Any one started planting trees yet ?

[Ninjastrike]

Any one planting trees yet?

 

Are the nursery lifting trees?

 

Thanks

Richard

[spandit]

Yes. Woodland Trust delivered a load of cell grown trees yesterday. I've potted a load up in airpots to use for a future hedge but the rest will be going in the ground this week, with any luck. For the price of the tubes and stakes I can't really complain if the trees don't make it especially as they weren't very flexible on species choice. Nice looking trees, though, decent size (2' high) - certainly better than the bareroot ones I was provided with before.

[difflock]

Transplanting a few mis-placed/wrongly planted ash and apple trees today, with an 8 tonne digger, we will see how they get on.

A good job the Mrs. were busy in the kitchen while I plundered about in the flower garden!

But at least wonderfully wonderfully dry everywhere.

marcus

[7610]

Someone once said to me if you plant before Xmas you are telling the trees to grow, plant after Xmas and you're asking the trees to grow.

 

I'm starting planting in 2 weeks.

[sandspider]

Got 50 or so trees to get in the ground this weekend, time permitting...

[se7enthdevil]

can i have some advice about transplanting a tree please.

 

we've a small oak in the middle of the lawn about 4' tall and about 7-8 years old as it kept getting mowed down when my dad was alive but he's been dead 5 years now.

 

anyway, it's not in the right place and we've just dug a huge hole in the front garden as we've dug a bush out that was overgrown and i suggested that it go there.

 

how big a ball need i keep on the oak to give it the best chance?

[10 Bears]

Steve - I believe it would be very difficult to properly extract it with a root ball. The best method if you want to do this takes time and preparation as you have to root prune over a couple of years to prepare the ball and then extract. As you have the hole ready now, I presume you don't have the time to do this.

 

So, the best method to use would be to 'bare root' transplant it. This is exactly as it sounds, excavate the roots as best as you can, keeping as much of the root crown intact as possible (including the fibrous ends) and simply lifting and moving to its new home. Its important to not keep the roots out of the ground too long as this will kill them ie if they dry out.

 

You will damage practically all the root hairs using this method but its unavoidable. The root hairs are very fine root erm... hairy tips, that are primarily used to extract moisture from the soil. They are very delicate and you cant avoid damaging them, but as long as you don't damage the larger parts of the root crown ie where the carbs are in storage, then come spring there will be enough in reserve for the tree to grow a load of hairs straightaway and carry on as before.

 

So, keep the roots moist and in the dark, damage as little of the root structure as possible and when transplanting make sure you lay out the roots as uniformly/radially as you can (to avoid possible root strangulation) and you should be fine.

 

Best to wait until all the leaves are off the tree, so you can be sure that the tree has gone into dormancy and is at its minimum physiological activity level - otherwise it will lose energy trying to repair your damage at the wrong time of year ie when its not photosynthetically active.

 

Hope that helps. Post some pics of the job when you do it.

[10 Bears]

Just another thought - I didn't mention staking. The tree would be best staked for support in its new location while the pit is still open. This way you can place the stake through the roots and not damage them when hammering the stake in firmly.

 

Keep the stake about 2" away from the stem so this will prevent rubbing against the stake. A good cheap alternative to a tree tie is to use some old towelling - literally a towel cut into strips. You can figure of eight around the stem and stake and then bind the middle of the '8' with towelling to make it stiff and hold the tree away from the stake. The towelling will rot away after a couple of years, so that will be a good time to remove the stake too.

 

Also, dont stake too high, the bottom 1/3 of the tree should be enough. The tree has to adapt to wind forces and if you stake too high, it wont develop correctly.

[Arctostaphylos uva-ursi]

For a 4 ' tree. I would just dig it up with a rootball of 0.5m radius and transplant it. Water it in well and be sure to water it during the first two growing seasons.

No need to over complicate things.