cacau

Thanks for the replies, folks. Roughing up the sides of the planting hole sounds very important in case they get polished from the spading. I wonder how important it would be to do the same with the rootball edges...probably not as much, and the rootball may not be accessible anyway during the transplant until it's dropped in the new hole. I notice nobody has advised enlarging the planting holes laterally to decompact the soil especially in the top 18 inches or so. For six trees that would be a good bit of work, of a type a lot of people don't like to do! In any case, I will be on the lookout for soil subsidence around these transplants over the next three to six months.

Cacau