Will you help me save a cherry tree from a chainsaw?
It’s on the path to being cut down, maybe in a month or less, to relieve pressure it’s putting against a retaining wall that has already cracked.
I hope to find someone who can attempt to transplant the tree to a new location with more space for it. And perhaps someone else, if needed, who can offer that space.
The tree is big, mature. It’s in Marin County, north of San Francisco. I’m administering an estate that includes the house where the tree stands, in the back, already cramped, overlooking a swimming pool.
House renovations will begin soon, and they will very likely include removing this monument to foresight and patience.
Do you happen to know the right someone?
I need advice: how else to publicize this matter? I think I should talk to the county’s agricultural extension. And to local nurseries and garden clubs. But where else?
Maybe some here would share this on their social-media accounts?
If you moved it ( or try to move it) I believe it would be very, very expensive. Sometimes re-transplanted items may not do very well after the trees are moved, lots of root disruption. IMO
The rootball alone will weigh as much as a car. I am not sure, but could attempting to move it cause even more damage to the wall? It will also send up suckers for a while from the stump. One of those suckers could be left to live and grow back into a tree.
The only way to do that save, as a move, is cut and paste onto a new root stock. Graft and go for another life as a baby tree,
That tree has probably already cracked the swimming pool, and attempting to move it certainly would. Unless the swimming pool is also scheduled to be removed, you’d be looking at a huge damage situation.
I read that cherry trees have shallow roots. I thought if the branches were heavily trimmed, this one could be moved. In its spot, it’s quite cramped, without the room to have created a large root system near the soil surface.
To ltilton’s idea that the roots may have cracked the pool, I have, since this photo, partially drained it and have not seen that yet, above the now-lower water line.
I should repeat, for clarity, this is not my house, but part of an estate I am tasked with liquidating.
I am sorry, it sounds like you are rather attached to this particular cherry tree. If it is a sentimental attachment (family member, etc.) the best way for this tree to live on in perpetuity would be to graft scion from this tree onto a suitable rootstock and plant it elsewhere.
There are likely cherry varieties in today’s offerings that produce better tasting fruit, a larger volume of fruit or with less insect/disease pressure than this old tree does, so the only reason to preserve a piece of this history is going to be something out of the norm, but this tree is not a suitable candidate for transplantation, only for removal.
What concerns me is your statement about the estate. If you have a fiduciary responsibility to the estate, then spending large sums to relocate the tree, with the possibility of collateral damage in the process, could possibly violate this.
From the statement “I’m administering an estate” I began wondering if they are a family member instead of a court-appointed trustee. For me that seems extra plausible with the attachment to this particular tree, one which I would not hesitate to simply cut to the ground since I am a dispassionate outsider. The statement “killers coming for my cherry tree” (emphasis added) also suggests a feeling of possession.
As others have said, propagation is the only practical means of preserving this tree, which obviously has sentimental value to you. If you do not know how to graft (not hard to learn), your county extension agent, local gardening clubs, etc. can possibly help you in this regard. So yes, do talk with them, if you want to go this route. Also, some nurseries will perform custom grafting for a fee.
If the tree were on its own roots (if, for instance, it were a seedling) then any suckers it produced would be clones that could be transplanted; but it is most likely grafted (most cherries—including ornamentals—are) and any suckers are likely rootstock. There appears to be a tangled mass of trunks coming from near soil level, so it’s hard to tell what we’re looking at; there is no clearly discernible graft union. It could well be mostly (or all) rootstock at this point. Do you know what sort of cherry it is?
Hypothetically, if you could pick the tree up and move it to another location and not do any damage to the tree and it would continue to grow as nothing happened, you would still have a big chore and years of regrowth getting this tree into shape where it is healthy and looks esthetically good. It looks as if it has never been pruned.
Like everyone else have said, if it has some special meaning just clone it, grafting ,air layer, or getting a root sucker and start over fresh.
Another option, if you really want to save it, dig up a good sized root. You can plant it, then take a cutting from the top of the tree and graft it directly to the root. I’ve never tried this with cherries, but it has worked with jujubes in the past. That should let you make as many copies of this tree as you would like, as long as you are willing to dig up some of the roots. That will be a bit of work, but nowhere near as much work as transplanting the entire tree.
The only reason the tree is being cut down is to prevent further damage to the wall. Any attempts to remove the tree with its roots will destroy the wall. To me, this ends the discussion.
I appreciate the continued discussion, and the specific ideas. I’m absorbing the strong drift of your considered replies as they go on, in one voice.
Yes, I am related to the owners who died. This was my aunt’s home, but I didn’t know she had any cherry trees until I noticed the fruit months ago. So my feelings for this tree were not from any sentimental memories.
As you can guess, I’m not an experienced gardener or fruit grower. I seem to miss a correct sense of what is precious. I assumed a 50-year-old fruit tree was a grand achievement, a thing to be protected.
The house was built in 1972, according to an insurance agent’s database. This is Northern California, north of San Francisco. Would the planters of this tree likely have bought it from a local nursery? Meaning it would be a common commercial variety of the time and maybe nothing rare?
To JeremiahT’s (and maybe BobVance’s) post: is root stock of the same fruit type but a different variety? In answer to JeremiahT, I don’t know the type of cherry. Is there a practical way to discover this?
In a row with this tree are other cherry trees, one large and two or three young ones. I hadn’t known these were cherries too until they all began blooming, two weeks ago or so. The other large tree is probably set to be removed also.
Given that this tree is growing right against the retaining wall despite space available further back, I suspect no one planted it. It most likely grew from a seed in that spot, or sprouted from a root of one of the other cherries nearby. The multi-trunk growth makes it look thicker, but there’s a very good chance this tree is much younger than the 50 year age that has been estimated.
Actually, now that I think about it, the density of trunks actually points toward a likelihood that this tree was cut down in a past attempt to remove it, thus resulting in all the suckers which re-grew into the congested cluster of trunks seen now.
The bark looks more like plum bark than cherry bark because I don’t see the usual wide horizontal lenticels. Is is possible that it produces small red plums instead of cherries?
