There's a nice-looking evergreen tree growing in the shadow of another old tree. I plan to replant it in a better location and take advantage of this free tree from nature. However, I want to make sure I know it will be okay in the open and really need just to know what kind it is.
Does anybody know what this is and what size it will probably be? I first saw it last summer as a tiny little thing and didn't think it would survive.
Not sure what it is, but I suggest you dig it out while you still can. A plant growing from seed will have a wide spread root system, and even a young one will be hard to dig out and save the roots.
Here is a trick that works pretty well:
One day dig a trench near the plant, the goal is to cut the roots off along one side, perhaps 1/4 of the plant. You can fill the trench with loose, almost whole leaves, or coarse compost.
A few weeks later dig another trench on a different side of the plant, again, cutting roots about 1/4 of the way around the plant.
A few weeks later, repeat... repeat...
You now have a trench all around the plant, and the roots have been pruned.
Now start undermining the plant. Again, do maybe 1/4 to 1/3 at a time. Put a burlap or other cloth under it as you dig. Every few weeks dig another area under the plant.
By the end of about 2 months you will have dug up the plant and have a burlap carrying sling under it. The roots were not all cut in one day, so the remaining roots were supporting the plant while the cut roots healed and began sprouting new roots. You have been protecting these new roots with the compost or leaves in the trench.
Now dig a new hole that is wider than the root ball, but not quite as deep. You want the transplanted tree to be just a little higher than it was originally. Just an inch or so.
Okay, thanks for the info.
Looks like a sapling from a Larch, it's still very immature to tell yet from the picture, or it could be a member of the pine / fir family, however I can assume it is a few years old to have reached the size it is right now.
You should offer it plenty water around the root area while you await lifting it from thegrowing area as come summer, the larger tree will be sapping all the moisture from the little sapling.
Have a look around the neighbours trees and look see IF you can find a parent plant as it has either had seeds drop from the tree it has settled under OR there has been a tree close by that the birds / wind has dropped a seed from.
Good luck and best regards.
WeeNel.
