rkru: For what you will spend to hire moving a mature apple tree, you could buy enough new bareroot trees to plant an acre. And there is always the risk the move will not be successful. I don't think anyone would guarantee survival after moving a mature tree. Of course, if price is no object..... If it is the characteristics of this particular tree you are trying to preserve, or it is a variety that is rare or not available, you could take cuttings and try to graft to a size-controlling rootstock. Of course, cuttings would have to be taken in the dormant season. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Well, I'm back. I took pictures of the plumeria forest. I there is no way to bring the plants back in a pickup truck. I took pictures, I had John who is 6ft 3 stand next to the plants, so K and Richard can see how tall they are. These plumeria trees are the same size as the ones they have in the botantical gardens in Corpus. I can't believe they are actually trees. The only problem I saw was the blooms were all at the top of the trees. K will go down weekend after next to look at them, he is looking for plumeria trees. I don't know if Richard will still want them after he seeds how big they are. I know they are too big for me. I bet they are close to 10 years old. Barbra

I was looking at using the four main branches to form four new plants. Sorry if that wasn't clear. Is there a limit to how large air layering or rooting can be? i.e. What's the best I can expect if I attempt to root the four 15-20ft branches? Digging up the roots are going to be near impossible due to how close it is to two palms and and oak tree.

Looks like the drip line area is at least 4 feet in diameter. That's a lot of dirt is you go 3-4 feet down, and will be very heavy. I've tried transplanting citrus that were much smaller, and a 2 foot wide (and 2 foot deep) root ball is hard enough, even wrapped in burlap. 3 feet wide root ball took two people and ramps (to slide it out of the hole). But. avocado roots are different from citrus. From https://www.gardenguides.com/131987-avocado-tree-roots.html: " The root system is relatively shallow, and does not extend far beyond the tree canopy, if it even reaches the edge of the canopy. The roots are primarily thin, fibrous feeder roots.They have no thick, anchoring taproot.". Considering the type of root system, perhaps they wouldn't be a damaging to a sewer pipe as a normal tree would...but I have no experience with avocado tree roots. How deep is the main pipe? My main sewage pipe is about 10 feet (under the canopy) from a large oak tree (30 feet +) and I did find some roots in the pipe once...but the pipe had a large and old crack and I wasn't surprised to find the root in there. It was no big deal to remove it and I just wrapped up the cast iron pipe line and didn't worry about it. There are other large oak roots crossing over and above the pipe (which is about 3 feet down) and I suppose if they were to get a good sniff of something they might send out some new root. But I dug it out again about 3 years after the first time and didn't see any new roots poking around the pipe near my funky repair. Also, In general people recommend cutting back on the tree structure when you are transplanting and losing a lot of the root system.