Ruud Kleinpaste: Things to consider when planting and transplanting trees

Winter dormancy is the best time to shift a tree or a shrub (or plant a new one), especially when they originate from a “temperate climate” (the kind that shed their leaves and hail from UK, Europe, North America, etc). 

When considering shifting a sub-tropical/semi tropical one, wait a little to just before spring sets in (mid-end September). 

These sub-tropicals do not really like to be dumped into a wet and cold soil for many weeks of deepest winter – it could kill them!  Besides, as discussed last week, with these cold and wet soils all kinds of Root Rots (Phytophthora, Armillaria, Pithium, etc) might terminally affect your trees.  

Here are some ideas to make it work as well as possible:  

1) Consider the size of the tree – smaller ones are much easier to (trans)plant than big ones.  

2) Get a “trenching spade”. These long, narrow, sturdy blades are much more efficient at digging into cold, wet clay soils than the ordinary, wider spades.  

3) Destination site – select the site where the tree has to go and dig a rather huge hole – you can’t really dig big enough, as no matter what the root ball will be, a lot of extra drainage is always going to be beneficial. Drainage away from the root ball to be planted helps to avoid Root Rots. 

Mix in some pumice or compost in the loose soil material, so that it will become friable and nutritious with organic material; the tree will appreciate this new site as it has plenty of drainage and food. 

4) Original site: with the trenching spade dig a circular shape around the tree’s root-zone – remember that the wider you go, the heavier the root ball will be, you might need a bit of neighbourly help to lift the bugger out! Approx. 30 to 40 cm radius from the tree’s stem is pretty good  

Try to get as many roots across as possible as the tree will re-establish better.  

5) Levering with the trenching spade, remove the tree and its root ball out of its original site and transport it on a wheelbarrow to the destination site. If the soil starts to fall off the roots, use a hessian sack to wrap it all up before moving.  

 6) Plant the tree at destination site as soon as possible to prevent drying out. The level of the tree’s soil should be the same at the new site – don’t plant it deeper than it was before! In the unlikely event of destination site being too dry, fill the planting hole with water before the shift. 

7) Stake the new tree to anchor it. Provide it with a bit of wind-shelter (windbreak) for the first year or so, firm the soil around the roots. Top-dress in spring with some slow-release fertilizer.  

If you’ve lost a lot of roots in the shift, prune the tops of the tree to restore the root/foliage balance. 

8) I prefer to add some 3-4 inches of mulch over the root zone to keep moisture in and keep roots cool in summer. Keep the mulch away from the stem of the tree to avoid collar rots. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Ab Rude time past is our man in the garden?

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Hey, Rude, are you all right there?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
I'm very well, thank you. Yep, dry enough, which is
given the last twenty four hours, last couple of weeks,
I'm pleased about, although gonna I'm looking forward to going
home this afternoon, getting on the roof and working out
what happened with our internal gutter because there was a
leak in the all of the lounge. So uh hurrah.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Yes, yeah, we had a check to somebody literally yesterday
about internal guttering. My goodness, you got to really make
sure she put those up right there.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Oh, so it's anyway, I mean, compared to lots of
other people, I have no reason to complain right now.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
So no, no, never mind.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Hey, we're talking transporting trees this morning. This is one
thing we've been debating at our house because my wife
has now decided that despite it's despite the fact that
it's absolutely thriving at the moment, she maybe wants me
to move our pomegranate tree and this is the timing
year to do it.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yes, this is right, and what a clever idea actually
because this is the time to do it, and to
do it because you got plenty you know, you all
have plenty of water coming in the future and they
are kind of more or less dormant, and that is
the good thing about it. So this is how you're
going to do it. First of all, you you, you know,
you have to consider the size of your tree. If

(01:30):
it's a small one, and I don't think yours is
that big yet, is it?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
No, it's not too big. It's probably uh, it's probably
almost two meters high from okay, but you know.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
Okay, well, yeah, could be she might need to help
you out with carrying it then a bit, I think.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
During sleepy yea, but yeah anyway, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
No, but there you go. So the idea is basically,
you get first of all, get yourself a trenching spade.
Check that is still one of my favorite ones in
the garden. There's a good space. You can go deep,
you can go narrow, and it has an enormous if
you like strength, if you lever it up, if you
like so long and narrow. There you go destination site.

(02:19):
You make sure that your whole is going to be
as big as the one that you get it out
of If not bigger, please because if you can make
it bigger, you will get extra drainage away from the
roots in the wintertime. That is important to stop root
roots having a problem with you. Okay. The other thing
is that if you have a larger place to put

(02:39):
your tree in a new site, you can also surround
that with wonderful organic material, with nutritious stuff if you
like friable loose material, and that means that your plant
will be very quick to reform itself in starting in
spring to say this is a good place, I'm going
to grow bigger book, that's it nice? Yeah, and that's good.

(03:02):
And then you go on no, you go yeah, well
all right, so you basically get when you want to
actually get the tree out of the ground, make sure
you get a big root ball, as big as you
can or as big as you can carry out of
the old side, so that you can move it and
disturb as few roots as you can. And that's why

(03:24):
it's important to have that size really and plant it
now and do it and don't leave it on, you know,
drying out before you actually plant. Do it not At
the same time, if you like, stake it if it's
a windy site, that's important. And then I usually put
three or four inches of melch over the root zone
and keep it all good until it becomes really spring

(03:46):
and summer.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Yeah right, just make sure it still has plenty of moisture.
Is the absolute cape.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Absolutely, Thank you sir.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
All right, we'll catch you again soon. Root Climb pass
in the garden for us.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
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