Hi. Have an 8 year Alaska Weeping Cedar Stricta. Never rooted outside its clay ball. We've dug a rootball that we can lift and then move the tree. Dilemna is we'd like to move to a spot that gets some wind but how do we stake this 20' tree so it will develop a stable root system? I'd hate to do it but would consider taking some of the top off... Is it even viable to attempt? Thanks! Marzette
Need a contractor with right equipment and experience. Hopefully you can find one there, and have the budget. Topping would be pointless, as you have then deformed the tree - not an improvement to its situation at all.
Ron, thanks for the reply. Unfornately, we are on a small island in SE Alaska with no specialized services... It's a beautiful tree, hoping others, like yourself, will have some pointers. Marzette
If you think you can move it yourself then stake it afterward using wires run through a section of hose or other substantial buffer to keep them from cutting into the trunk. Make a triangle of 3 wooden stakes pounded securely into the ground and run the wires from these to the trunk, meeting near the middle, at a point that seems like it will work - you don't want it to snap off above the wires because they were too low. You will have to be able to hold the tree upright, in the new spot while the staking is being set up. http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/~Linda Chalker-Scott/Horticultural Myths_files/Myths/Staking.pdf
We will try and will use your advice as well as directions in the document you linked. We have used your basic methods over the years and it seems that the only trees we have problems with are those that we have received in clay balls. Our soils are the opposite of clay. Have you heard of this problem? We do not amend our planting holes in hopes that root systems will establish better with our native soils. Should we change our method? Thank you, Marzette
Maybe if you take clay off outside, so root tips are poking into coarser native soil you will get better response. A problem I've seen here with field soil rootballs is them drying out after being dug from the production nursery, not re-moistening readily - water applied later mostly runs over the outside, the superficial penetration that occurs sometimes enough to keep the plant alive but not thriving. Other specimens dry out and die.
I was going to suggest too that you remove the clay and try bare-rooting, but that obviously has to be done only at certain times of year... not sure when that would be for you. Probably not now! And might be very risky with a specimen this size.
