Mark,

We often dig up seedlings from parts of our heavily wooded acreage and transplant them to the landscape area around our house, which is essentially an old cow pasture and, thus, lacking in trees.

We prefer to dig and transplant them in the dormant season, which is roughly from mid-November to mid-February here in southern Oklahoma. We have dug and transplanted mainly oaks, persimmons and redbuds the last few years.

With oaks, we dig them when the trees are 12" to 18" tall and have a root system that is almost as deep. Using a spade, we dig as deeply as we can and try to get as much of the root system as possible. As soon as we dig one, we put it in a 5 gallon bucket with lots of water and then carry it directly to a pre-dug hole. We plant the tree, taking care to set it at the same level in the soil at which it was previously growing. We water it in and then make sure to keep it well-watered for the first three years. After that, the trees are well-established and don't get any supplemental watering.

With persimmons and Mexican plums, we try to move them while they are a foot tall or less since they seem to resent being transplanted a little more than the oaks do.

With redbuds, we have transplanted them from deep in the woods to the edge of the woods, but not into the lawn area itself. We moved them when they were between 2 and 4 feet and, obviously, we didn't get all the root ball of trees that size, but did the best we could.

I have never tried to transplant pecan, maple or elm, because they come up everywhere on their own and I actually spend time removing them (by mowing over them if they come up in the yard or pulling them up by hand if they come up in the veggie garden or flower bed) when they sprout somewhere they shouldn't. They should transplant about as well as the others though.

With native pecan trees that come up in the veggie garden (because there is a very large native pecan tree near the veggie garden), I have noticed that they will have a deep taproot (at least 10-12" deep) even when they are only a few inches tall. So, if transplanting them, be prepared to dig really deep to get all that taproot.

We are in our ninth year here, and first transplanted oaks from the woods seven years ago. Some of those oaks, which were only a foot at the time, are now in excess of 15 feet tall, which I consider excellent growth since we have been through several severe drought years during that time. Often, newly transplanted trees will not show much growth above the ground the first 2 or 3 years, but they are busy making roots and getting established. Once they start putting out growth, watch out! They get pretty big pretty fast.

I prefer planting tiny trees to planting larger trees purchased in containers from the nursery because the tiny trees have root systems that are equal to their top growth whereas the containerized trees often have way too much top growth in comparison to the small amount of roots in, say, a ten-gallon container.

By the way, deer often roam through our rural yard, especially in the winter time, and often step on and break very small trees. To help prevent this from happening, I often put a tomato cage around the trees to prevent the deer from stepping on them and breaking them, and I leave that cage around then until they are 5 or 6 feet tall.

Good luck,

Dawn

I am pretty sure I have some maple trees that started in my flowerbeds last year. They are getting leaves all over the stem and the stem is green. Is this a tree or a nasty weed?