Transplanting of oaks and hickory

[wysiwyg]

Two of the borders of our property are filled with mature pin/burr oak and shagbark hickory trees. I've tried to grow new ones from nuts/acorns but haven't had much luck. However, the squirrels seem to be experts. In all of our gardens and pretty much anywhere you wouldn't want trees growing, these trees seem to sprout every year. I would like to transplant some of them to better locations. The oldest ones are 2 years old and at most 6 inches high.

I was wondering how effectively these trees can be transplanted to new locations? I have tried to transplant a few in the past, but all died that year or the next.

Do either of the oaks or the hickory have a taproot that does not regenerate after transplanting? The soil around here is real sandy and rocky, and doesn't hold moisture for very long, so I'm thinking that the only ones that might survive are the ones that can establish a deep taproot quickly after sprouting.

Could the use of mycorrhizal fungus increase their chances of survival significantly?

I would like to save some of these seedlings instead of just yanking them out of the ground and throwing them away, but I don't want to waste my time if they can't survive transplantation.


Any help or tips appreciated, thanks.

 

[DadF]

I'm certainly not a tree physiology expert but I have transplanted a several hundred trees here at Purdue in the last 16 years. I can tell you that I have had little to no luck trying to tranplant burr oak. Pin oak should be easier to deal with as long as you get plenty of the root ball when digging. Fortunately I have the option of using an 80" spade along with a 44" spade. Whenever I have the option to use the bigger spade on any oak that needs to be moved I will do it, I don't care if it is a 1" dia or a 6" dia. I had the opportunity this spring to move a donated 6" dia pecan(same family as the hickorys)onto campus. It was also growing in fairly sandy soil. The spades go 56" deep on the big spade and I had almost 3' of tap root sticking out of the bottom after I dug it. That was just what had come up with the root ball-the rest of it had broken off and was still in the ground. We had no choice but to trim off the damaged part and plant the tree. The tree has leafed out and looks healthy so far but the jury will still be out for the next couple of years. Does that tell you what kind of tap root your dealing with? If you want to try planting the nuts/acorns, I would suggest planting in some of the tall pots designed for starting trees. The seed will need to be put in the refrigerator over the winter and not allowed to dry out. I wouldn't plant them until the end of May. We have had better luck with a longer than normal stratification period. And keep some screen wire over and around the pots or the squirrels/chipmunks will remove all your hard work(voice of experiance!) Good Luck!

 

[wysiwyg]

Thank you for the reply.

It seems you have confirmed my suspicions about the taproots of the hickory and burr oak. They seem to throw them down quite a ways before the germinating tree even penetrates the soil surface.

I'll transplant a few of the smaller pin oaks and see what happens.