Colorado Blue Spruce
White Pine
White Spruce
Austrian Pine
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Moving And Transplanting Trees With A Tree Spade
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IMPORTANT: Prior to digging to plant on your property, contact the proper company or municipality for the location of underground utilities such as water, electric, and sewer lines!
Also, locate private lines such as irrigation systems, wiring for landscape lighting, water lines that serve water fountains or ponds, or any other underground lines or obstacles!
Before you start to dig, just pick up your phone and dial 811 for utility public assistance.
Tree spading is a common method for moving and transplanting large trees from one site to another.
The following are some reasons for transplanting large trees vs. younger, smaller trees:
- To prevent the loss of a tree due to building, roadway expansion or other construction
- To create space for a new building addition
- A particular mature tree has outgrown its present location
- To alter the design of a landscape
- To move a tree to a site better suited to its needs
- To create a mature landscape quickly
Initially, transplanting a tree with a tree spade may be more costly than purchasing container stock or B&B trees.
However, the tree spade may be the best option if a tree will otherwise be lost or if the value of the tree outweighs the moving costs.
Spading saves labor, planting time and most importantly, years of maintenance of the juvenile tree.
Spading also results in a clean move with little mess or ground disturbance.
The spade digs the new hole first, then digs the tree and drops it into the new hole for a perfect fit, then drops the plug from the new hole into the old hole... also a perfect fit.
The high cost to move a tree using a tree spade is mainly due to the time and labor of loading, transporting and unloading a medium sized skid steer with a rather large tree spade attached.
Oak and Birch (deciduous) trees can ONLY be moved or transplanted in the spring before the buds break.
Generally most other deciduous trees can be moved before the buds break in the spring or after the leaves start changing colors in the fall.
Evergreens such as spruce and pine (conifer) trees can ONLY be moved or transplanted in the early spring before the buds break or after late August or early September, after the new growth has hardened off.
Tree spades are used in various ways throughout the green industry.
Commercial nurseries use tree spades to lift large, field-grown trees out of the soil, and wrap the root ball in burlap and twine (termed "ball and burlap" or B&B) for retail sale or compact storage.
Landscape companies and arborists use spades to plant large trees that are nursery-grown or have been moved from elsewhere in the landscape.
Landscape professionals use a tree spade to create an "instant landscape" by digging and transplanting large trees from one location to another.
Homeowners can also use spades to locate trees on residential sites.
Trailer-mounted spades that can hold a soil ball up to 44 inches in diameter are available at some rental centers.
However, due to safety issues, and the complexity of the equipment and processes involved, it is strongly recommended that individuals hire an experienced contractor specializing in tree spading to transplant trees.
Our tree spade is a cone blade tree spade.
The cone blade tree spade produces a perfect round root ball that is almost pointed, with a narrow bottom and produces a root ball with sides of 30 degrees.
Although 30-degree baskets can be used in nurseries, root balls on cone blades do not stand as easily as balls produced by truncated or modified blades.
Therefore, most or all nurseries do not use cone blade tree spades to dig, move, or transplant trees, they use the truncated or modified blades to aid in standing the tree in their yard until sold.
Cone blade tree spades are the best option for moving a tree from one location and transplanting it in another for several reasons.
The narrow, pointed bottom of the cone blade produces less resistance than truncated or modified blades, meaning the cone blade can work in the widest variety of soils, from soils that are hard-packed to sandy.
The cone blade digs a longer and deeper leader root compared to the truncated or modified blade.
The cone blade is the best option in sandy soils because it minimizes the amount of soil that spills away from the roots.
When soil comes away from the root, the root is exposed to air and can dry out.
Dry roots create greater stress on the tree and the cone blade lessens this stress significantly.
Cone blades normally slice roots cleaner, limit root air exposure, and dig a deeper leader root than the truncated or modified blades resulting in a less stressed tree when the tree is moved, transplanted or stored.
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