transplanting small bur oak

[Kyle Aarnes]

My wife and i recently purchased 10.5 acres and built our house on it. Mostly cedards with a mix of other trees mostly locust, cottonwood, elm. I did discover a number of bur oaks, mostly immature, growing up through some mature cedars. some of these are only a few feet tall, some more like 15 -20'. I'd really like to transplant at least one of these closer to my house. What is a good candidate? Some are closer than others to the cedars so it could be a tangle of roots. I should be dead when this is a nice sized oak, but i'm going to do it anyways.

 

[kyle1!]

Obviously transplanting the 2ft one will be less work then the taller ones. A 15-20ft tree is going to take a serious tree spade. Take as much of a root ball as you can handle with the transplant. Dig your planting hole a little bigger then the root ball, fill around the root ball, water and mulch. Then hope it lives. If it was me I would transplant 3-4 of the smaller ones to the area I want a tree. This way you have a better chance of one surviving.

 

[Kyle Aarnes]

Multiple is a good idea. Again, i won't get to see them in their glory, but it will be fun watching them grow if they survive the move. Thanks

 

[Coppice]

Don't stint the water the year you transplant.