need to move a colorado blue spruce

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greenjay Centennial, CO(Zone 5b) Jul 28, 2006

I need to move a Colorado Blue Spruce away from the foundation of a building. It is a gorgeous specimen, 8' high -- just planted in the wrong place. How would I go about moving it, and is there a preferred time of year?

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StarhillForest Illinois, IL(Zone 5b) Jul 29, 2006

Usually they move best in early fall or early spring, depending upon the severity of your winters there (bad winters = move in spring). You will need to take a solid rootball of soil, either with a mechanical tree spade (if you can fit in into that location) or digging by hand. Make the rootball about 10-12 inches in diameter for every inch of trunk diameter, and roughly half as tall as broad, tapered toward the bottom. If your spruce is 8 feet tall you probably will be digging a rootball about 36 inches across and 18-20 inches deep, plus or minus. It varies with your soil texture too, and if yours is sandy you have to be extra careful to keep the rootball from crumbling -- a crumbled rootball = a dead spruce.

If you've not done this before you might be wise to hire a local nursery to do it for you.

Guy S.

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mdvaden Beaverton, OR Jul 29, 2006

By the way, your rootball will weigh about 600 to 1000 lbs.

Try to wrap it with burlap, or that synthetic weed fabric mesh (remove it for sure later), and lace string or rope around the ball. It's called drum lacing if that gives you an idea of how many wraps to make.

You need to lift from several points around the ball, slightly under-girding it, and you need to have the trunk anchored too. You won't lift by the trunk, very much.

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conifers Rock Island, IL(Zone 5b) Jul 30, 2006

I agree, if you don't think you can do the labor - hire someone.

I dug a 8 foot (or near) Dawn Redwood once - just about killed myself and I was only 28 or so years old.

Also, your climate and the heat waves across the country, it would be best if this fall you take a spade and at four equidistant points (you'll be moving it the following spring) "DRIVE" that spade into the rootzone at the dripline of your tree. This will promote heavy 'fibrous' root production that the tree will later appreciate when you dig it up the following spring.

Good luck to the tree!

Dax

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