Content
- Dig up an apple tree as gently as possible
- An apple tree has flat and fine roots
- You do not transplant an old tree
- Remove a poorly fruited apple tree
- Tips & Tricks
Dig up an apple tree as gently as possible
Not all plants in the garden can be easily or heavily transplanted or removed. If an apple tree is to be transplanted or removed in the garden, then some special features must be considered.
An apple tree has flat and fine roots
At first thought, it may make it easier for an apple tree to have no very deep roots. However, the apple tree is more vulnerable as a shallow-rooted, if its fine roots are carelessly tapped. Especially the fine hair roots in the shallow soil around the tree pulp provide the apple tree with much needed nutrients and moisture. If you cut these fine roots too close to the trunk, the transplanted tree at the new location will have a hard time growing and surviving.
You do not transplant an old tree
It is fundamentally very difficult to successfully transplant an apple tree more than ten or fifteen years old. Therefore, every planting of an apple tree should take a close look at the later dimensions. If an older apple tree needs to be moved anyway, the following factors are important for survival:
Due to the shape of the root, the excavation does not require digging much deeper, but the wider around the tree trunk. If you wrap a tarp or a blanket around the root ball for further transport, you protect it from too much crumbling of earth with increasing degree of dryness.
Remove a poorly fruited apple tree
If you want to remove an old apple tree due to bad harvests, you might first try to recast it with the copulation of a precious rice. If this does not help you, you can leave a trunk of about one meter when cutting the tree to use it as a power lever when digging the root ball.
Tips & Tricks
If the planting of a new tree is planned at the same site of the old tree, then the root system must be completely removed when excavating it. Otherwise, it can lead to poor growth of the young seedling.