cacau

We need to relocate five or six trees around 2 to 3 in. dbh and 12 to 15 ft. tall on a campus. A tree spade is being brought in to do the job, not sure what size spade offhand, maybe around 40 in. Trees are Juglans cinerea, J. nigra, Parrotia persica, Pterocarya x rehderiana, and Hibiscus syriaca. Soil will be the same where they'll go in as where they'll come out; fair amount of clay, neutral to slightly alkaline. My question regards preparation of the new planting holes to encourage better/faster regrowth of severed lateral roots. Is it typical for contractors to use the spade to create the planting hole and then drop the plug with the removed tree right into it without doing any "roughing up" or soil decompaction at the new site? This would seem to be contrary to usual recommendations for planting B&B or container stock. Anyone have any general guidelines for site preparation in situations like this?

Cacau