Redberry Transplant

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

How we transplanted an adult ornamental tree to another place

Almost every gardener from time to time needs to move a tree or bush from one place to another. For example, one of our guests told the following story: his wife is very fond of transplants.

The trouble is that often these attempts for her end badly for the plants - they die. In this article, we would like to share our experience of moving to another place, not some shrub, but already an adult tree.

In the spring of 2007 we visited the Mika kennel. We had a desire to buy a decorative tree, we wanted to buy something unusual and interesting. Nursery workers offered us Japanese scarlet. We asked: why is it remarkable? We were told that it changes the color of the foliage several times a season, decorating the garden. In addition, his foliage smells like gingerbread in the fall.

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Inquired about the winter hardiness of the scarlet. We were told that everything is in order with this - the tree is not damaged even in severe winters.

We planted our Japanese scarlet in the spring not far from our house. This graceful tree grew rapidly, soon it became taller than human growth. No hassle with it, the tree itself formed a dense wide-pyramidal crown, the trunk was divided into four.

The scarlet has an unusual, rounded-heart-shaped leaf shape, they keep on long petioles. In spring, the leaves are pinkish purple when blooming, in summer they are green, and in autumn they are lemon yellow. The most interesting thing is that before the leaves fall, they really begin to smell like gingerbread, or rather, cinnamon, caramel, vanilla. The tree exudes a very pleasant, persistent scent. Another interesting feature: foliage falls off at the beginning of October, and in one or two days, all at once.

In the seventh year of the tree's life, we had the need to move it to another place, since the husband, Boris Petrovich, was going to expand the structure of the veranda of the house. I was worried about the fate of the plant, because the tree is already quite large, will this operation lead to its death?

Questions immediately arose:

- Can this tree be dug up and moved at all, will it stand such a test? If so, when and how long can you transplant? - Isn't the scarlet plant that acclimatizes once and is not easy to transplant?

- What needs to be done to make the transplant painless for the tree, and it will take root in the new place and start growing?

My husband reassured me, saying that we would replant the tree next year, having already thoroughly prepared.

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This is the preparatory work we have undertaken for a successful transplant. In the spring, he prepared a high bulk ridge with a diameter of 2.5 meters, filled it with fertile soil and invited me to plant annual flowers on it. In the fall, we removed the flowers from the ridge and left it until the spring of next year. So, the place for planting the tree was prepared in advance, in the fall.

In winter, we consulted at the nursery about the possibility of transplanting scarlet and found out that this tree is difficult to move, and it is better not to touch it. Although, of course, you can try. They also gave advice on how best to do this, suggested some transplant techniques, but could not guarantee a positive result. It is better to move trees and shrubs in spring - this is how we were finally instructed.

That year the spring was long and cold, the temperature did not rise above + 4 ° C, and in May it even snowed. The pit was prepared in advance, there was no experience in moving such a large tree, we did not know at all what size the pit should be, since we could not even imagine what the root ball of the plant would be. The situation was unpredictable. The only thing we were sure of was that the transplant should be carried out as soon as possible. We knew that no matter how carefully we did this work, after digging up the purple, some part of the active root system would be lost, and this would still be stress for the tree.

My husband and I prepared a fertile soil for filling the tree and, as a precaution, made the future hole wide in width. We also laid its drainage on the bottom. The tree hurried us: the buds were already swollen on the scarlet, it gave us a signal that it had already prepared for growth and the formation of new roots.

We transplanted the "Japanese" in mid-May, the soil has already thawed, warmed up. The work began at 16 o'clock, and finished planting the tree at 22 o'clock. We had no lifts at our disposal, only shovels, planks, and a sturdy canvas for moving the tree. The success of the transplant was also in the fact that our paths are made of wood chips, and if the roots of the plant come out onto the path, it will still be easy to lift them.

A few branches were removed from the bottom of the tree, and the rest were tied so that they would not be damaged when moving. A ribbon was tied on the southern side of the purple tree so as not to lose the tree's orientation to the cardinal points. Boris Petrovich made a vertical stroke along the projection of the crown with a shovel, about 90 cm from the trunk, and dug a small trench along the entire diameter of the tree.

The roots appeared. Then, with a shovel, we removed the excess soil above the root ball. The shovel was inserted under the root ball at an angle of 45 °, as recommended in the nursery. And with this operation we were stuck for several hours. We had to dig in the root ball from different sides, placing thick wide boards under it, since without this it would not give in to us.

In scarlet, lateral roots went far from the trunk, and at each end of such a root there were still whole panicles of thin roots, which were located in the chips on the path. At some point, I was even overcome with despair that we would not be able to dig in the scarlet and turn it over onto the canvas, since it turned out to be a very voluminous root ball.

But the husband worked monotonously, digging in the tree from different sides and laying boards. He tried as much as possible to preserve the root system of the tree. I was amazed at his calmness and self-control.

It was already evening, and I was glad that it was light for so long in the spring.

Finally, we rolled the root ball onto the canvas and carefully began to move the tree to a new place of residence. Soon the scarlet was brought to him. Before planting, the pit was well filled with fertile soil, superphosphate and ash were added to it. The roots were treated with root root.

We carefully set the scarlet in the middle of the hole, carefully spread out all the roots. It turned out that around the edge of the circle in the hole there was still a stock of 20-25 cm. We oriented the tree to the parts of the world. The pit was covered with prepared fertile soil. They tamped the soil around the tree so that particles of it filled all the gaps between the roots. The soil was compacted carefully so as not to damage them.

A hole was made along the edge for irrigation and then carefully watered. Watering helps to compact the soil around the roots. When the water was absorbed into the soil, we mulched the trunk circle. Japanese scarlet reacts painfully to changes in external conditions, so we tried to pay increased attention to it that season, that is, we provided good care: we watered more often and more abundantly with warm water, since nutrients dissolve better in it, and they are quickly absorbed by the roots, we carried out sprinkling by the crown.

And now, three years have passed since we changed our place of residence at the Japanese scarlet. It has already turned into a big tree, it has become even more expensive for us. This is our family plant! The first time after the transplant, we were very worried about him, because we knew: it happens like this - you transplant a tree, and it seems to have already taken root, and then suddenly it starts to hurt and dry up, it may die. This means that there were mistakes in transplantation and subsequent care.

Now with Japanese scarlet we have almost no trouble, the tree is unpretentious, winter-hardy. It blended very organically into the center of the new round flower bed created by Boris Petrovich. Every autumn he mulches the tree trunk circle with horse bedding, and the "Japanese" thanks us for this concern, pouring an amazing tropical aroma throughout the site in the fresh autumn air - either vanilla, or cinnamon, or caramel, or gingerbread.

If you plant this amazing gingerbread tree in your area, I'm sure you won't regret it.

Galina Romanova, Kolpino

Photo by the author