Cedar Transplantability? Bare Root Transplant?

[Paul B]

hmm. I think a tree spade around here goes about $150 / hour.
to dig and move a tree like that across a property I would say about 1.5 man hours digging, 1 machine hour plus materials (burlap and twine etc).

 

[lumberjack]

Wow, I must be seriously overthinking things, I was planning on those two trees taking every bit of a day.

1.5 man hours=$100 + machine + materials= under $500

Does that include hauling the wad of excess dirt from the new site back to the hole where the tree was?

I'm feelin the newbness.

 

[Paul B]

considering I can buy a dug and burlapped 12-13' cedar here at a nursery for $150 or less...

We just planted 24 of them, delivered by crane. partially pre dug trench to plant them in, 3 guys 6 hours plus crane costs (sorry for the run on sentence).

 

[treelooker]

Paul is that a Thuja plicata?

4' apart???

 

[squisher]

Under $500 seems cheap to me, but I don't move trees.......in one piece.

 

[Paul B]

it is Looker. I advised them 3 times that this is NOT the right tree for this location. They had us remove a hedge of 7 to 8' smaragd (thuja occ. 'smaragd')cedars (the right tree for this place) and replace with the pictured trees (thuja plicata excelsa). Their intention as new homeowners is privacy for their pool area and they will likely be moving within 5 years. I let them know that 10 years or less from now that this will be a maintenance nightmare (trying to keep them pruned or having to remove every second tree) but they insisted, so we planted. Apparently I will be the lucky one to get to prune them while the clients live there, oh joy. :roll:

 

[lumberjack]

considering I can buy a dug and burlapped 12-13' cedar here at a nursery for $150 or less...

We can't buy trees this size locally. My first job was at a tree nursery, biggest containers we had were 45 gallons, caliper wise you're looking at 4-5" tops and their condition typically isn't that great. If a decent tree could be found in a nursery, that'd be great.

Here's an example of a Weeping Willow the Dr bought. It's almost 1" in caliper and about 85-90" in height above grade. A tree that size should be 3" in caliper, give or take. He paid $20 for it.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Caliper?

 

[lumberjack]

The diameter of the tree 4" above the stump.

 

[MasterBlaster]

That's a definition somewhere?

 

[lumberjack]

Yep.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Ahh, I see now. But it's 6 to 12 inches, not 4.

 

[Paul B]

around here the norm is to measure about a foot above grade for caliper.

 

[sotc]

diameter shin height

 

[MasterBlaster]

I've never heard it in that context in my life. You wacky landscrapers!

 

[THillMaine]

Drum Lacing

Learn how to drum lace...Its exactly as it sounds like lacing a drum. Our rule of thumb is 1 foot 10 inches with great sucess rates. Success rates will also depend on after care...Aqua neccisito mucho. Look iot up online I am sure you will find out how to drum lace...

 

[lumberjack]

Estimate is in, should hear from him in the AM.

Pauly learned me how to drum lace last night .

 

[Paul B]

drum tie, drum lace, methinks the same idea.

Welcome thillmaine!

 

[lumberjack]

Estimate accepted, all engines at full, stand by for launch!

 

[rumination]

Cool, be sure to take pictures!

 

[Paul B]

yup/ pics and cost/profit analysis after, see if we helped you make money or made you lose some! hope it all goes well LJ.

 

[squisher]

Are you under 5 bills?

 

[sotc]

i was thinking twice that plus material

 

[lumberjack]

Price is $1400 +/- $200.

I'm predicting expenses will be around $700 I figure, counting Daniels time, but not mine, and not counting the mulch (we already have from 3yo chips) we're installing around the plants.

Gonna use an excavator to help expose the root ball.

Expenses in theory:
$260 excavator
$150 Daniel
$60 Typar/Topar and Bailing twine
$100 fuel (generous)


But I'm also not counting making a cradle to lift the root ball with my tractor. I already have the metal to build it though so it's mainly time. It'll take me 2-4 hours to fab it up I'm figuring, not working full tilt boogy.

Also not counting tractor time, but will be quite minimal (under 2 hours), but I figure that'll be offset when I use the excavator around here for some projects assuming we have some running time left on it.

Granted, this is all assuming all goes peachy and it doesn't count the hours I've already spent with the Dr helping him decide on trees and their new locations, nor the time I'll spend doing the work. I figure the time I spent learning from ya'll and others isn't billable as I'm getting way more out of it, thanks!

 

[SkwerI]

Good luck with it. The support roots should pretty much hold the root ball together, you mainly need to worry about chunks of dirt falling off and ripping feeder roots. A quick wrap with burlap and then something quick and simple to hold the burlap tight so you can pick it up will give you 90% of your root ball prep.