Once you've given the tree time to grow some new root hairs where the roots were severed, re-dig along the same line you dug before and remove the tree to its new location.

[pineislander]

The palm growers use a power shovel to cleanly cut a root ball through dense palm roots. Our Florida sandy soils tend to not hold a good root ball together the sand tends to slough off. Using one of these shovels may get you a cleaner cut around the circumfrence and a better root mass than hacking with shovels. I agree with others, a rootball can weigh many hundreds of pounds I used a front end loader to move these palms they were probably 500 pounds.
The machine is clled a "Dyna Digger"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gov8x2AD4qo