Transplanting a large crabapple tree

Has anyone ever had any luck doing this? I wonder if it's worth the trouble. We are in the process of building a new house. Unfortunately there are 2 very large 100 yr old crabapple trees that have to be removed. We do own a large backhoe/front end loader to use. Do you think it would be possible to try and transplant one of these? If so how would you go about it? I just hate the thought of losing these trees, we enjoy them so much now. If we are wanting the house these trees have to go. I just want to put it somewhere else on the property. What do any of you think?

A tree that size is going to be difficult to transplant (just imagine the size of rootball you'll have to get up with it in order for it to have any chance at all!). And 100 years strikes me as pretty old for a crabapple, so I'm not sure if it would deal well with the stress of transplanting if you can even get a big enough rootball with it. And if you're planning on doing it now you're decreasing your odds even further--summer (especially in a warm climate) is the worst time of year to transplant anything. But if they are going to get thrown out otherwise then you can try (as long as you're OK with the expense of moving them, plus the expense of removing them in a year or two if they don't survive the move)

If you want an idea of the work involved in successfully tranplanting a tree that size please look at this link. It's amazing.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/835292/

snapple: Funny you linked that page. If you notice I was the one who posted about the dogwood. Because of the success story with that tree, I thought why can't I try it.

Ecrane: I say these crabapple trees are 100 years old because our house is that old and we have several large oaks/maples/pecan that must have been planted around the same time. It is quite possible that the crabapples were planted 60 years ago when our "farm" was a working dairy farm. Never-the-less, they are large and old. I just want to try and save the smallest of the two. What I was thinking of doing is prune the tree severely, digging as much of the root ball as possible, with the backhoe, and then water, water, water. I know everything is working against me on even trying to transplant at least one of these trees, what have we got to lose. We have the equipment and the land. My husband thinks I'm nuts for even suggesting the idea.

That WAS you! Sheesh. Well, if you do try it, it will sure be interesting.

Even if they're only 60 that's still pretty old--there was another recent thread where someone had a 20-ish year old one and someone said that was pretty old! But you're right, there's really nothing to lose by trying, as long as you are willing to deal with the time/$$/effort to remove it if it doesn't make it.

Does the picture show both trees? It sure looks like there's two trees; growing just a few feet apart. If this is the case, I'd think successfully transplanting them is unlikely. They look gorgeous and it would be painful to see them taken down.

Yes the picture shows both trees. I just cringe every time I think of losing them. The only option would be to tear down the house were living in and put the new house in its place. Then we would have to move, store everything, ugh, plus the cost$$$$$$. We are wanting to slowly demolish our existing house so that we can salvage as much of it as we can.

If they're planted that close together I'm with Maackia, that makes it much harder to transplant. When I looked at your picture originally I thought it was just one of the trees. The trouble with trees that are that close is that their roots are all entangled in each other and there's really not enough space between the trees to dig and get a decent rootball on either one of the trees. The only way I could see you being successful is if you've got large enough equipment that you can dig up the pair together and plant them together again at the new location, but I'm not sure if that's even possible or not. Otherwise if you try to separate them you're going to lose so much root mass on the side where they were close together that there's much less chance of surviving.

Thanks ecrane: I guess they are doomed. I do have to say that they are messy, dropping all their fruit. I was hoping that someone would think it could be possible and I could talk my husband into at least trying. Nope, they will be goners within the next 2 weekends. So sad.

Maybe you could start some cuttings from them, that way you can preserve the spirit of the old trees and have some new ones to enjoy a few years down the road? I'm not sure if now is a good time of year to do cuttings on these, but it's worth considering.

If they are not grafts, which I doubt they are, do they sucker? You might entice a local Master Gardener through your local Cooperative Extension office to collect cuttings of semi-hardwood ( I think now might be the right time actually) and see if they would root them.

Snapple: When you talk sucker, do you mean do they put out little limbs along the trunk? If so the answer is yes and I never thought about that. Excellent thought. I have had to cut those off over the years. I usually have to prune the underlying limbs so that we are able to walk under them without stooping. I also cut off the "suckers." It's dark out now but I can take a picture tomorrow and show you what I'm talking about. Yes, Ecrane taking cuttings or suckers and making them into new trees is an excellent idea. I will examine the tree tomorrow. Thanks

Unfortunately I should have explained myself better. I meant "root" sucker. A new tree sprouting from a root usually, but not always, near the base of the tree.

Here is a picture of the base of one of the trees. As you can see there are plenty of suckers. Now how would I go about turning these into new trees?

I could be wrong (probably am) but I don't thing that root suckers make the best things to start with for propagating--they are used to having the tree's whole root system at their disposal so I think they have a hard time if you separate them. You might be better off doing normal cuttings from somewhere else on the tree. But like I said, I could be wrong!

What I was thinking is cutting the part of the root with the suckers and what underlying root system I can dig and transplanting that.
I might ought to go over to the propagating forum and see what someone over there has to say.