picea abies large specimen??

sawsong

hi guys

My aunt died about a month and a half ago and since she loved christmas so much, my uncle has requested we plant a 'christmas tree' by our lake where we are going to put the ashes. this can be any time between now and christmas dependant on ideal planting time.

with it being a memorial tree, and ideally one of some great impact, on its merit of its suitability to be transplanted, I have so far selected the traditional christmas tree, Norway Spruce, picea abies.

My question to you guys, is where to get a particularly large specimen from. There are a couple of suitable plantations owned by neighbouring farmers from which I may be able to acquire one if theyre big enough. Transporting a larger tree, with trailers up to 14 tonnes would be no problem but I cant see me finding anything above 15-18 feet tall.

In preparation for transplanting, Is it correct that I would have to begin root pruning and wrapping the root ball some months before to increase viability?

Any input you can give me is much appreciated. This has to be done well,

fairly well drained sandy soil by the way.

I also considered noble fir (abies procera) as it looks a little nicer at full maturity, but have discounted it due to the availability of the picea abies locally.

I also looked into buying a heavy standard in, but price being a limiting factor, I would rather invest time in preparing a viable transplant candidate myself!

all help gratefully received!

Robert STAVROU

Afternoon,
don't know your area, but you get in touch with Dave Evans, Jeremy Barrell or Mike Elison for advice (have meet all three in Australia or NZ and all seemed like good people) Seem to recall that Jeremy had a nursery (maybe in nearby France)

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STAV

Eric Frei

Sawsong, are you saying you might be able to extract one and transplant it yourself from a neighbouring farm etc?

If so it would be a great little project I'm sure we'd all be able to contribute.

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sawsong

Yep that's exactly what I'm getting at.

Id like to think it would be a great little project, and im incredibly eager to learn the best way to do it, or moreover the way that will give the tree the very best chance.

so far ive considered three methods that have been suggested to me

method one: tree spade - not appropriate at all due to cost

method two: creating a 6foot root ball, wrapping by hand etc. could definitely do with more info on this re: timescales etc

method three: uncover entire root system to 6foot+ diameter, carefully remove tree, lower into appropriately sized hole and recover, best time to do this being late november by all accounts. (this from a guy who used to rent christmas trees to schools on an annual basis)

By all accounts picea abies takes to transplanting very well. We do not suffer spruce aphid problems locally either. The alternative is of course planting a 5ft specimen which may reach 15foot in 5 years time, but I would hope that if done right, planting a 15 footer now, it will continue its growth cycle almost straight away, perhaps with one dormant year.

Basically im scared of having the wrath of my entire family if the thing dies!

Eric Frei

A 15' one, what DBH is it.

Can you get some pictures of the real thing perhaps.

What is the soil like? heavy, light, loam, clay etc?

Tree spade is maybe the fastest and cheapest but lets see if best.

It's gonna cost either way, with the spade they can take a empty spade load out (plug) and drop the tree in that hole, and drop the plug where they got the tree from.

Just rough it up when the plug gets pulled out, no glazed sides, have some sandy loam ready too so you can wash it in.

with the ones I was watching on a golf course this week they did tear the roots a bit though and you wouldn't get much opportunity to cut and treat them nice. Maybe cutting them in advance just smaller than the spade would be best. I'd suggest lots of pre-treatment to get masses of roots within that spade diameter healthy.

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sawsong

15' will probably have a trunk at low level of approx 7 inches. If you could indulge me and explain DBH to me, I would be most obliged. I see it batted around a lot but dont fully understand it.

I suppose it is using the 10:1 ratio that is the theory behind requiring a 6foot root ball.

Tree spade might be easiest, but not necessarily most practical. For one thing, in the (what I affectionately call arse end of nowhere) otherwise known as lincolnshire, they are very hard and expensive to come by to gain their services.

I will endeavor to photograph likely specimens tomorrow. Basically It's a field owned by a neighbouring farmer that was grown up for christmas trees. He quickly lost interest, and in the years to follow, the trees have been left much to their own devices. they are however quite generously spaced.

ground is light and pretty well drained, which I understand is ideal for the picea abies. I had as i say considered Noble Fir (abies procera??) as it is slightly better looking, but the fact it likes a heavier soil put me off, as well as there not being a plantation of them within half a mile.

I shall get photos of the trees, of the planting location, and anything else you can think of tomorrow thanks for all your help so far

fosheezy

G'day sawsong, i just recently had a lecture/seminar by Gordon Ikin, pretty much one of the top dogs in the New Zealand transplanting biz.

Probably the most important point he made was about the way text books preach root severence well in advance to the transplant to promote root growth within the root-ball. When this is done roots must re-grow from energy stores, often beyond the initial severence border, so when transplanting occurs, roots are severed again. This method of stressing a tree twice makes no sence. (may be a useful method for monocots such as palms but thats a different story)

Gordon's approach is to have the tree fully planted out in its new position as quickly as possible from the time the first root is cut (usually 1 day). Minimal disturbance of the root ball is critical - cut exposed roots with a sharp saw, and wrap with any material (preferably porous) however cling-wrap seems to be one of the best materials for root balls.

sorry i'll have to end it there it's getting late and i've lost my train of thought... just remember when your lifting don't underestimate the weight of the root ball. I've got some cool pics from a 5m Agathis australis we transplanted so i'll post them up in the next few days.

peace out.