These are citrus, imo not a great time of year to move them. I don’t like to disturb them in late winter after harvest, and in early spring they are putting on new growth and flowers. As others have mentioned they are likely to root along the mulched trunk, they don’t seem to be bothered by their slightly deep planting. The one peach is on year 4 or 5 without any issues, I just have to pull back the mulch from the trunk. As deeply as I mulch for sure I would have ran into doing this anyhow, since the peach was the first planting; therefore the grade is now much higher than I began with.
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I misunderstood your situation. It doesn’t appear you have a problem to begin with. I’ve often dealt with trees planted in poor drainage situations and I thought that was what we were talking about. I’m not sure what help you needed in the first place- maybe just to know citrus are capable of rooting above their grafts, which most of the varieties-species I grow cannot reliably do. I haven’t grown citrus since I left CA 45 years ago and only grew one Washington navel, on a dwarfing rootstock, even then. I was at the base of a coastal canyon where citrus was challenged by winter frosts.
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I wasn’t asking for help, simply using my mistakes as an example for “it’s not the end of the world if you plant too deep”. For sure if drainage was an issue it would be a different situation in which losing a year or two of growth or fruit would certainly be worth transplanting higher above grade. I didn’t understand that was the issue they were having, however if that is indeed the case, I definitely defer to your judgement.
Here we can get a 5” downpour and have no water standing within minutes, so drainage is one issue I won’t be contending with. That said planting high is always the way to go imo, unless you’re planting something like tomatoes and you just want a more vigorous root system. However even then I’ve seen people experiment with same size plants planted high and deep and the end result seemed very similar so who knows if that helps long term with tomatoes. I tend to do it out of habit in hopes that it will help them with windy days.
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I know the feeling in other areas I was always wary of some advice. I live in an area where the top soil is better than any top soil you could buy. We don’t need amendments, the trees grow very well in native clay loam. I dig holes to harvest our top soil, and fill it with bagged top soil as the native soil is so much better. I like to mound trees, so need more soil. I have seen girdling in pots, and have observed the bathtub effect with my own eyes. Change the grade of soil and the water will stop.
So I tend to think the guy nailed what happened, but you have to go by your own gut.
I love Farmer Fred’s rules of gardening. One is “Everything you know is wrong”.
As far as the bathtub effect, I go back to an old Star Trek quote “You can’t change the laws of physics”. This is reason enough, whether roots girdle or not.
Purdue University
Cooperative Extension Service
https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/BP/BP-31.html
Improper planting . One of the most common causes of plant root failure is “wet feet” caused by improper soil amendments–the “bathtub effect.”
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I’ve moved a lot of trees in the last couple of years for various reasons. I planted around 8 or so bare root plum and apple trees in an area near the beach where the soil was very sandy. All were planted with the root crown at ground level. I did add some, but not very much amendments. These trees all did very poorly, after several seasons I relocated all of them. I have also moved a pear tree over 15 years old twice in the last 4 years.
All of these experiences have taught me that on my property I need to put down a root barrier to stop other roots from choking small trees while getting established. I then build a mound at least a foot to a foot and a half high of quality soil. The trees I planted in mounds are doing much better than the trees I originally planted at ground level. Mound higher than you think you need, because the tree can settle quite a bit over the years.
Don’t be afraid to move trees IMO, as long as the tree is dormant it should be fine.
Then consider my responses addressed to Frank whose query I was answering in the first place based on the title of the topic. I get confused when threads get pretty long.
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