I have a dwarf orange tree that is about 3 years old in my back yard. I need to move it about 3 feet to accomodate some hardscape. How do I go about doing this and will the tree survive?
Dig up the rest of your back yard and move it 3 feet the other way! Just kidding, I occasionally have these tourettes-like thoughts and I thought I'd share this one. Come on Ron or jimmyq, help this guy/gal out. Ralph
Sorry Ralph, I had a look here last night but, I dont have any experience with citrus outdoors ( I am a bit too far North to really take outdoor Citrus too seriously) so I thought I would wait and see what was offered as advice. As for a tidbit, I had lots of people over the years say "I am building a ....... in a few weeks/months, when can I move my ....? " quick response was, " If you HAVE to move it, then you HAVE to move it. If you can wait then we can talk about when is best for the .... in question." I find citrus indoors tend to be vigorous rooters, and seem to be very active growers from mid Spring until mid Fall. It may benefit from a pre dig or root prune a few months prior to moving.
I live near Sacramento California and have successfully moved 3 to 5 year old mandarin orange trees, (Owari Satsuma) three times. Moved each one in different years. Did not want to but had to so....I waited until January, well after harvest. I trimmed the trees a bit of lower branches first. I then used a sharp spade to dig a 6 to 10 Inch wide ditch and dug down about a foot to a foot and a half. I cut roots all around and then tried to move the tree by using the spade, tyring to pry the tree loose, working all around the tree in the ditch. I persisted until the tree moved one way or the other. Dig and cut roots. Pry and pry again. All three trees were moved. My last one was dug up in Orangevale and moved to Lincoln and has been producing each year since the transplant. Yields were low for three years, good last year and good this year. I don't know much about trees and such but my wife and I have successfully moved shore pines, an Oklahoma redbud and a Tanyosho pine this way. Bill
