This is very helpful. Thanks for the detailed reply.
Glad your trees all made it, and not surprising that they got knocked off kilter for a year or two. I started a new orchard 3 years ago and moved two trees. The Honeycrisp fruited second season after moving, and the Contender has yet to fruit (but peaches are challenging here). I used a wheelbarrow and tried to keep as much soil on the rootball as possible. It was very heavy and wouldn’t work for any longer moves.
1 Like
“Where I live, part of the race is getting above the deer browse line and I also train my trees to support squirrel and coon baffles which requires a straight, branchless trunk for about the first 5’ of the tree.”
because I’m in town and have fences which let the critters come in from the top, and no deer, I have not had any issues either with shrubs that I replant this way- my bayberry were 4 or 5 when I moved them this way and they took off again the following year. the native plums were a few years old and I washed out as much roots as I could get, then plunked them in, in the fall, and they flowered this year (they’ve never fruited). I am moving an apple tree this year that’s about 4 years old and I plan to leave it alone up top too, that logic of the wood having energy in it- I’ll prune next fall after it gets settled in I think? all of my trees are opposite to yours, I want them short and busy and reachable by me.
I didn’t read the summary ai part but hearing your experience helps. I’m going to read a bit of his research for myself too now.