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Digging up saplings in my yard

last year

Hubs and I are moving from a home surrounded by trees to a new home about 20 miles away on an acre lot that is former farmland, that is, not a tree one on my lot. We close likely in December on the new home and are hoping to close on current home around the same time.

i would like to collect saplings from our yard to transplant to our new lot.

My question is how best to collect and preserve these samplings from our yard before the yard guys come and mow them down. we have, as far as i have been to identify: White Oak, Yellow Poplar, Red Maple,Ash and some kind of birch. i was thinking of taking 3-5’ saplings, dig up a big rootball and immediatly insert into damp mix in a 10 gallon container. does that soud reasonable? what kind of mix? should i store in a garage or under the deck?

Any thoughts appreciated.

Featured Answer

beesneeds

last year

Yes, you can dig them up now and pot them up. Use a potting or container mix. I would keep them in the garage if thats the warmer spot than under the deck. You can probably get away with smaller pots like 5 gallon or buckets with holes punched in them. Think about when you see potted trees for sale in the spring, those often come in 2 gallon nursery pots- I've sometimes seen small saplingings in one gallon pots. Right now I got 20 or so junipers in gallons that I dug up a month or two ago- but those are only around a foot tall.

I would hold your saplings till spring planting. You are going to be busy moving in and settling in during the tail end of winter. Take that time to make you landscaping plans and plant the trees in nice and right where you want them.

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Comments (7)

krnuttle
last year
While what you are suggesting is a valid way of getting trees on your lot, it will take years before any of them produce shade.

I would recommend that you buy a could of trees that are as large as you can afford and plant them strategically around the house.

Fill in with a large shrubs like Lilac, Azaleas, forsythia etc (depending on where you live)
momdino thanked krnuttle
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
last year
A geographical location would help. In my climate, for example, you could dig up the trees and replant immediately even in mid winter. I think using your own small saplings is a great idea. They will establish fast and grow away quickly. Large trees give instant height but small trees catch up. And they are free. If you can't replant immediately you can bare root them and bundle them all up together in burlap. Again, depending on your climate you could store them damp and cool for weeks as long as they don’t freeze.
momdino thanked floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
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laceyvail 6A, WV
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Small trees properly planted and mulched will outstrip large trees in 5 years.
momdino thanked laceyvail 6A, WV
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
last year
location.. big city name... else we can not give valid advice ...

i presume the issue is.. they need to own the new lot before they will be allowed to dig holes .. eh??

pot them up.. and plant them either in winter or spring.. where ever you may be ...

once dormant.. and presuming small.. you can put a couple in every pot.. just to hold them ...

how about a pic or two of the size trees you are thinking about ... with a scale ..

ken
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
last year
last modified: last year
on reread.. i would suggest 3 footers.. dont bother with bigger ... more stress on you and the trees ...

once dormant.. this is how you can do it ... and do as i say. not the size in the pic.. lol ...

in my MI.. oct is the same as april ...

ken
momdino thanked ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
momdino
Original Author
last year
Thanks all. we are in the piedmont of North Carolina, right on the edge of zone 8. knuttle, appreciate the suggestions for fillers. definitely need flowering shrubs, smaller trees, tec etc. Floral, lacey, exactly what I was thinking! Ken, thanks for the instructions. you are correct in that we cant plant til we close, so we need to hold onto for a couple of months.

example pic, about this size.

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