Transplanted large trees

matdand

matdand

Participating member
Location
Montreal, Qc
A lady just contacted me saying that she has a bunch of 20-30 ft oaks and lindens that were transplanted in December of last year. They leafed out fine but then the leaves went brown and fell. Im suspecting improper irrigation and probably a lack of mulch, they might not have been planted properly either, I havent visited the site yet.

My question is would fertilizing with Mauget be a good or a bad thing in this case. A proper watering program would have to be put in place as well. I'm just worried about an overabundance in salts if the tree cant absorb enough water. What if I would cut the dose in half or 2/3? Mulching and vermiculite are definitly in order as well. Thoughts?
 
I would think think the fertilizer would cause the tree to put out growth in a stressed time and rather then focusing on root growth.

I think you're dead on with the improper irrigation. A tree that large requires a lot of water and if they didn't have a irrigation program in place with the transplanting, I imagine the homeowner drastically under estimated the amount of water the tree needed. So I'd say mulch and see if the homeowner would go for some temporary drip irrigation that can spread wide enough around the tree to promote root growth. I've heard trees need a year of establishment for every inch diameter.

Do you have any pictures?
 
[ QUOTE ]
A lady just contacted me saying that she has a bunch of 20-30 ft oaks and lindens that were transplanted in December of last year. They leafed out fine but then the leaves went brown and fell. Im suspecting improper irrigation and probably a lack of mulch, they might not have been planted properly either, I havent visited the site yet.

My question is would fertilizing with Mauget be a good or a bad thing in this case. A proper watering program would have to be put in place as well. I'm just worried about an overabundance in salts if the tree cant absorb enough water. What if I would cut the dose in half or 2/3? Mulching and vermiculite are definitly in order as well. Thoughts?

[/ QUOTE ]

Transplant shock can sometimes be mitigated by gathering leaf litter and topsoil from the transplant's original location and spreading it like mulch upon the drip line interior of the new location.

Gives them a bit of what they're used to......see?

jomoco
grin.gif
 
Mulching and maybe some compost will be added for sure. I usualy add vermiculite to hold some water and nutrients around the roots, never heard about the asbestos thing. Perlite is good but not as good as vermiculite to retain water, apparently.

Soil ammendement is usually what I do, but these trees might not make it long enough to reap the benefits. My reasoning for going with Mauget is because Im guessing the tree doesn't have enough of a root system left to absorb any nutrients. Trunk injections would bypass the root system and give the tree some much needed food. I'd just be worried about over-fertilizing because if it can't take up minerals, it can't take up water to disolve the salts. Maybe a program where we could inject one capsule every month and have some a good irrigation program. Anyone ever done something like this?

I'll be going on Tuesday to see the trees, Ill take pictures if it's worth while.
 
So here is what came up:

- They haven't been watering at all because whoever planted the trees scared them with overwatering warnings. I told them to irrigate once a week each tree for around 10 minutes, a little more if it didn't rain all week, a little less if it rained some.

- The planters used wood shavings instead of mulch. I told them to remove this and replace it with real mulch and compost.

- Many of the trees were planted too deep. This makes me think that maybe the wire basket are still in place.



So were gonna be going back on Thursday to do some airspading (finaly get to try it!). I was thinking of incorporating some chicken manure with the mulch/compost.

So what about fertilising straight into the trunk? Overkill? Comments? Thoughts? Thanks...
 
No fertilizer. That basswood looks dead based on the fact its still holding leaves. Or do they pop off easy with a light pull? What's the soil like? 10 minutes once a week seems far too little. Slow soaks a few times a week if the soil doesn't hold much moisture.
 
Whats up Jeff! Soil seems like lots of clay, hold water well. The problem is this is a 700 acres proprety and the 100 transplanted trees are scattered around with no real access to a building. So they are being watered with a spray tank behind a tractor. Going back tomorrow to blow off some dirt!!!
 
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