I have six or seven evergreen bushes to dig up out of my yard and transport them to another city for replanting. (They've grown too big for my garden). How do I dig them up and keep them safe while transporting? What do I need to do when I replant them? How long can they be out of the ground?

 

Hi Teresa

The answer lies in how big are they, & how much root system can you get? Can the roots fit in a 10 or 20 gallon black Nursery pots for safe thansport?

There are machines that can ball & bag a tree or bush. I don't know if you have a Nursery that grows for Wholesale or if they would even dig them for you. Can you dig them by hand? Have you called around to find containers that you can pot them up in. We have a juice factory that sells these barrels like the blue plastic 40 gallon size for $3.00.

When cut in half you have 2-20 gallon pots you can fill the area around the roots with peat moss, & keep it moist for the trip. Can you be more specific on the size & age + how you plan to transport them.

 

The shrubs (aborvite - I think that's how you spell it) are about 6 yrs old and stand about 4-5 ft high. We plan to dig them by hand. I thought we could dig out about 2 feet or so and I wanted to bag the ball with heavy duty plastic bags watering the ball before doing so. The trip is about 30 minutes and we were going to lay them down in the back of a pickup truck. Would that work? Is there anything special we should do when replanting them?

 

Question:
Is there anything special we should do when replanting them?

I don't know your location so I will use mine. Western NC, Grass being mowed & leaves on trees. Temps 70s/50s

Dig a good sized hole & use a slow break down food like Fertrells Poultry Compost pellets, Blood meal, Bone meal, Green Sand, Fish meal, Kelp meal, Espoma Plant Tone, leather meal etc.

If you can find some Compost, or spent Mushroom compost even peat Moss, anything that will mix with the clay or sand to better the soil rather than replace the soil you removed. When planting a tree Organic Plant food makes so much sense, the 10-10-10 salt based plant food may last as little as 30 days then the tree will have to be fed by a pressure feed tube. Organic Foods like Kelp meal can prevent Micronutrient problems for 10 years for one example.

One thing I learned along time ago was put the food verry deep so the roots will grow deep & the plant will thrive. That one law of feeding has given me healthy long living Trees & plants. Get a black soaker ring for each tree. Then get a cheap hose (From hose hook up, to just past last Tree ) with plastic T hose connectors cut & use a hose clamp to place a T at each tree in feed hose.

Now when you have the hose hooked up and a cap on the end of the feed hose, put a shut off piece between the faucet & hose. Now if you get a hot dry Spring & Summer like we will here I believe, you can use the soaker rings on low pressure & drip drip drip, them everyday for as much as 4 hrs a day. Deep watering is critical at this stage.

Water is the key to warm weather survival for transplanted plants, outside of dormancy. The only way to deep water is with a drip system that puts water slowly down deep. You can also spray the tree off to cool & clean the leaves & trunk, do this in the late Afternoon & evening.

If you have any other questions please just ask

 

Marturo,
I am in NY. Temp in the 50s-60s. We were planning on doing this next weekend. Is it too early? Thanks so much for your help.

 

Actually, the earlier, the better to relieve stress on the plants.

 

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Actually, the earlier, the better to relieve stress on the plants.

Your in good shape with the weather being this cool, the warmer it is the harder it is on the plant to make roots.

Let us know how things go Teresa.