Transplanting trees in the fall is a fairly responsible step. It requires site owners to have knowledge of production and the timing of work.
Tree transplant time in autumn
Agricultural practice suggests that autumn (especially late) is the best time for transplanting all types of deciduous and coniferous species. The natural state of dormancy enables representatives of all species to comfortably transfer the intervention into the natural process.
The optimal time is considered for tree transplants in the fall - from the beginning of the fall to the time until the ambient temperature drops to minus fifteen degrees.
In conditions of persistent cooling (in the middle zone it is mid-October to mid-late November), all deciduous (including fruit) trees can be transplanted. Naturally, the best air temperature for such work is from ten to zero degrees. At minus values, additional operations are needed to protect not only the root system from freezing, but also to maintain the plus temperature of the soil around the transplant pit and backfill.
For conifers, the best time for transplanting is early autumn and early spring.
Plants from other nurseries taken in advance should be temporarily buried until the required minimum temperature is reached if they have an open root system. Seedlings with a closed root system will easily stand up to the right time.
The effect of age on survival
The older the plant, the more difficult it will be to master in new conditions. A huge mass of roots will be lost when digging, no matter how carefully the work is done. In the spring, when the tree grows leaf mass, the still not restored root system will not be able to provide the need for life-giving moisture, which will manifest itself in depression and, as a result, in subsequent plant diseases.
Optimal for transplanting fruit trees in the fall is their age from one to three to five years. In this case, the ability of the plant to survive and build up the root system is maximum. And the lack of a plentiful crown (deciduous mass) allows plants to painlessly both grow additional roots and use their minimum for sap flow.
If you need to transfer adult plants (over five years old) with a well-formed crown to a new place, you need to prepare in advance for this process, since it will require a lot of effort, you may need additional equipment.
Transplanting garden trees in autumn: step one - choosing a new location
There are several reasons for plant transfer:
trees outgrew the space allocated to them - access to the sun and air masses is limited, which leads to their oppression and provokes the development of many fungal diseases;
the boundaries of the plot for the garden have changed, or in connection with new landscape solutions, a change in the location of plants is required;
making a decision about planting a new plant on a place occupied by a tree with the transfer of the former - redevelopment of the garden;
the plant was planted temporarily.
A new place should solve the problem of lack of sunlight and a slight influx of air masses. Inexperienced gardeners sometimes lack the determination to imagine the dimensions of an adult tree - it seems too complicated the work of the imagination to cover the possible consequences. But it is necessary to do this, otherwise the plant after transplantation will not be able to develop after a few years, it will begin to grow weak, the yield will be reduced, and it is the task of avoiding this that is at the head of the tree transplant in autumn .
For the development of plants need nutritious soil, it must be prepared in advance. The estimated amount of soil mixture can be calculated by estimating the volume of roots (root ball) minus the volume of the humus layer and sod layer of the soil, taken out during the preparation of the pit. In other words, the older the plant, the more it will be necessary to prepare (even, perhaps, buy with malnutritional soils of a new place) nutritious humus mixture.
If a new location has been selected on a previously untreated piece of land, the soil should be investigated in advance. You can recommend digging a small (but relatively deep) pit to just look at the composition of the soil.
This technique will help to save time during the transplantation process itself and even prepare in advance (with clay soil) the necessary drainage.
Step two: preparing the pit in a new place
The size of the pit depends on the sparseness of the tree: the larger the crown, the larger the diameter should be in the dug pit. It is better to draw a circle with a shovel on the soil surface, drawing a line a little further than the measured crown diameter - this will allow you to dig a hole in advance with a small excess.
The depth of the pit depends on the type of tree being transplanted; it is impossible to foresee the depth in advance. The following recommendations are relevant here: the depth of the pit may be approximately equal to its width. If, when digging a tree, it turns out that the length of the roots is less, then putting the selected soil back to the bottom is much easier than urgently taking out the soil when a tree is dug nearby.
The first turf layer should not be laid next to the pit, but a little further away so as not to fill it with the lower layers of soil.
The next fertile layer needs to be laid out in another place - it will be needed when filling the roots, while the soil structure will be preserved.
The lower, less fertile layers are laid out separately, part of them will be needed to fill the voids.
Up to ten buckets of water should be poured into the dug pit if the tree is about five years old. This will allow not only to wet the soil, but also to understand how well moisture is absorbed and whether it is worth doing drainage.
Step Three: Prepare the Tree
Before replanting trees in autumn, you need to carefully inspect them and remove excess branches.
You need to start with those that grow towards the trunk, they need to be cut anyway (they thicken the crown).
Then you must remove all branches that have grown below the vaccination site, if any.
To remove those branches that have grown close to each other - this is the thinning of the crown.
In such a prepared form, it is better for a tree to adapt to a new place.
Step Four: Digging a Tree
If the tree is young (up to three years), digging it up will not be difficult: you need to dig it at a distance of not less than forty to fifty centimeters from the trunk to a depth in the bayonet of a shovel. It is worth trying to gently tilt it in different directions, if it gives in to tilt, continue to carefully dig it further, taking out the ground and trying not to damage the roots. As soon as the tree begins to tip over under its own weight, the excavation of the earth must be stopped. On a previously laid out piece of tarpaulin or a thick film, put a pulled out tree, trying not to shake the soil from the roots. Carefully wrap the root system with the same film (tarpaulin), tie above the root neck. In this form, you can transfer it to the future landing site.
When transplanting older trees in autumn, a different hike is required. It consists in preliminary preparation of a deep trench at a distance of sixty cm to a meter from a tree trunk to a depth of three bayonet bayonets. Digging in a circle, you need to carefully monitor the lateral roots that come across, they must be carefully cut with a knife and treated with garden var. Having removed all the earth from the trench and cut off the long roots, they begin to bring the long poles (boards) under the tree. Then they gently lift it from the ground, put it on its side on the prepared tarpaulin, wrap a root ball in it, bandage it and transport it to a new place (preferably not by dragging).
In both cases, in order not to damage the root system, the earth around the tree must be shed if it has not rained for more than three days. The amount of water depends on the age of the tree and the condition of the soil (up to ten buckets).
Step Five: Landing in a Prepared Pit
Before planting, it is advisable to orient the tree along the edges of the world in the same way as it grew earlier.
After making sure that the dug hole is a little deeper and wider than the root ball, you can gently lower the tree into the hole, falling asleep with prepared soil mixture: first the lower layer mixed with humus, then the upper fertile layer with humus, gradually watering the soil to be poured. This technique will allow you to fill the earthen voids immediately during the transplantation of fruit trees in the fall.
On top of the humus layers, it is desirable to put a pre-prepared layer of sod - this will not allow the lower layers of the soil to undergo erosion.
Some trees need support: driving stakes into the ground (preferably from three sides), you need to connect them through the tree with rope loops in the form of a figure eight. It is advisable to leave the stakes until the middle of next spring.
Transplanted tree care
The next year, after being transferred to a new permanent residence, you need to more closely monitor the condition of the tree. Care consists in constant weeding, monitoring the codling moth getting on the crown, and processing for rotting. Peduncles of the first year after transplantation should be removed to strengthen the tree.