will a beech hedge transplant?

[sandy2210]

The estate here want a bit of beech hedge removed during the winter and I was wondering if some of the individual bits would transplant with any hope of regrowing the hedge was mature when I first seen it about 30 years ago and is about 10ft tall 3ft wide I was looking to replant some of the hedge in a dissused gateway in the same hedge. I know winter would be the best time and was thinking of doing it around end of feb just before it starts to wake up again -is this the best time . also it is growing alongside the drive so getting roots out from one side would be nearly impossible . do you think I have any chance

[agg221]

You don't have a lot to lose really by trying it.

 

Do it as soon as the leaves are going - November, as the roots remain active through the winter so it has more chance of settling and re-establishing. Take as many roots as you can practically get, going out as wide as possible to the non-drive side, with as much of a rootball as you can retain and move (bearing in mind it will be heavy). If you've got the plant to do it, I'd dig a decent trench, work in some compost to the base, then more compost into the dug out soil. Drop the trees in and stake well, then back-fill.

 

They'll need regular watering for the next couple of years, expect them to look sick for a bit, if they survive then great, if not you have done all the prep-work to buy in some smaller ones next year and fill the gap that way.

 

Alec

[arbmark]

ha i usually agree with alec but i moved a beech hedge once with little success by hand. you can follow accepted good practice/timing etc but the for time and effort, and given the chances of success i would start again - without the gaps and sickly looking sticks you'll get. Without plant i wouldnt bother - you'll need to keep as much soil as possible to minimise disturbance.any that get scraped i'd discard - so your new hedge better be a fair bit shorter!

If one side of the root system was going being left behind because of the road that would decide things for me

Mark

[openspaceman]

You don't have a lot to lose really by trying it.

 

 

Alec I'm sure your recipe is the better but I'd be tempted to first reduce the height to 1.5m and the width and then hook them out with a good amount of soil with a digger and then trundle them into the gateway. In fact my brother in law still has a two spade tree lifter for his bobcat and we've regularly moved trees from overgrown stock grounds of this size. often first thinning alternate trees to get some separation.

 

Incidentally he gave up growing specimen trees and hedging because the Dutch would bring in plants from Italy grown in 3 years to the size he needed 10 and this was just at the time (around 1985) when phytosanitary rules were relaxed.

[agg221]

Entirely agree with points made re use of plant (I probably wouldn't bother if there was no suitable plant for lifting as they will be extremely heavy with a big enough root ball).

 

Not sure I'd reduce the height and width - I've seen it work both ways. Sometimes if you leave the top alone and the retained roots are good enough, with enough water and nutrients available, you can get the larger leaf area to promote rapid root growth and reistablishment. However, if you leave too much top relative to roots it can't sustain it and the tree shuts down and goes into decline. It's less effort to just move it whole, so I'd be inclined towards the latter if I was chancing it like this!

 

The drive may be OK here, in that if it's relatively solidly surfaced (tarmac or concrete rather than gravel) there may not be much incentive for the feeding roots to have gone under it.

 

I still reckon I'd give it a go, just consider it lucky if it works and write it off if it doesn't.

 

Alec

[sandy2210]

thanks for the advice guys have a 3t digger so digging and lifting not a problem got about 25m to take out and only about 5 to fill will give it a try at the end of november as suggested and as you say got nothing to lose

[openspaceman]

Not sure I'd reduce the height and width - I've seen it work both ways.

 

I was thinking for practical considerations, getting the digger arm over. Normally I would leave the tree alone and not risk the pruning cuts. With bigger trees I'd drop two of the 4 spades into the ground a year before the final lift to reduce the shock of all the smaller lateral roots being cut at once but we didn't carry on long enough to see if there was significant difference, in general all the trees we replanted in his stock ground seemed to be ok but checked. The farm got bought for a golf course so a lot of this effort was wasted.

 

I seem to recall grass roots go dormant at 5 centigrade and wonder if the same is true with tree roots. So autumn planting meant that tree root hairs would grow when the temperature was above this threshold and develop well before leaf opening. We used to reckon plant in late autumn for sandy soils but early spring for clays as there was then less risk of waterlogged roots rotting through the winter.

 

I imagine the soil temperature in Scotland will already be dropping fast.

[Goaty]

Transplant yes. Live and thrive? Not likely, and whilst its well intentioned, next summer when there isnt enough hours in the day, watering it will be the last thing you need.

I hope you prove me wrong but oak and beech are the worse trees for not transplanting even in a commercial environment , where the are root pruned and transplanted to initiate good root systems. Cherries and hornbeams reastablish fibrous root systems rapidly, whereas beech and oak tend to have fanging roots and few of them.

Beech can react poorly to pruning as well.

This is only my opinion and observations.

[Perkins]

Beech don't transplant well in my experience.

[Ruskins Trees]

We are tree & hedge movers.

 

Moved a 100 year old Beech hedge, without preparation (no time), that ringed a

bowling green. Moved it for the developers to front another site.

 

The developer never watered it (not recommended). 0% failure.

 

Moved in 1997, still going strong.

 

If you move most things the right way, with the right aftercare, will succeed.