Tips For Collecting Trees

Solaris

Shohin
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I've read conflicting information about collecting deciduous trees - some are saying to treat them as gently as possible, others are saying that you can basically chop it down to a trunk. Being as I'm about to start on collecting unwanted landscaping plants (with permission, of course!), what are your suggestions?

I'll have to do the work in a matter of hours; I won't be able to turn it into a prolonged project, because these folks want these plants gone and I doubt they'll look kindly on turning what was supposed to be something quick and easy into an ordeal. Most of these plants are more or less unidentified as I haven't been out to the properties yet. I'm mainly in it for the practice (and a rose bush, what with falling ice having killed my wife's), but if someone has an unexpectedly good piece of urban-dori tucked away I don't want to kill it with an easily corrected mistake. Right now, I'm planning on lifting them with as much of the intact root as practical, tucking them into garbage bags to take home, and then cleaning them off to replace the dirt with something better once I get home. It's still second winter here and nothing has budded out yet, which means that evaporative losses will be minimized, so I think that I can get away with not meticulously extracting every fine root from the planting site. I'm also going to be grabbing some bags of topsoil from Home Depot to fill the holes back in, 'cause it's never a bad idea to not be a dick.
 

JosephCooper

Shohin
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Your plan will probably work, most deciduous trees can take abuse like that, as long as you have plenty of feeder roots.
 

TN_Jim

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Agree with Joseph, sounds like you’re on the right track. I just transplanted/relocated six large shrubs from the back and side of the house to the front, and these MUST live!...suggest these things..

The time you think it will take, double it

Don’t break your shovel, dig deeper.

Have small hand/camp saw

*Trench from way out, then dig under till it falls over.

Learned real quick that shoving dirt into my daughters wagon, rather than the grass, made the world a much better place from several aspects ..wheelbarrow would have been nice.

Maybe have a jug of water on hand to douse after bagged -roots dry out quickly, even while still digging..and I didn’t have to drive/transport

..been watering daily, so far so good

Happy digging
 

WNC Bonsai

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A battery powered reciprocating saw with a long pruning blade helps a lot in cutting through tap roots and even big lateral roots. I have just sawed around the circumference of the desied root ball, tipped the plant a bit and inserted the saw blade under the plant to sever the tap root(s). I find I have to use a new saw blade each time as they dull fast in the sandy loam soil here, plus there are small rocks in the soil.
 

BrianBay9

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The care I've taken usually depends on how important that tree is to me. If it's something special, I'd collect a lot of roots and a big root ball, knowing I'll have to deal with the weight and work of reducing the root ball later. If it's an experiment, I might cut it flat on the bottom right away to make life easier later, if it survives.

It also depends on the species. Some things I know will take a lot of abuse and thrive, so why not cut back hard.
 

Solaris

Shohin
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When I was in nineteen and in my early twenties, I used to be able to dig a three foot by two foot by two foot hole in permafrost in about thirty seconds, and then do it again - while wearing full battle-rattle (about fortyish pounds of body armor, if I recall correctly - it took me a while to figure out we didn't need those stupid plates while we were emplacing the howitzers). I prided myself on how quickly I could do that, and on the fact that I could pretty much do that for eight hours a day. (Aside? Emplacement drills suck.)

I am no longer able to dig like I used to. Jesus tap-dancing Christ, I can't dig like I used to.

The first plant was a rose bush. That one came up pretty easily. The other plant was this giant monster of an overgrown burning bush that will be my go-to example for "biting off more than you can chew", because after about three-four hours I still had only gotten six-seven inches through that tangled mass of roots, suckers, and runners with the end nowhere in sight. Tomorrow I'm buying a reciprocating saw like @Cofga suggests and finishing the job.

I did this for the learning and experience. What I've learned is that burning bushes are the devil.

I hack them back hard at collection.

With this burning bush? I will hack the shit out of it out of spite. It will probably survive out of spite, too.
 

TN_Jim

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With this burning bush? I will hack the shit out of it out of spite. It will probably survive out of spite, too.[/QUOTE]

I forgot to mention. After digging around this crepe myrtle that was right in the corner of the house/porch..too many years of shade and close gutter..only could get leverage from two sides --I tried to pull this beast out in low gear easy, and 5000 lb. strap snapped, whipped back, and luckily just broke my running light. This one took me nearly half the day. The rest were dominoes.

This spring/winter trying to find good wild trees I have sometime thought, fuck..in it for real right here, rocky mangle awkward shit.. how to proceed, definitely cant not stop now...Shrubs around the house, no match. I like to sit on the ground and dig against my weight rather than gravity after Tuesday.
 

Solaris

Shohin
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This vine honeysuckle is probably the best one I've collected thus far (the rest are just little babies or clumps of bushes). I rather like that hollow it has on the bottom there. If I didn't kill it, I'm thinking maybe doing a cascade with it.

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Solaris

Shohin
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You killed the honeysuckle?

I don't think I'm that lucky. It had a new bud growing in the back, by the stuff that's actually alive. That thing wasn't there when I collected it.
But it's still too early to tell. I only just abducted the weed a couple of days ago.
 
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