To the best of my knowledge, 'Duraheat' is a relatively new cultivar, so not too many people would have long term knowledge of it. I only know, that I am aware of, 2 people who have planted it, and would say that their experience was similar to yours, but am not positive - they weren't my trees, and I only saw them at wide intervals. As well as watering - make sure to let the ground dry out a little inbetween waterings, as too much water can be as bad as too little - if you haven't mulched, I would do so. I'm sure you know the procedure, but...., no more than 4" deep, as wide as possible, and no mulch in the 2-4" next to the trunk. And yes, you probably already knew all this, but sometimes it takes a reminder to actually DO it, or sometimes to even think about it for your own plantings...

I am located in Northeastern OK. we are considered to be on the boundry between USDA zones 6b and 7. The first two years these originally planted bareroot 6 foot tall trees experienced severe droughts. The trees are planted in water packed silty loam soil in a low spot on my vacant lot. The water table is pretty high in that area and rain runoff collects on the surface in that area when we have heavy and/or soaking rains. Other than that, I have no piped in or well water access on the lot, so they have had to survive on whatever rains fell. As you can imagine they really stuggled. Earlier this year, they leafed out nicely and seemed to be turning the corner, until the Easter freeze hit; after they had already leafed out. They were not strong enough to handle the hit, and each of their single trunks died back significantly. The trunks were only about two inches thick at the time. Since the green just under the bark was only about 3 feet up after the freeze damage, I cut the trunks of the two worst damaged ones down to just above the root flare. The one in between those two seemed stronger so I only cut it back to about two feet above the ground. Later that middle one's trunk died, but a new trunk grew up out of the tree's rootball. Now my single trunked Birch tree is about 4 feet tall, and I have not pruned away any of the leaf growth to leg it up. For the two other birches, the ones I had cut back to just above the root flare. They turned into clumps and each regrew three healthy and strong growing trunks. Currently those trunks have grown to about 3 feet tall, and both trees look more like a shrub than a tree, since I have not done any leg clean pruning of the leaves on them either. All spring and even now into summer our area has received heavy and frequent rains; along with many overcast sky days. Our area is just south of the tragic flooding events that recently occured in Northern OK and Southern KS. We are also quite a ways north of the tragic flooding which has recently occured in central and southern OK and northern Texas. The point I am trying to make, is that these birch trees for the first time since they have been planted have not been stressed by drought, but they have been growing in 2- 4 inch deep standing water for extended periods this Spring and Summer. Due to the wet year we are having, I expect the trees to grow to at least 6 feet tall again, before they go dormant when I plan to transplant the two. My question? Is it reasonable for me to think I can move these two trees into pots and not kill the remaining one. I want to over winter the ones I transplant to pots that I plan to bury in the ground. Then just prior to them breaking dormancy in the spring I want to replant them into their landscape spots which will have supplimental watering access. As for my original post's intended question: since birch trees have more of a surface growing root pattern, will there be any purpose to root prune the two I want to move? If so, when would be the best time to do that?

if you are wondering if 'topping' the tree will benefit the tree ... the answer is no ... on new transplants ... all i want is it to live the first few years ... you just need to give it some time.. to start growing.. like it should.. and then let it become what it is .... if the tree does not have a dense canopy.. no amount of pruning is going to make for a healthy dense canopy ... you might make it denser.. but you run the risk of doing so to its detriment .... but mostly .. it just needs some time ... water deeply .. and infrequently .. it should not have lost leaves in drought in its transplant year .. or next year.. up the water a bit.. and make sure the water is getting down into the root zone ... but dont drown the thing ... let it nearly dry in between .... there are rules for trimming birch.. to avoid birch borer spread ... should you wish to ignore the suggestion to let your babe grow up a bit first ... good luck ken

I can't tell you how Duraheat (what a lousy name) compares with Heritage in FL, but I can comment on them in TN. I have a planting of 7, 3 Heritage and 4 Duraheat. They are about 6-8 years from liners. Both have white bark, the D. more white and less flakey than the H. The foliage on D is slightly smaller, darker green and more glossy than H. H is somewhat taller than D. D is more dense and twiggier than H, and I think more formal in appearance. Fall color is not a strong suit with river birch, but D has a little more than H, and I believe holds its foliage better in dry times. During the Easter freeze of '07, the temps dropped to the mid teens and both were in almost full leaf, D lost about 25 percent of its wood, in fact one tree was killed almost to the ground. It has since regrown, it looks like a slingshot. H lost no wood. If late FREEZES are common where you are, that may be something to consider. As far as how D will look when mature, I don't know. I would guess it will hold its white bark better than H. I believe along with its heat tolerance it was touted as having bark similar to paper birch.