# Big Tree Moving



## RhodyFresh (Jan 18, 2007)

Anybody else out there into moving big trees? Im talking about stuff bigger than those 90'' tree spades can handle.


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## kiwi inpomyland (Jan 19, 2007)

hey buddy,i was transplanting for about 4 years in NZ largest tree i did was 132 tonnes,it was a large pohutakawa in auckland,but our average was between 25-60 tonnes,alot of pheonix palms and stuff,i ran 4 blokes but the bulk of the work was in the winter so standing in 2 feet of water all day got on your nerves after a while,sorry no pics


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## Sylvatica (Jan 20, 2007)

I move quite a few trees in the 9' ball, 12" cal, 50' height size, mainly because it is my practical limit for easy over-the-road travel. Moved four a few years ago with 16' rootballs which were relocated on the site, no transport required - they were dug, rigged, picked, and set w/crane. Some I move with a big wheel loader. 

Always too busy to take pics, so I have no images of the larger moves.


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## RhodyFresh (Jan 21, 2007)

This is what I'm talking about. Rootballs look great! Nurseries around here(RI) can't seem to get it together in that department, all blobs and pancakes, potatoes not nice tight cones. Rigging looks cool too. Im going to try to figure out this picture thing and show you some of what I've been involved with.


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## Kneejerk Bombas (Jan 21, 2007)

There's a guy around here that uses an interesting method to move trees, not as large as those pictured above, but it might work. 
Anyway, in the fall he trenches around the trees to be moved, then he comes back after the ground is frozen with an excavator and just snaps the ball off. No burlap needed because its a frozen ball.


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## RhodyFresh (Jan 21, 2007)

*sketchy*

Sounds crazy to me. Some people can do some really brutal stuff and still get lucky but in my opinion its just luck. I've seen pics from the 30's or 40's of trees w/ 24-30 dbh moved bare root. Again, crazy to me but I like to play it safe. Spring and fall for me. Preferably fall because I like the Idea of lots of new root growth after transplant.


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## Husky137 (Jan 21, 2007)

Mike Maas said:


> There's a guy around here that uses an interesting method to move trees, not as large as those pictured above, but it might work.
> Anyway, in the fall he trenches around the trees to be moved, then he comes back after the ground is frozen with an excavator and just snaps the ball off. No burlap needed because its a frozen ball.




What sort of success does he have with trees surviving?


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## Tree Machine (Jan 25, 2007)

The frozen rootball method sounds plausable. In my life before being a treeguy, I was into Bonsai for several years. The best looking bonsai _specimens-to-be_ had large trunks proportionate to the size of the crown. Large trunks will fortell of a large root system and to become a bonsai, that plant must be transplanted into a small pot. This means fairly drastic root pruning. 

Summer specimens were easy to find, junipers at any garden center or nursery. I favored K-Mart as they were the cheapest, but substantial root pruning during the peak growing season often led to failure, about half. I went to bigger pots and less root pruning with Summer stock.

In the Winter, garden centers (at retail outlets anyway) often don't stock plants because nobody is buying. I would have to source my stock from the 'wild', quick and stealthy under guise of night. These plants would often get roughed up pretty bad during the often hurried procedure and when we got home (me and the plant) I'd further prune the roots and then wire it into the pot. Rarely did these die and in the Spring they'd wake up and do what they do, only in a new home.

Clearly, bonsai is at the opposite end of the size spectrum as to what this thread is about, but similarly, the plants being used were somewhat mature, established (though small) trees. The big ones you're asking about are way, beyond sapling, somewhat mature and fully established at the time of the move. Both are examples of transplanting trees. The biology is very much the same.


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## Thillmaine (Feb 3, 2007)

*Halca Nurseries*

Halca nurseries in New Jersey sells all stuff that size, nothing below a six inch. I was talking to some guys and they use the frozen ball technique to move trees such as these. Dig them in the fall, and ball and burlap them, let em freeze and then move them once the ball is frozen into a pre dug hole. Less root disturbance, and then they go and fill them in once spring comes. Hartney-Greymont (Boston) used this technique on some 16' zelklova's at Harvard University. All Perfectly healthy today.


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## LarryTheCableGuy (Feb 3, 2007)

I was involved in the planning of this big tree move:

Ficus Watkinisiana at the San Diego Zoo.

I had to build a scale model of the tree out of heavy wire in order to plan where the elevated walkways would pass through the canopy and to determine the final rotation of the tree.

.


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## davelll (Sep 17, 2009)

I have a client in Kodiak who wants to replace 100/ 20-30 inch Sitka Spruce that were cut in a trespass situation
Any help would be appreciated


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## joshrobson (Aug 27, 2013)

*About big tree moving*

You can take a help of Instant Shade Inc, which providing service since more than 30 years and also giving proper guidance.


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## treevet (Dec 16, 2013)

Years ago a company I worked for replaced a huge Blue atlas cedar on the Johnson and Johnson estate in Lawrenceville, NJ with a sky crane helicopter. It was in a tight spot behind the mansion. Fascinating stuff . I plant some 5 to 6" Cal stuff with my crane but digging the holes get old when you can do easy tree work instead. It is a nice niche to fill slow times. Good money.


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