Suggestions please for a free standing hoist for lifting large plant pots -Xpost

At around £150 this is roughly equivalent to two days hire, so seems a possible option.

I already have an electric hoist, so a tripod for this might be another option.

Cheers

Dave R

You might do worse than rigging a 2 x 4 across two step ladders and getting a 'come along' to lift the trees...

No, there doesn't seem to be a ready-made solution until you're a professional, lifting and moving large trees.

The pot 'drops off'? We have a number of medium-sized shrubs, and sometimes the pot is extremely difficult to remove, even though it has sloping sides. The roots grip the sides surprisingly well if the plant is root-bound, which is usually why repotting is needed.

If there's a few to do, you might end up constructing something with a pulley hoist and maybe a few bits of wood pergola posts. You might even get away with a large stepladder, a crosspiece and hoist. We do actually have a pergola, which would work for small trees up to about

With shrubs, you can usually lay it down on its side, and work the pot off, but that's obviously not going to work with a tree with a sizeable spread.

Tripod of 3x2's, a bit longer than the height of your tree, lash and bolt one end of the three together - that will give you a high mounting point for either a pulley, or a winch.

Alternatively, if you have a two story home, and can get the tree close to a wall - A length of timber across a part open window up high, then suspend your pulley/winch from that.

That sounds like a massive strain on a poor unsuspecting window.

It's the walls either side of the windows that take the weight. A piece of wood over the window sill, perhaps with a pillow beneath it, will spread the load. Pillows against the wall either side of the windows can also prevent cosmetic damage to wallpaper/paint.

I've done similar to secure a ladder horizontally over a bit of first floor roofing to allow safer access for maintenance.

Note: a few weeks ago I tried to get a 3 foot tall shrub out of the large plastic pot it had been in for the past 10 years. I could not knock the pot off. Even when destroying the pot on one side I still had great difficulty removing the rest of the pot. The shrub was completely root bound. Before attempting to remove the shrub I had given it a drastic prune back. It is now planted in my back garden flower bed.

It helps to run an old, long-bladed breadknife around the inside of the pot to cut through as many roots as possible. I keep one in the shed just for that purpose, as I felt that The Management might have objected to me using the kitchen one. ;-)

Interesting. What is a "come along", though?

Cheers

Dave R

Last time we tried this: Lifted pot onto a stack of full compost bags and similar laid on its side. Nearly killed us. Eased the small tree out of the pot. Lifted small tree from resting place into new larger pot next to the stack of bags, already partially filled with compost. Nearly killed us.

From this I concluded that next time we tried this, mechanical assistance should be an option.

Cheers

Dave R

Hand operated ratchet winch, e.g.

No second floor windows available at the back or side.

Using the front might be a bit fiddly as it is a bay window.

I was really looking for a ready made solution, though this is a DIY forum.

Cheers

Dave R