Need advice on transplanting large weeping conifers

I have the opportunity to buy two 15 year old, 5 foot tall weeping conifers. Not sure of the spread. They are going to be cut down as part of a retaining wall project. The owner wants $40 each. If I buy them, I'm going to hire help to dig them - they have to be dug by hand and moved out of the back yard. Advice? Run for the hills? Here's a link to the ad on craigslist with picture:
http://albany.craigslist.org/grd/1689250258.html

Spring is the best time to move conifers before they start new growth.

It's still cold here, so that's a plus. I visited the trees today. One is 6 feet tall, with a 5.5 foot spread and a 20" circumference trunk. The other is 5.5 feet tall, with a 4.5 foot spread and a 16" circumference trunk. I'm going to talk to the person who is putting in the retaining wall. These are going to require equipment.

You might also look for some burlap to wrap the root ball and nylon rope. It'll take a fair amount of digging and moving will take a few people.

Definitely not a project for a single person. I believe that the rule for digging a root ball is to go wider than the full width of the plant, though for a weeper you might need to go quite a bit wider. Too bad they don't want to reuse those in their own project, they are nice trees.

My advice would be to get as much of the root ball and soil as you can, then get them back in the ground as soon as possible and don't let them dry out this season. Don't overwater either : )

A worthy task to be sure. Go into the project fully knowledgeable so that if failure occurs, it isn't just perceived to be an act of God.

Weeping Norway Spruce is what they look like - Picea abies 'Pendula' or Picea abies 'Reflexa'. There are probably others that are similar named selections.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/118235/
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/76866/

Standard recommendations for digging trees are for 10-12" of rootball diameter per inch of trunk caliper (diameter). With the info you've given (circumference), I've calculated about 6.3" trunk caliper on one and 5.1" trunk caliper on the other. That means you should aim for a rootball diameter of 63-75" (roughly 5-6 feet) on the larger plant, and 51-61" (4-5 feet) on the other.

That's a job for a few people AND equipment. Rootballs are heavy. I've planted many trees 4" caliper up to 14" caliper, and beyond the 6" caliper size it is best done with a crane.

$40.00 apiece sounds great, till you have to move it yourself.

All this said...I first mentioned that you come armed with knowledge. There are always constraints that prohibit best practices at all times, and knowing the limitations starts to set your parameters for success. These plants may be growing in a constricted area where there isn't even enough soil to create the minimum required diameter (such as in a raised bed). There may be shallow depth to rock. Whatever those external issues might be, you should at least know what the target size should be - Before U Dig.

As growin notes, you'll need materials to contain the rootball you dig. For trees that size you'll want:

•burlap and pinning nails
•a wire basket sized to the rootball, or wire fencing that you can cut to the circumference of the rootball you create
•nylon rope or very heavy sisal twine to tie off the basket and support the trunk

By now, you must be just salivating at the prospect of harvesting these beauties and traipsing home with them.

That's a lot of information. Thank you very much everyone. I hope these are worth the work that they will entail. What do you all think?
They are in a raised bed, very close to an inground pool. I hope that there is bedrock at about 3 feet, but I doubt it.
The trees will be dug with equipment and loaded on a trailer we're going to borrow. We'll bring burlap, wire fencing and rope to secure the rootball. We'll wrap the trees. Then the fun begins. We'll have holes dug, supplemented and ready to go before we get the trees. But how do we get the trees from the trailer to the hole? We have a tree cart, but that's not going to work. I have access to 3 strong men. What equipment do I need to rent from the local rental place to move something that large and awkward (not a crane, although my husband likes the idea)?
Salivating isn't the word. Wide eyed panic maybe. I can still walk away....

maybe a forklift?
I don't know. What about the hole left at the guys place, will he expect you to fill it in after taking the trees? What will you do with the 'extra' dirt that you dig out for them?

I think it would be cheaper to just go find a nursery and buy some nice sized trees with a guarantee, they come out and plant them for you even. Why does the guy want $40 for them, if he just going to cut them down anyway?

There is a good chance IMO that they will not make it, you would need to get a lot of roots for them to live, plus they will need staked perhaps the first few years. ?

I just thought of another complicator - DO YOU KNOW WHERE THEIR UTILITIES ARE BURIED? In Iowa we have "one-call", it appears in New York it is called "dig safely" - http://www.digsafelynewyork.com/

You should definitely give them a call before digging anything with equipment. If you hit a gas line, it could be game over.

Aren't you glad you asked : )

Edited to add: according to the "Dig Safely New York" website, April is dig safely month!

This message was edited Apr 15, 2010 9:24 AM

I ditto that, in MO if you damage a utility YOU pay for all costs involved to fix it. And they are hefty expensive.

