moving a young tree

Hi

I planted a young Fraser fir last November (08) but am getting paranoid that it's too close to my house, its about 1m away. I'm thinking of digging it up and replanting in back gardend or repooting in a large pot and reburying where it currently is to avoid the roots interfering with foundations. If I do this will it a survive and b continue to grow in the pot without getting to big.

Thanks Scott

 

Hi Scotty

Yes, 1m is too close to the house for any tree to be planted, I reckon. I'm not familiar with the Fraser fir's preferences but the usual principle is that if you dig up a plant while it's dormant (and especially if it was only recently planted out, like yours), it won't come to any harm.

As for where you replant it, always think to yourself, will my tree have room to fall over when it's fully grown? Because one stormy night, it just might do that.

I don't know how it would respond to being confined to a pot. I suspect you would need to root prune it every year.

 

If you stick it in a pot then what will you be getting ?- a stunted misshapen tree.
I would dig it up and transplant.
I would get hold of some large sheets of tougth polythene. Start digging a trench round all 4 sides of the tree so that you produce a column a soil in the middle holding the root ball. Then get in the trench and use a spade to slice under the root ball ( conifers are generally shallow rooted and dont tend to have deep tap roots). Ease up the column of soil and slide the polythene sheet under the root ball. Get some help and lift the tree and root ball out of the hole and slide along the ground to new hole. Slide in and make sure the top of the soil is at the same level as before, no deeper. Give plenty of water in following summer while it re establishes any damaged roots. It takes a while but that is the best way of moving a growing tree. I did it to a 10 foot high blue cedar with help from a JCB and that is now over 30 feet.

 

Great post ,just to be made in use..