Forum home› The potting shed
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Do I Move an Oak Sapling?

KerweeyKerweey Posts: 16
in The potting shed
We have just moved into our new home and approximately half way down our 118 foot garden is an oak sapling of approximately a meter and a half high.  It seems it wasn't planted on purpose, hence it's location.  I don't want to kill it and would prefer to move it to a more suitable location at the bottom of the garden.  Can anyone offer any advice of when and how to move the oak?  Thank you.

Posts

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    edited August 2018
    First of all have you checked how tall and wide an oak tree will grow?  Is your garden big enough?   You might want to see if you can find it a new home in a park or wildlife trust site or similar where it can live its proper span of several hundred years if not more.

    Secondly, moving any tree or shrub is best done when they are dormant, so after leaf fall for deciduous plants, and when the soil is still warm from summer heat and moist after autumn rains.   October/November then.

    Water the tree well with 10 to 15 litres poured on slowly to soak in the night before.  Then dig it out with a decent root ball and transfer to its new home at the same depth.  Back fill and water well again.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • ButtercupdaysButtercupdays Posts: 4,546
    Wait till autumn when it loses its leaves.  Prepare a nice big planting hole and lift the sapling with as much root as you can manage. Replant straight away to the original soil level and fill hole. Water well and keep watered if it is dry.
    I did the same 34 years ago, when we moved here, with a sapling growing out of a drystone retaining wall and now it is a lovely oak tree producing its own acorns :)

    Hope yours does as well, but choose the position carefully, so it causes neither damage nor nuisance. It could be there for a long time!

  • KerweeyKerweey Posts: 16
    Thank you.  I will move in Autumn :)

Sign In or Register to comment.