Here’s a series of photos from an air-tool transplant project executed last week by a crew from Matthew R. Foti Landscape and Tree Service of Lexington, MA.These guys have been using air tools to bare-root trees for some time now, and they have refined the process pretty skillfully.
Shown here are a very large treeform Taxus and a smallish Cornus kousa. The Kousa Dogwood had been planted only about 8′ away from the Yew, and probably had been sheltered by it in its early days. At this stage, though, their crowns had been competing, and a revised landscape design gave further reason to spade out and move both plants.
Taxus and Cornus kousa planted closely together, as part of a larger planting that has already been dismantled.
The Bobcat has dug a trench, and the crew is blowing soil into it. Note that the Yew's branches have been tied up to keep them out of the way.
Taxus is a deeply rooted plant -- notice the trench depth, and presence of roots in the lower part of the mound..
Soil and rocks fly during the process, so eye and ear protection are essential. The white jumpsuits keep these guys from getting covered with soil (color is optional).
Bobcat continually takes blown soil out of the trench and stockpiles it.
Double-teaming a soil clod. Pushing the nozzle down into the root mass helps loosen soil inside it.
Pigtailing the roots -- tying them in long bundles -- helps keep them protected and out of the way.
Twine holds the pigtails together; when the plant is ready to move, twine can also be used to tie the pigtails back to the trunk, to keep them from dragging during transport.
Progress shot. Look at how deep the trench is. The Taxus is nearly ready, and shortly the crew will move on to the Cornus kousa; when both trees have been blown out, they will be separated and moved to new locations.
The following week: Taxus in a new spot, looking relaxed and healthy.
Final shot. Asymmetry in the Taxus crown reflects its previous location in a larger planting.
Deborah Howe
Taking Place 
After living symbiotically for so long, was the separation hard on the Taxus & Cornus? I keep thinking of surgery on Siamese twins …
Good question. Actually the surgery was hard on the Kousa dogwood, and the two Hibiscus syriacus (Rose of Sharon) shrubs whose roots were also intertwined with the Taxus. Separating the root systems was very tricky, and the deciduous trees took the brunt of the trickiness — at least as far as is discernible to date. I don’t have photos of those three plants in new locations yet (may get some in a week or two), but saw each of them post-transplant, and they’re still going, but definitely stressed. It may be that the arborists had to conduct triage in the operation, and the Taxus got the lion’s share of TLC.
Interesting project.
We are undertaking a large project of similar scope. Several mature oak (4-5″), Ginko (9-10″), Kentucky Coffee Tree (10-11″) and several Hackberry (5-6″) are being air spaded and stored for 1 year before being replanted. The Ginko and Kentucky Coffe Trees are in large planters.
James Urban, ‘Up With Roots’, has written several pages of specs for this job.
I have a question for you.
How long did it take to air spade the soil off of the roots in the above project?
Did you need to keep the roots moist as you continued to remove soil?
Did you use any hydrogel before replanting?
Thanks and I hope the trees you dug survive for many more years.
Mark
Hi, Mark — Thanks for your good note. It’ll be great to hear how your trees fare over the year. As long as their roots have contact with the storage medium and moisture, they should be just fine. Here are answers to your questions:
The Kousa and Taxus roots were pretty intertwined; I believe the blowing-out and move took a day.
It’s a good idea to spray down the roots at intervals during the excavation process. Compressed air will dry them pretty quickly, so having a hose on hand is a good idea. On the other hand, there’s been some speculation here by the guys doing this work that by saving as much large root mass as possible, you’re also preserving the moisture reservoir function of the roots, and the tree is much more resilient to desiccation as a result. This is a issue that we’re learning about with each transplant.
This project did not use hydrogel. I believe that Matt Foti adds a phosphorus booster to the backfill; Mike Furgal, I think, top-dresses with it. If you were moving a tree over a long distance — say, setting it on a trailer or in a truck and carrying it to a different site — you’d probably want to spray the roots with hydrogel.
From what we’ve seen so far from bare-root transplanting, most of the trees moved this way don’t simply survive — they thrive. There are some trees that have not, and it seems that they tend to be more tender-barked — cherries, for instance, may need some more sensitive handling to benefit from being moved this way. But that’s a subject for another post…..
I hope the trees that Shady Lane moves do well, and that you keep us updated on their progress. The more information-sharing arborists do, the better off we all are, and the more the trees themselves benefit.