I think I'll have to cut down the branches severely, just to drag it into my van. Not sure if the branches are flexible enough to be tied. I think I'll need to cut off some of the competing central leaders.

Ball and burlap is what's probably required here, and an adequate ball will require 2 men to load it in and out of your vehicle.

Most other species can be moved bare root up to most any size.

I cut down one of the central leaders, also all the broken branches during the transit. More pruning is needed to shape the tree and get the canopy smaller to compensate for the lost roots. I hope it can make it. I still have two more spot for Asian pear trees.

garden

I got to his house at about 10:30 am. The temp was like 45F. Cloudy, some winter rain on Friday, but not wet. I started digging with my shovel, pick and large pruner. I forgot to bring my hand rake.

The soil is farm clay/loam, not muddy, not sticky, but moist. I started from 6' diameter, cut some of the big roots. Then we bent the trunk and cut off the couple of big roots at the bottom. We did not want to keep the entire rootball since 5' rootball with soil would be too heavy. We just let the soil naturally fell to ground, but still somehow kept the soil at the center.

To reduced the weight and size, I cut off the 2nd central leader, and reduced the size, so the tree could pass the gate and fit into the vehicle. It was a 10 minutes drive.

After we moved the tree off the vehicle, I covered the roots with a camping tarp. I measured the rootball and enlarged the planting hole to about 6' large. The rootball is about 5' large. I put dowm some bone meal in the hole and set the plant in. It is planted at the same depth as before. I watered the tree with water, but not too much since we have freezing night temp. I firmed the soil and made sure the tree is straight. I'm going to put down some mulch today.

The tree is planted near my other two Asian pears. I plan to get at least one more Asian pear. I d not know the exact variety, but the fruit skin is green brown, just like Olympic. He did not thin the fruits hard enough the past season, so the fruits were small.

I already started to shape the tree, cutting all the broken branches, water sprouts, bad old prune stubs, cross branches. The size of the tree should be reduced.

Next season, I plan to put down some Greenlight or other root stimulator. Then let it set a couple fruits, just to see what fruits it sets. I just hope the tree makes it. I do not have much to lose.

The tree is more than 3" diameter. And I did not get rootball with much soil. But the weather is right. I believe the fall season helps the roots to heal, sit and take a break. It would be bad to move it in spring.

and you learned a lot ...

but i wouldnt work that hard for 30 to 50 bucks... delivered to my house ... in the mail ...

i hope it works out ... all it really needs next year is PROPER WATERING ...

i dont know if i would bother with root stim nor fert ... on an already highly stressed tree ..

sounds like you had fun ... when you get older.. you will start looking at the labor you put into it.. and wonder why you used to work so hard... lol ...

good luck

ken

ps: i am thinking.. i would look to let it set fruit in 2 to 3 years ... not next year.. but i am a tree guy.. not a fruit nut ....

No, it is not anything about $. My friend has a bad back and he wanted this tree out of the garden. If we cut it down, we still have to dig out the roots. So you do not save a lot of efforts.

I also dug out two young grape vines, a small spice tree, from that small garden.

It is also a good way to prune and train a large fruit tree. It is actually easier than I thought. We had several trees down from Sandy. The roots were much worse than this. We dug out a very large Douglas Fir (about 20'?) since it was uprooted.

Thanks for the play by play, we've all enjoyed it.

It probably won't make much difference in your climate but I'd water enough to make sure the soil around the roots is fully wet and settled. Freezing won't hurt at all and is no reason to leave the soil loose. I know you firmed the soil but watering well always causes the soil to settle further. There is nothing that fully wetting the soil will hurt.

I'll water it more, since the hole is about 6' large. I was concerned with the night freezing temp. The ground is not frozen yet, but the dug soil was frozen.

The reason:
Moist soil retains warmth longer than does dry soil.

Said another way, it takes longer for roots in moist soil to freeze than it will for roots in dry soil.

I think I'm going to take out the central leaders and train the tree as a vase shape. Do not want the tree to grow too tall, hard to pick fruits that way.

In total, I think I cut from 1/3 to 2/5 of the top growth. I think this is enough for now.

Nevertheless, very nice tree...