Moving 100 year old Oak

in pieces to the firewood store.

But seriously, it will almost certainly not survive. Most attempts to move mature trees fail.

Big established trees do not take kindly to being moved.

They could have planted a hundred replacements for it and used the wood to build something nice.

Two months on update about it here..

I'm surprised it was that little.

But like another poster said, they should have cut it down and planted hundreds of saplings (use clones if you want "the same tree") instead. Moving it was just pointless sentimentality.

In message , at 10:13:04 on Wed, 7 Nov

mark

I'm thinking of selling some of our olive trees. Apparently specimens like the ones I have are worth 10-100,000. They are rare varieties, large and all getting on for over a century old. The tree moving companies claim close to 100% success. Buyer takes the risk and cost of transport. I could be sitting on close to 30 million quid if I can find suitably wealthy buyers who don't want to wait for trees to mature.

I wonder if Lord McAlpine fancies some trees for his Italian villas.

Kew Gardens seem to manage it well enough. They replanted their Broad Walk with large cedars in 2000 and they have an oak that was transplanted in 1846, when it was over 80 years old.

Colin Bignell

I thought Oaks have a sap root that they seem to have simply cut off in that video. I am surprised the tree survived.

Grrrr tap root!

Err... It tells you why in the video.

There is a way to do it, The problem is the root ball size.

A circular trench is made round the tree about 1200mm away cutting off all the roots. You wait for two years, the tree makes new roots close to the trunk. The tree can then be moved with a much smaller root ball. Capability Brown invented this method for his 18th century landscape projects.

(a) Its called a tap root. (b) Mature trees don't have tap roots by and large.

In fact tree roots seldom go > 1m underground. They do however go sideways a LONG way

Or today you use a grabber that takes a 5m diameter chunk out of the ground and the tree with it..

Wouldn't he get enough extra virgin oil from a young sapling from a nursery?

Being 100 years old hardly makes it special, so the whole thing seems a lot of fuss & expense for no good reason.

Like the US election. Wind farms, the EU, an Apple computer.... Pleb values rule OK?

I know it as in the way of the new road but I'll still go with Why? As in why go to all that trouble?