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transplanting pine trees

Started by Mahmer64, November 04, 2004, 11:08:19 AM

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Mahmer64

What's the maximum height for white pine and Jeffrey pine when transplanting yet maintaining a decent survivability rate?

Tillaway

How big of trees are you looking at?  I guess I need more info since a giant tree spade could transplant 40 footer... maybe.  Depending on how the soil is is course.
Making Tillamook Bay safe for bait; one salmon at a time.

Mahmer64

Hi Tillaway,
The trees are 20' - 25' tall and I'm concerned that if I tried to transplant them they won't survive.  I'm also wondering how big the root systems are.

Buzz-sawyer

From what I have seen roots are about equal to branches, they will tolerate being pruned back a good bit........
    HEAR THAT BLADE SING!

Tom

Bush brewery here has a sod farm where they dump the dregs of the brewery.  To hide the agricultural operation from people who like to complain, they transplanted some pines in the 20 foot range with good success.  It had to be expensive though.  They brought them in with huge tree spades and the holes used to plant them would have made a fair sized backyard swimmng pool.  

The most economic way to get pines would be to plant seedlings.  Most pines grow fast enough to provide a fair sized tree in 8 to 10 years for hardly any cost at all.

Tillaway

Pretty much what Tom said, If they are Jeffery Pine they are not worth a tree spade move.  Same goes for White Pine.  Just curious, are you sure you have some White Pine?  I have only seen them in a couple areas in California.  They are not real common, but Sugar pine are and have a similar needle cluster.

20 or 25 footers can be moved with a tree spade.  The bigger the spade the better the survival.  Check with an arborist first if you go this route.
Making Tillamook Bay safe for bait; one salmon at a time.

johnday

QuoteFrom what I have seen roots are about equal to branches, they will tolerate being pruned back a good bit........

 Buzz; Does this hold true for balsams and white pine? I've many of each I would like to transplant from the powerline 8)
Trucks are red, tractors are blue.  Monroe Mi, for now, Barton City soon.

Phorester


Survivability of transplanting trees depends on many factors.  Most important is the percentage of root system you get out of the ground with the tree, not the height of the tree.

Your question implies you want the tallest tree you can get.  You need to get the tallest tree that you can dig out with a large percentage of its root system.  If all you have to dig with is a shovel, you're only going to be successful with pretty short trees.  If you can hire a huge tree spade, you can successfully transplant much taller trees.

The roots on a natural grown tree will spread out at least as far as it's branches spread above the ground.  As far as depth, most of the roots will be in the top 2 feet of soil under the branch spread of the tree.  Anytime you cannot dig a big enough root ball to encompass the area under the branch spread, you decrease the survivability of the tree.

Generally, the smaller the tree you transplant, the higher will be the survival, because you can get a larger percentage of the roots on a smaller tree.

Stephen_Wiley

hmmmmmmmm...............your question, brings about many other questions.

The first being is:

Is money a limiting factor?
How many trees are needed?
Why these particular species?
When were you planning on transplanting? (time of year)
What changes in soil conditions are notably different than where donor trees were previously?

Just a few to start with, have you considered hiring a consulting arborist/forester?



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