valley
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Apple tree question

Greetings, We have a couple apple trees at our mountain ranch, the ground is still frozen up there. Can I dig these trees out, keeping the roots damp, and take them down to our lower ranch and plant them bare root? Thankyou

WildcatNurseryman
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How large are the trees? If they are small enough to bare-root, say less than 1/2 inch caliper up 6 inches from the ground. A tree larger than that typically would transplant better with a larger mass of root in a balled-and-burlapped style. Proper root-ball size is something that should be taken into consideration; normally as large as you can get out of the hole, if all work is to be done by hand.
This is certainly a good time to transplant them, though. As soon as the ground is capable of receiving a spade, I would get to work. Good luck.

JONA878
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I would add one other thing to Valleys' reply.
After you have planted them give the top a good hard prune.
This will reduce the amount of water loss that the plant has after growth starts,( transperation ), and give the roots a chance to get established.

WildcatNurseryman
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Excellent point Jona, and one I should have mentioned.

valley
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Just read your coments. Thanks for taking the time. These trees are about 3/4" and maybe 4' or 5' tall. There is still a lot of snow to climb through to get to them.

Where I want to transplant them some plant and trees are sprouting, not the apples. Their new location will be at 4300 ft, they are now at 6800 ft.

Richard

WildcatNurseryman
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You should be able to get away with bare rooting them as long as you get 2/3 of the root, or so, and make sure they don't dry out. I would give them a dose of rooting hormone after planting. I would let them soak in a rooting hormone solution before planting as well. Good luck. Staking will be necessary as well.

valley
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I'll move them as soon as the ground thaws. Thankyou Richard

valley
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Greetings, A couple days ago I dug up the two apple trees at our mountain place and planted them the next day here in the high desert. They loved it, and in two or three days had sprouted.
They, the trees, should do well here. I planted them years ago at the mountain place, they would get leaves in spring but with the short growing season, have stayed small and had no time to turn into real trees.

richard

valley
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Greetings, Update: The Apple trees are growing very well. They seem to love it here. I gave them a hard pruning as suggested. I planted several trees both from pots and bare root, these apples have shown the best of all the bare root. The soil here is very alkaline they, the apples, seem to do well in it.

WildcatNurseryman
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I bet I would like it there too. We are getting up to 96 tomorrow, and I am not looking forward to it. Glad they are doing well.

valley
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Update: The apples are doing great. When I dug them up they were still in snow. When we planted them it was many degrees warmer, they woke up and started growing, growing in one season more than in all theyears in the mountains.

Thanks for the help and suggestions

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applestar
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Thanks for following up. It's always nice to know how things turned out. :D
Can I ask what cultivars you planted? 8)

valley
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These were Fuji, not sure of the root stock.

We moved these again, last week, to their final growing place. We move a large root ball with them. It's still very cold here, would it be a good idea to prune? Hoping to get some furit this year.

Any thoughts? Thanks Richard



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