I found this little "how to" : http://www.treeboss.net/tree_planting.htm . Take a look down this page: http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/uf/treeguidehtm/chapter6.htm for an image - balled and burlapped (B&B) is the term used. http://www.ncsu.edu/jcraulstonarboretum/photography/raulston_slides/raulston_slides_results.php?fullsearch=&box=&slide=&date=&photographer=&country=&usstate=&city=&location=&keywords=&othernotes=&plantnames=&commonnames=&families=&digitized=&plantnameID=106158 shows a few images from the 70's of how it's done on Camellia. If you want I can get a few shots of b&b trees on the loading dock at work as there's quite a few dozen there right now. Once the sides are dug and the tree is movable, tilt it sideways and pull a large piece of burlap under and wrap the tips around the trunk and tie them in-place. Once the burlap is tied around the trunk, this protects the trunk from rope damage (or you could use some card-board). Zig-zagged rope that is looped with the next rope line works well to keep the burlap and rootball tight for transport. Sorry - didn't have a tree rootball to tie-up but I hope the rope method makes sense as I did it on the front porch column. This is also how I tie deciduous trees for transport to prevent loosing all the leaves on the highway in smaller uncovered trucks.

This message was edited Apr 15, 2010 9:36 AM

The contractor that is installing the retaining wall on the property is removing all the plants from the property line. I'm paying him extra to remove the 2 weepers carefully and burlap the rootballs. I'm going to be there, hopefully with my husband or one of the guys I work with to make sure everything is done correctly. Since the contractor has to dig out the entire back of the property, I assume he'll contact the Dig Safely hotline - or he will hit utilities. That will be his responsibility luckily, not mine.

Question for growin on the twine. How are you securing the vertical lines for the others to zigzag between? I'll put heavy duty cardboard on the trunk, and as stupid as it sounds, I'm going to bubble wrap and burlap the top of the trees in case they get hit while being dug. The rootball is the wild card here. We may have to dig the holes here after we get home and see how big the rootball is. Looking at the links you posted, we don't want a deep hole or the tree will sink.

This is just a crapshoot. I'll never find trees this large for sale at a nursery. If they die, it's not a huge amount invested. If they live, I've got some really nice specimen trees. And I love conifers, as you can tell by my conifer garden (this is a few years ago when it was just being installed:

The vertical is just tied to the top of the column and the bottom but on the tree it would be tied to the trunk, wrapped around the bottom, again part wrap on trunk, again under the root ball, etc until there is an even distribution of vertical ropes. Horizontal ropes once around each vertical rope giving it either the zigzag or the squares in one of the pics on the links. Nothing worse than having a large root ball fall apart while in transport before you get it to the site.

Well, the best laid plans. I had burlap, twine, pins, bubblewrap... The owner told the contractor I agreed to pay extra to have the trees removed carefully. I was to be called before he started so my husband and I could get over there to wrap the balls as they came out of the ground.
My husband went away on business, and I get a call at 11:30 this morning from the owner that the contractor showed up unexpectedly and dug the trees. I rushed over to do damage control (in my sedan, in my work clothes, all the packing materials and the pickup truck at home) to find the trees bare root, on their sides in the grass. The contractor said the soil was too sandy to hold a ball. If it's so sandy, why did he lop the roots? Jerk! I didn't pay him. The owner agreed to give me back my money if (when) the trees die. But, I spent so much time figuring out how to handle these trees, I couldn't just let them be put out to the garbage. I had no way to transport or plant them....
So, I ended up calling a handyman who has worked around my house to pick up the trees and plant them. Now I have to pay him. My husband would have just left them, and that might have been the wiser and cheaper course...
I don't understand why the contractor would just throw away good money - I was covering his hourly rate for the time he would spend digging the trees carefully to my specifications.
Anyway, they are in the ground. I'll buy Superthrive tomorrow, if that will do any good. I doubt it. I'm happy to read any suggestions that people may have. The trees were out of the ground about 4 to 5 hours. The roots were severely cut. I'll post pictures if I can figure out how to move them from the phone.
I'm very, very angry at the contractor...

I'm so sorry it worked out that way. I've had to deal with that sorta thing several times with landscape installations. Frustrating! The only recommendation I can give is to ensure the whole top of the plant is misted in the late evenings or early mornings so that there is not too much dessication and transpiration of moisture from the plant and it dries out. Sometimes it's just easier to buy the plant at the nursery, ready to be planted. Again, sorry.

Thank you. It would have been easier from a nursery, but where's the challenge in that? I know it's thin needled, but should I spray with an antidessicant?