Transplanting 40 year old beech.

[Mrblue5000]

Last autumn I cut back a beech pollard on a property for sale near me. The new owner has decided that they don’t want the tree as it’s too close to their house. They have offered it to me as I have the space for it, but it has to be moved now, not next winter. 
 

Has anyone here moved a large beech trunk during a wet summer successfully? It will be possible to water it in its new home. Should I put pipes under the roots? I’m thinking of putting a layer of well rotted compost at the bottom of the new hole mixed with topsoil to try encourage roots. Is there anything else I can do? 
 

It’s the tree in the centre of the photo.

[woody paul]

Would not even bother, cost would be great. 

[Peasgood]

Nothing ventured nothing gained but unless the house is being demolished I wouldn't want anything to do with digging a big tree out from near it.

[Mick Dempsey]

How are you proposing to do it?

[Conor Wright]

Non runner imo. wrong time of year, tree is behind the fence so no access for truck mounted spade, (looks too big anyway) tree is also too well established meaning a lot of root loss which reduces its chances of surviving even more. Then there's the cost of it. Spend 500 quid on a bagged specimen beech from a nursery and it'll do better than that one ever would, even if the transplant was a success.

I'd estimate moving and repositioning that properly to be a 10 to 15 k job (tree spade, crane, diggers, crew, transport, aftercare etc) total guess as I've never moved anything of any real size. So if anyone wants to correct me there I'm happy to be wrong.

 

[Conor Wright]

9 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

How are you proposing to do it?

I'm guessing one of these.

Can't beat a simple solution.

[dumper]

Forget the tree spade this is a Newman frame or box job yes it’s possible, but is it worth it, i would suggest 10 to 15 k to move well, and don’t forget the tidy up after. Nice idea but non starter 

 

[Mick Dempsey]

I agree with everyone else about the chances of success.

Who’d want that ugly thing anyway?

I was just curious about how he planned to do it.

[Stere]

 

 

Won't be easy ir cheap to do it properly

 

Money no object with the right machines its probably  its possible

 

 

Root ball gonna weight abit will need to be the size in pic above etc or bigger for a 40yrs old tree -  also wrong time of yrs isn't gonna help chances of sucess much.

 

I think thoose tree spades are to way to small?

 

Very specialized job...

Edited July 23, 2023 by Stere

[nepia]

A 4-5m specimen from Barchams will cost you just over £1k; do the math when compared to moving that!

The chances of successful establishment are probably in a similar ratio!