moving trees

[hillrunner]

Hi, Im looking for a little advice on moving trees.I have severel established fruit trees in my pasture. The previous owner of my acreage apperently had this orchard as a hobby. The trees are in the way when baling the pasture and I would like to move them out to the trees as an attractant for deer. Im currently in the market for a backhoe and will have to wait til I get one bought to move them. My question is , what is the best time of year to move a tree? The trees are between 12- 18 feet tall would be my guess. Also, does anyone know how many years one might have to wait for the trees to produce any fruit after moving? thanks

 

[TimberPig]

I would think a large tree spade would be the best choice. I had 21 white pines about 10'-12' tall moved last spring by a 44" tree spade. The guy said that was about the largest tree he could move and had to sell them or cut them down. He was in a pinch so I got them cheap, but another source quoted me $80/hr plus travel time for a tree spade. I know they do make larger tree spades but I suspect anything over 44" would be the exception and pretty costly.
By comparing previous years growth to last years growth on those trees, I would say your fruit production would be significantly reduced for 3-5 years, but thats totally a guess. I got maybe 6" growth last year compared to 1'-3' from the looks of prior years.
I watered the heck out of those trees and only one died. It blew over in a storm and we noted that it really did not have any tap root to hold it. You lose a ton of feeder roots when moving large trees. I have no clue how you would maintain a good root ball when moving a tree with a backhoe.

 

[hillrunner]

thanks timber, I have a neihbor who used a backhoe with success, thats where I got that idea. I guess I was hoping to dig a trench around the tree and then scoop it up from the bottom, I then thought maybey I could wrap some sort of a mesh around the roots before setting them on the trailer.Im afraid having someone come in with a large tree spade would end up costing much more than Im willing to spend, I also doubt you would be able to get a truck to where i want to put them.The water part has also been a concern of mine, Im hoping to mount some sort of a water carrying contraption on a trailer I can pull behind the 4 wheeler. This process would be a lot of work and I have better things to do if the trees are gonna die so I apreciate any advice I can get, thanks again.

 

[letemwalk]

I've never tried (nor heard of anyone else who has) moved fruit trees that are that big. If the trunks are bigger than about 4", I suspect they won't survive the move. I did tree spade several oaks into my yard that were in the 10'-12' range and they were set back quite a bit - in fact "whips" that I planted the following spring are now larger than the moved trees after 9 years. If I had an existing "food plot" like those trees, I'd be tempted to bale around them rather than risk killing them. I've heard that fall is the best time to move trees (I had 100% survival with the oaks I moved in October).

 

[Skully]

I have also been looking into moving some trees. I found a place near Ottumwa that will rent me a 44" tree spade for $150 a day. He says if you work your tail off you can move about 18 trees a day "if you don't have far to haul them". From what I've read on the net, all trees that are moved are "set back" by the trauma to the root system. If a tree measures 6" in diameter it is a rule of thumb that it will be 6 years before it fully recovers its root system. A 4" tree, 4 years and so on and so on. The fall is the best time to transplant trees as they are going dormant for the winter. Do a Google search on "Tree Moving" and you will learn alot from the sites listed. Good luck.

 

[DOUBLE LUNG]

This is how we moved them from my yard.

You could try to replant it, but not sure how well it would work.

 

[Daver]

Double Lung, nice shot. You know that looks like one of those still frame shots on America's Funniest Home Videos where they have an audience member guess head, gut or groin pertaining to where the subject gets struck.

 

[Skully]

How many coons came running out of that sucker when it hit the ground?

 

[hillrunner]

thanks guys, I might have guessed a little high at 18'. Most seem to be around 10-15 with only the largest having a trunk that nears the 6 inch mark. $150 for a tree spade sounds pretty reasonable, I assume this would run on the hydraulics of a tractor. I do however wonder, with all that work and severel years for them to be normal again if it doesnt make more sense to just plant a few started trees.

 

[bjkpharmd]

I thought rental spades were most likely self contained pull behind units. Would make the transfer much faster of you are pulling any distance.

 

[Deaner]

There is a company out of (I think Soiux City-I googled them under large tree moving)that is called "Davey Tree Service". I had two HUGE Maple trees I was thinking about moving out of my front yard. They were about 20-25 feet tall and about 15 years old. I thought if it was only going to cost a couple thousand dollar. A gal my wife works with lives on about 10 acres without a tree on it. I thought if she paid for the moving they would make excelent tree's for them. So this company called me back and he said that he could move tree's that big. He said he moved a lot bigger then that. He was trying to pencil me in date to come down and move them and the plans were all coming togather when I asked him how much it was going to cost. I about dropped the phone when he said $30,000 a piece!!!!!! He said that they move tree's that size all the time mostly at golf courses and they a lot of times pay up to a million dollors a tree! I'm thinking I should maybe get into that line of work. You could move only hand full of trees and be set for life!