Transplanted tree not looking so good. Help!

11 years ago

last modified: 11 years ago

So I moved this tree 3 days ago and it looks very wilted and sad. I know summer is the worst time to transplant but we are redoing the front landscape and it was in a very awkward spot and needed to be moved. I got as much of root ball as I could and I was able to move a lot of the long horizontal roots as well. I dug little trenches after moving the tree and buried the long roots, they were very shallow before so I buried them at about same depth. I put some millorganite in the hole and followed directions on bag for tree transplant. I watered for about 20 minutes right after transplant and again the following 2 days. Today I made a sugar water mixture and very gentle used trowel to make small holes and poured that in. Any more advice? Is the wilting normal? Is my tree gonna die??? :( so very worried about it.

Also anyone know what type of tree this is? My research says some sort of dogwood but not sure.

Featured Answer

akamainegrower

11 years ago

In addition to keeping the soil moist, I have also found it helpful to spray summer transplanted trees with a fine mist several times a day. This raises the humidity level, lowers the temperature and reduces the transpiration rate. About 3 weeks ago I had to move sizable specimens of cornus officinalis and cornus mas 'Aureum'. I have been watering carefully and spraying with a Fog-It type nozzle frequently and so far no leaf drop even though I was not able to excavate as much of the root mass as I would have liked. Everything becomes more complicated, of course, if you are dealing with high temperatures day and night. My own nightime temperatures have been in the 50's and 60's with highs in the 70's.

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Comments (11)

Huggorm
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
The leaves are gonna fall off, they are more or less dead. If you are lucky there will be new leaves, this season or next. It seems like you have done all that is possible, you can just wait now. If you have to move another tree this time of year you can put some cloth around it to shadow the leaves.

ID will be difficult until fresh leaves emerge
cynthiamay22 thanked Huggorm
cynthiamay22
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you for the response! I hope I never have to move another tree in any season! This is very stressful not knowing if it will survive.
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 years ago
in about 99% of the country ..... never move a leafed tree in the heat of summer.. unless you have no choice ...

i have no clue what good sugar water did .. except maybe attract ants ...

put a sprinkler on.. and saturate the whole area ...

i also expect all the leaves to fall off.. if you perfect watering.. and get the roots working... it should releaf ... but it will have lost a lot of stored energy ... and who knows what it will look like next spring .... perhaps a lot of dead branches ...

mulch heavily in a 6 foot circle.. but not touching the trunks... after you get the area wet ..

next time ask first ... link to general planting guide.. note watering and mulching in particular ...

a pic of the leaves before they burn away.. can probably get you the ID ...

i wish you and it luck ...

ken

https://sites.google.com/site/tnarboretum/Home/planting-a-tree-or-shrub
cynthiamay22
Original Author
11 years ago

Here is up close photo of leaves. We are planning to have mulch put down once we are finished planting everything but maybe I will get a couple of bags to put around the tree today.

There are some studies that say sugar water can help promote vigorous root growth. Figured it was worth a shot. Was also reading about seaweed extract helping with root growth. Anyone have luck with that?
Huggorm
11 years ago
Cornus kuosa "Wolf Eyes" or something similar. Nice, large speciemen.

Seaweed is a good ferilizer but I don't know if it can help root growth in your situation
brandon7 TN_zone7
11 years ago
If you want to concentrate on things that are likely to work, mulch well and carefully monitor soil moisture. The milorganite/sugar water/seaweed extract stuff is like worrying about which multivitamin to give your kid just after he had been in a serious accident and lost an arm.
cynthiamay22
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks for the feedback.

How do I monitor soil moisture? Obviously I can tell on the surface but how do I know if water is getting down far enough?
brandon7 TN_zone7
11 years ago
"How do I monitor soil moisture?"

See section 12 in the article Ken linked, above.
cynthiamay22 thanked brandon7 TN_zone7
sam_md
11 years ago
hi cynthiamay,

looks like a weddingcake tree to me.

Many years ago I worked for a high-end landscape contractor. Sometimes trees need to be dug at the worst possible time, there's just no helping it. We had one such situation and guess who was in charge of the crew, yours truly. It was a highly prized Stewartia, about three times larger than your tree. We dug it and it never missed a beat. Here's what we did and what you should have done with your tree which IMO is a highly prized item:

- dig the tree in the coolest part of the day.

-follow pictoral in my link

-use ball cart, move tree and place in the shade for 2 or 3 days.

-during this time put water sprinkler on it during daylight hours if weather is dry.

-plant tree in the cool part of the evening.

how to hand dig a tree
cynthiamay22 thanked sam_md
hamburglar1
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
I'd suggest mulching asap and creating a hill-ring around the tree roughly 3-4' out from the trunk. And then water deeply, maybe every other day for the first couple weeks, then easing back to twice per week in August. I transplanted a redbud a couple summers ago and got it through by just watering frequently. In cases like this, I don't think the standard advice for new springtime transplants (checking soil moisture and watering only when it starts drying out) is applicable.

I have never done this, but I know some nurseries recommend gently hosing down the leaves (early in the morning) for a few days after a difficult/big transplant.
cynthiamay22 thanked hamburglar1