Moving home - Fruit trees in tubs

Anthony1974

Hi everyone , my first post!

i am moving home mid sept hopefully and I have 4 fruit trees in 150L tubs.

one cherry , one plum , 2 pear 

for ease of moving (disabled)

 I wanted to potentially take the trees out the tubs , wrap in hessian , then bag the earth up and stack the tubs inside each other. .

Then the next day at new house replant trees in the tubs - with same compost mix bagged for that same tree .

I’ve bought a house with 1/2 acre so want to take the trees and have them as part of the orchard I want to plant within time once I’ve sorted the overgrown jungle of brambles. 

That’s the idea I have …. Is there a correct way to do this?  I just know the trees arrived bare root in hessian years ago & that’s why I thought could I basically do the same thing to transplant.

moving in their current tubs is not an option  as they are very heavy. 

Many thanks
anthony . 

pansyface

Hello anthony,

Yes, it’s a problem. We too have been pondering the same question for about a year now. Apple trees, mostly, in big plastic pots needing to move house sometime.

The trees that arrived in hessian arrived in a dormant state I imagine? Leafless. Snoozing. Unaware of being shifted from place to place.

September is a different matter. September is still wide awake time for fruit trees. Not a good idea to throw them out of their homes, tell them to get ready for bed and into their pyjamas and expect them to thank you for the disturbance.

I take it that you won’t personally be lifting and heaving and transporting them.

A man with a van is what you need. Or maybe two. If the pots are plastic and have two handles apiece, they should be able to move them with not too much bother.

Loxley

If the trees have been in the tubs for years, I can't see the benefit in removing them from the tubs. The rootball will have grown to be roughly the same size and shape as the tub, most likely!

pansyface

Yup. True. That is another problem. 

Anthony1974

Rootball ;- This is what I was also thinking , the size of the root ball etc. Well my other half has just demonstrated they can be lifted by the handle -  as pansyface suggested. 

Would save a lot of effort essentially upheaving them, replanting to be then replanted again in the orchard! 

The solution I’m told is a Luton type van with a tail lift … so I’ll low explore that . 

It’s a logistical nightmare as we have 2 tonnes of loose oak logs -  I bought that cheap in the spring then we decided to move 2 weeks later ! - that’s being netted up to go with us. 

As the only heat is wood burning stoves as it’s rural. 

Thanks again all.