How To Transplant A Garden Tree Or Bush

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

My experience of transplanting mature trees

Sometimes it is necessary to move already fruiting mature trees to a new place.

On a private plot, the area of which is limited, this happens especially often, since, in an effort to make the most of the area, we often plant trees close to each other, and over time we have to plant them.

Reserve plants intended to replace the dead also need to be transferred to a new place sometime. What is the best time for a transplant?

Spring and autumn transplants with a large clod of earth are laborious and technically difficult. Plants, due to large injuries, tolerate them painfully. I got good results when replanting trees at the beginning of winter with a frozen lump of earth. At this time, you can leave a lump of smaller size, which greatly facilitates the work.

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For example, we transplanted mature trees - honeysuckle and plum at the age of 18 and 5-7 years, respectively. Transplanted like this. Around the honeysuckle trunk, retreating from the plant at a distance of 0.5–0.8 meters, they dug a trench 25 cm wide and 60–70 centimeters deep. Starting from a depth of 30 cm, we gradually freed the roots from the ground with a pitchfork and chopped them off at the outer wall of the trench so that their length was 75-100 centimeters.

We cleaned the cuts of the roots with a garden knife. All branches were shortened by half their length, and the sections were covered with paint. Since that season the air temperature in November was about 1 ° C and even higher, the roots could not freeze. In this position, the tree remains until the earthen lump freezes and turns into a solid block that does not crumble when moved.

Later, snow falls and covers the bottom and walls of the trench. As a result, the lump remains not frozen to the ground at its base and is easily separated. We lifted the clod of earth and roots with the help of a wagi (a lever made of a strong pole) or a cable, which we laid around the clod in a loop. When tightening the loop of the cable, the core roots seemed to be sawn. When transporting the stem and the base of the skeletal branches, we tied rubber from car tubes.

Mats were placed on the bottom and sides of the car body to protect the branches from flooring. Then I cut off the injured roots, cover the cuts with garden varnish or paint. At the site of the future planting, in advance, in the fall, we dig a hole with a diameter slightly larger than the diameter of the earthen clod of the dug plant. It turns out to be about 80-100 centimeters wide, 70-80 centimeters deep. At the bottom of the planting pit, I pour a ten-centimeter layer of a mixture of nutrient soil, compost and peat faeces, 300 grams of ash and 200 grams of slow-acting mineral fertilizers.

Then we install a lump with a tree on this layer, keeping its previous position in relation to the cardinal points. After that, we align the tree vertically and fix it with stretch marks, metal spacers. We cover the spaces between the lump and the pit walls with fertile soil and compact it. And on top we also throw it in additionally so that the tree or bush would be covered with 8-10 centimeters deeper than its previous position.

Then we cover the planting site with manure and mats. With the appearance of snow, we collect it in this place, accumulate it and tamp it, and when thaws come, we cover it with earth. In the spring, we tie the stems of the transplanted trees with wet burlap and periodically moisten it with water. We fill the soil of the trunks with organic and mineral fertilizers and keep it in a loose state. Trees transplanted in this way normally take root and develop and then give a good harvest.

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Similarly, plums of the North, Eurasia and Domashnaya varieties were transplanted on our site. The beginning of winter was favorable for transplanting. The fibrous root system was well preserved. The next year, the plants bore abundantly, gave fruit of normal size, no shedding of ovaries was observed. I want to note that in winter you can even dig up the garden under the snow, when the layer is still small. Frozen soil becomes so light and dry that usually hard work is not at all burdensome.