Transplanting 40 year old beech.

[dumper]

At a guess rootball and tree to give a chance of survival are going to be 10 plus tonnes,you don’t get a lot of soil in a tonne with no preparation the rootball will need to be huge

[Mrblue5000]

Will the compost/soil mix under the roots make any difference? Loving some of the eye watering price estimates so far! Moving it with a 16 ton track digger is the plan. Will keep you posted on how it goes.

[dumper]

Just how do you intend to move it? 16 tonne digger seems small, little traction to push or pull very little lifting ability, do you intend to wrap the rootball?

[Dan Maynard]

1 hour ago, Mrblue5000 said:

Will the compost/soil mix under the roots make any difference

Not much. The big challenge is that the important fine roots which give a large surface area for water absorption are spread over a large area around the tree, for it to survive after transplant it needs to keep enough of those roots hence the need to move a huge rootball. Think of root protection area in building sites being 12 times trunk diameter.

 

What size lump of soil do you estimate you can lift with the 16 ton digger? I'm not very familiar with machine sizes.

[dumper]

Underneath I wouldn’t use compost just good screened soil not recycled garden waste, maybe with some sharp sand, an irrigation system halfway down the rootball and on the surface with a couple of good concrete railway sleepers either side to guy down to or a duckbill system, try not to guy above ground, a seriously good watering before and during moving, flood the rootball for a good few hours maybe drill some hole to get water into the root ball

[dumper]

3 minutes ago, Dan Maynard said:

Not much. The big challenge is that the important fine roots which give a large surface area for water absorption are spread over a large area around the tree, for it to survive after transplant it needs to keep enough of those roots hence the need to move a huge rootball. Think of root protection area in building sites being 12 times trunk diameter.

 

What size lump of soil do you estimate you can lift with the 16 ton digger? I'm not very familiar with machine sizes.

16 tonne machine lifts bugger all 2.5 tonnes maybe

[Stephen Blair]

You lost me at ‘ they offered it to me ‘ that implies it’s worth something!

  If they are paying and willing to accept it’s probably going to die, hire a 13 tonner , grab truck and crack on.

[Will C]

Looks like a saw log or fire wood to me, just as well get on and fell it now than have huge costs to then fell in a year or 2!

[Dan Maynard]

2 hours ago, dumper said:

16 tonne machine lifts bugger all 2.5 tonnes maybe

Hmm 2 ton of wood in the stem, bucketful of soil.

[Mrblue5000]

Just an update, here it is in it's new home and it has survived the ordeal.