Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Goldfinger on September 05, 2013, 19:32
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We'll be 'moving' farms come this winter, and my boss wants to hopefully take a plum tree with him.
It's a well established tree, quite a few years old, yet crops really heavily every year, except last year due to the weather. First time in ages he says.
Is it possible, and / or how would you go about pruning, lifting and then replanting it?
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I think you'd be better off planting a new one. It sounds like a very well established tree and would probably never recover if it is a big tree unless you could take a very big rootball and water extensively for a couple of years. What size is it? When they do this for shows they have a lot of heavy lifting gear. Also if you prune it heavily you leave it open to Silverleaf infection in such a weakened state.
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I'd move it, if I'd want to keep it, if it's manageable by size. Make sure, you have plenty of feeding roots with its dug up root ball, never let it dry out, do it in dormancy state and do not prune in winter... :)
Do feel free to just chop through stake/support roots and provide some stakes for a while, when replanting.
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It's about 15ft tall, growing in all directions, up a building wall and then leaning away from it, (think espalier gone wrong), due to it now being pruned / managed properly (if at all).
We should be able to get it out with our machines on the farm here, with a good sized root ball.
But since it's not been pruned managed, when 'could' we prune it? It's VERY heavy with fruit at the mo', so haven't a clue what to do now before the winter...?
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I was always told to prune stone fruit when the saps up :) paint any major cuts with stockholm tar !
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You prune plums during summer.
Current RHS advice is to avoid painting wounds.
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Yorkie, do you mean 'summer', as in before they fruit too? :)
I guess now will definitely the wrong time...?
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I haven't done mine yet, and think it may be a little too late now - by end of August I was advised - so I don't know whether it's worth risking or not.
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It's about 15ft tall, growing in all directions, up a building wall and then leaning away from it, (think espalier gone wrong), due to it now being pruned / managed properly (if at all).
We should be able to get it out with our machines on the farm here, with a good sized root ball.
But since it's not been pruned managed, when 'could' we prune it? It's VERY heavy with fruit at the mo', so haven't a clue what to do now before the winter...?
I'd do nothing else than prune it off fruits. The rainy season brings disease on stone fruit if cut at this time. Prune it next may/June. Whenever dry for long around that time, definitely summer, it would seem a bit late now.
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I hope it'll still be there come next may/June :(
The farm's up for conversion into fancy houses / apartments etc.
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So you could think about shifting it in the dormant winter season? As you have a suitable farm machinery you could probably do the sort of deep digging out that the rest of us couldnt do. I would have said "dont move" until I read that you had this equipment to get a huge root area out and to dig a massive hole at new site. You would probably find it took a while to get going properly in its new home though. Good Luck. Id be interested to hear what you decide to do and how the tree manages.
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I just had a thought. If the tree is threatened with destruction during the site building development then you have nothing to lose. If there is a risk it will be cut down anyway, then move it. I hate to hear about wanton destruction of trees. Good fruit trees are like old friends. Well, to me they are!
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I hope it'll still be there come next may/June :(
The farm's up for conversion into fancy houses / apartments etc.
Sorry, some misunderstanding. I mean, move it in the dormant season and prune it later on in its new place. :)
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So you could think about shifting it in the dormant winter season? As you have a suitable farm machinery you could probably do the sort of deep digging out that the rest of us couldnt do. I would have said "dont move" until I read that you had this equipment to get a huge root area out and to dig a massive hole at new site. You would probably find it took a while to get going properly in its new home though. Good Luck. Id be interested to hear what you decide to do and how the tree manages.
Like your thinking too. ;)
I hope if we take a big enough root ball, maybe the tree 'won't notice' being moved? :lol: