Moving Dwarf Weeping Willow

Mouseylocks

Looking for some gardening advice...I have a beautiful dwarf weeping willow (at least I think that's what it is) or maybe its a Kilmarnock weeping willow, in my back garden. It's at least 15years old and about 2 metres tall and a 1.5 metres wide. I want to move the tree as we are extending our home over it. Is this possible? We will have a mini digger on site in the next few weeks. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. it has just started to bud if that makes a difference.

looksee

Well if its going to be buried anyway its worth a try. Willow is tough enough anyway. If the guy with the digger is handy he could probably make the best job of lifting the whole thing with a good scoop of earth and drop it in a ready-made (he could probably do it ) hole, loads of water, cover back soil, see what happens.

Mouseylocks

So if we dug around the tree and then just had the minidigger dig up the tree and roots in one go and then replant? Would you know how deep the new hole for the tree would have to be? when you say loads of water do you mean put lots of water in the hole before we put the tree in? Sorry i'm not in anyway green fingered..but i'd really like to save the tree if at all possible :-)

looksee

Look I really don't know a great deal about moving willows with diggers, but you could either get very complicated about it, or you could chance your arm as I usually do and just go for the best root ball possible (start it by digging a trench if you wish) and putting it into a hole as deep as it has come out of. Pour some water into the hole (depending on how dry the soil is, a bucketful will do if it is as wet as now) when the tree is in place, it helps settle the small roots into the soil, then fill up the hole again. Cut some length (the newest growth) off the branches so that it puts its energy into settling the roots rather than trying to keep new leaves alive. If there are no leaves then don't worry about it.

You can get new willow trees by pushing relatively old willow sticks into the ground, that's how enthusiastic they are to grow, so your chances are good!

macraignil

looksee wrote: »

Well if its going to be buried anyway its worth a try. Willow is tough enough anyway. If the guy with the digger is handy he could probably make the best job of lifting the whole thing with a good scoop of earth and drop it in a ready-made (he could probably do it ) hole, loads of water, cover back soil, see what happens.

looksee wrote: »

Look I really don't know a great deal about moving willows with diggers, but you could either get very complicated about it, or you could chance your arm as I usually do and just go for the best root ball possible (start it by digging a trench if you wish) and putting it into a hole as deep as it has come out of. Pour some water into the hole (depending on how dry the soil is, a bucketful will do if it is as wet as now) when the tree is in place, it helps settle the small roots into the soil, then fill up the hole again. Cut some length (the newest growth) off the branches so that it puts its energy into settling the roots rather than trying to keep new leaves alive. If there are no leaves then don't worry about it.

You can get new willow trees by pushing relatively old willow sticks into the ground, that's how enthusiastic they are to grow, so your chances are good!

Sounds like good advice to me but I have experience of moving trees that have been in the one place for a while and they did not thrive after the move. If growing in the one place long term trees send roots out far into the soil around them and then moving them means they loose a lot of their roots in one go. Tree nurseries move their trees regularly as they are maturing or use specialist root pruning machinery to trim the roots as the trees get bigger. This encourages more roots to develop close to the tree and so makes the whole moving process more likely to work. If you had more time before the move you can, I have read, dig around one side of the tree one year to prune back the roots on that side and follow that the following year by trimming the roots back on the other side but I'm guessing it is too late for that now.

The move is much more likely to work if it can be done before the leaves start to sprout. The bucket on a mini digger is usually not very big so discuss the move with the digger driver and see if they have any experience of root balling trees. In this process the tree roots are wrapped in a hessian and chicken wire ball to keep the whole lot together during the move. You may then be able to take much more roots than just one scoop of a mini digger bucket but it depends what the carrying capacity of the mini digger is. Some mini diggers are smaller than others. I remember moving bigger root balled trees with just a sling around the trunk. This could be a bit too labour intensive and you could just take a chance of doing something simpler. I think there is a chance that either way a newly bought young tree prepared for being moved might in a short time settle into the new position better and look better more quickly, but I would also see how there could be a sentimental attachment to the tree you want to move so why not try it?

looksee

I do think it depends on the tree to a large extent. I have ruthlessly torn up and moved mature tree/shrubs and I can't think that I ever lost one. Having said that I only do it to plants that I know don't mind being hacked around, buddleia, honeysuckle, solanum, cotoneaster, roses, leycestaria are some that I recall.

macraignil

looksee wrote: »

I do think it depends on the tree to a large extent. I have ruthlessly torn up and moved mature tree/shrubs and I can't think that I ever lost one. Having said that I only do it to plants that I know don't mind being hacked around, buddleia, honeysuckle, solanum, cotoneaster, roses, leycestaria are some that I recall.

That list includes some fairly resilient plants alright. Completely agree it depends on the tree. Even with the same type of tree they can react very differently to being moved. I have a couple of oak trees growing next to each other and just noticed again today how the one that was planted as a three foot young sapling has overtaken another oak that I moved from where it was growing self seeded in a ditch. It was never going to grow to a proper tree where it was growing next to some mature beech and hawthorn. The one I moved was probably 7 or 8 years old and over 2 metres in height but the roots had spread a lot when it was growing in the same spot and it did not take the move very well. The sapling that was planted a year or 2 later at half the height is now the bigger and healthier looking tree.

recedite

There's a very high chance of success if you do it in the next week or so.
Most of the soil will probably fall away from the root ball, but try to get as much of the roots as possible, even though some will be cut by the digger.
This is where the digger is useful because its really a bit too big to lift by hand.
Key to success is watering afterwards, and regular watering in the first summer after transplanting.



Stick a few cuttings in damp ground somewhere, just in case the main plant dies. They grow easily enough if planted now.