Contact: 0414 675 736 or (02) 9773 6675
Email: plassoc@bigpond.com.au
ABN 28 335 939 810
If you need to carry out an urgent transplant operation in your garden, the following information is given.
Firstly, most unplanned transplants are normally a high risk exercise, and sometimes life is like this.
Avoid cutting back the tree or shrub unless absolutely necessary; the foliage helps in the feeding process for the damaged roots. Keep the pruning to the repair/removal of damaged branches, and minor underpruning of low branches or foliage in the way of operations around the root system.
Trim up damaged roots with a SHARP pair of secateurs or shears. No paints or other stuff on roots, other than root hormones. I’ve had best results with Multicrop ‘Plant Starter’ but most are fairly good. Dig the planting hole SHALLOW and WIDE!!! Use a top quality potting mix - don't scrimp. Add about 20% washed river sand to the mix (recovering roots love well aerated soil). Here’s the old codger’s trick - add about 2 Kilograms of brown sugar to a bucket of warm water, mix and let it cool. Add this sugar solution to the lower area of the planting mix, just below the severed root area, just before the plant goes in, and pore the mix over the top of the root mass as well. Plant as you normally would, don’t forget a thick (100mm) layer of mulch, water frequently but don’t overdo it, pray to all the tree Gods.
Paul Laverty
Tree Assessment Report -