A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Maple tree

Some of you may remember a post I made about a seedling that I found in my yard. It's a maple tree. I want to move it. Is there anything special I should know about moving it? It's doing fine, where it is with no help but it's been shaded & on a fenceline. I want to move it to the middle of the yard in direct sun.

Thanks, Bill! (Don't you hate when people like me don't search for the info ) One more question...do I need to wait a couple of more months before I move it? It's not very big at all, maybe about 4 foot tall with a "trunk" diameter of about the size of my pinky...I know you can't see my pinky finger, just giving a guestimation, lol. It's hot here & I don't want to ruin the tree (but would like to move it now if that's possible.)

With it on the fenceline, I'm not sure I can dig all the way around it...any advice on how to get it out of the ground without hurting the roots?

I went looking for a Maple of the size you have, to could get a pix of the roots so you'd have an idea of what to expect, but alas, all I found were tiny ones and 80 footers . I'd guess that your maple will have a couple of 2 foot tap roots which could make it tough retrieving a complete root ball from the other side of the fence. Fortunately, Maples are pretty durable and you can probably dig up the majority of the roots as a "bare root" plant if you are careful. If necessary you can try to pull undug roots out or cut inaccessible (other side of the fence) roots as long as the majority of the primary tap root is healthy.
I wouldn't even consider trying to transplant a four foot maple at this time of year in Washington, but in the Texas sun I really doubt you would keep it alive. Wait until the weather cools before tring to move it!
Do you know how old the tree is now? (Your original post was http://www.thegardenhelper.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/11/170.html#000000 ). A smaller sapling would transplant much easier, or you could go from seed and have an established 4 foot maple in 2 years...

I don't know exactly how old it is. I had just found it when I made my original post and it's about double the size it was when I found it. My guess would be about 3-4 months?

My husband doesn't do much in the yard, other than mow, and we've been here about 8 years. I'm trying to learn about what I have in the yard, decide what I want & what I don't want & begin my "landscaping" as cheap as I can by using what I have in the yard. We have about 2 acres of land & about 50% of the fenceline is covered in various vines, brush & trees.

I can wait until late fall or so to move it...I'll just have to do it by myself, so I was trying to do it with it small. Guess I should have moved it when I found it, might have been better. (At the time, I thought it would be better to let it get a little bigger before moving it )

Exactly what is it that is the size of your pinky? The trunk (the diameter) you mean?

Cause if it's 4 foot high, wouldn't that trunk be bigger than that by now?

I wish you had a pic.

We, of course, have so many maple trees here.

I've seen a few of the pesky little trees with diameters of 1/2" or less at a few feet high - it's possible.

I sure like moving trees in fall. Never lost one doing that. Of course, I don't think I've ever lost a transplant ever.

Even got a 25 foot tall weeping giant sequoia free from the dept. head of the college program I attended - moved it in June in 85 degree weather. It was in the shade in the woods, with a tap root through it's huge pot. I had to tip the pot to cut the root.

Moved the tree bare root, sprayed to seal it, wrapped like a mummy with the roots on the tailgate, trunk on the cab, and the canopy resting on a huge X strapped to the bumper - it looked wierd !!

We erected it in a hole, filled it with water and sloshed soil in to make a mud soup to squish contact with roots. drilled and anchored eyes in the trunk to brace 3 directions. After many more hot days, the summer, fall, winter, spring, it still lived on.

Yep, mine is tall & skinny. I'll try to post a pic later this morning.

So, I'm a little later posting this than I expected, LOL.

This is what my tree looks like now. I've, actually, been watering it but looks like one of the "trunks" has died...that's ok, because I was planning on trimming it so there was only one, anyway.

When I found it, in June, it was about as tall as the smallest "trunk" that you see here. (Does that make sense?)

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