Best way to transplant seedling

[livemusic]

I could not find an old thread about this that I know exists via search.

I have some growing hardwood, mostly oak, tree seedlings I want to transplant from my yard to land five miles away. Seedlings range from less than 1' tall to 4' tall. Should I dig them up and shake all the dirt off so they are bare root with no dirt on (such as one buys from agencies or nurseries), or leave as much of the root ball intact with dirt to transport/plant them?

[Puffergas]

I don't know the correct answer but I try to keep as much dirt on the roots as possible.

[fishpharmer]

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,25591.msg365509.html#msg365509

[rjwoelk]

Google " transplanting oak tree."
Do not disturb the root ball and do not cut the tap root . You need all of it.

[livemusic]

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,25591.msg365509.html#msg365509

That wasn't the thread I was thinking of, but there is something there are a couple of ideas I'd like to follow up on.

A poster (from Costa Rica) in that thread said "We move a lot of seedlings from the wild to our nursery (more than 20,000 this year) and we just make sure they are not more than 4 inches tall. Assume that the roots are half the height of the seedling. Do it when the ground is very wet and after transplating, using a foliar spray to help them recover."

First, what does he mean by 'foliar spray?'

Second, when I buy seedlings from my soil conservation district (they should announce this year's purchase any day now), the seedlings are bare root, there is none to very little dirt on them... bare. So, I figure they buy these from a nursery? And I wonder how the nursery digs up these seedlings. Anyone know? I think they just tell you to keep the seedlings damp and transplant them asap, right away if possible. I also note... it seems last year when I bought some (cow oak, willow oak, native pecan, dogwood), some of the seedlings seemed to have a taproot that had been squarely cut off. Which seems counterintuitive. All of those seedlings have survived (about a dozen) except none of the 3 willow oaks made it.

[BaldBob]

Bare root nurseries grow their seedlings in very loose soil so that the soil can be shaken off the roots without breaking very many of the critical fine root hairs.  Most also root prune the seedlings by under cutting all the seedlings in the bed in the first year for 2-0 seedlings. For wildling transplants, it is best to keep the entire root ball intact since you will generally break too many of the critical roots trying to make them bareroot.

[krusty]

As a poor student I put myself through school planting about 250,000 seedlings over 5 summers. Hard work but I loved being in the bush. They were all nursery stock. Bare root and container grown.

For yours, keep as much rootball as you can. Get a bunch of old 1 or 2 gallon pots from a nursery to transport them in. Usually in their recycle pile.

Most important....plant them spring when they are still dormant of just starting to have buds swell. That will give them the best chance.