Beech Hedge Transplant to Free Standing.

arynne

I have a 25 year old beech hedge, 10 feet tall, contains maybe 50 plants. Can I now dig these up and transplant each of these as a free standing beech tree. How would you go about that? What kind of equipment should I hire? Advise please. Many thanks.
Andrew Rynne.

looksee

I personally would not attempt it, not least because as the branches have been pruned for 25 years into hedge shapes, so as trees they will be a bit odd. Any trees that are 25 years old are not likely to take to transplanting.

However if you are determined to try it, I would suggest getting a digger to scoop each tree out with as much soil as possible (I think they are fairly shallow rooted) and drop them straight into the prepared hole. Then water them frequently and generously for the next year.

Ophiopogon

Yeah I would agree with Looksee as to not attempt it. Esp as beech can be a bit narky in the first place.

Why do you want to move them?

magicbastarder

if they were bought as hedging, you'd probably find that they had their roots 'pruned' to make for bushier growth - so they wouldn't grow into a field tree as you may be looking for.
you probably have a lot of land if you want to plant them out; you know beech forms a very dense canopy and will shade out pretty much all understorey plants?

artieanna

Don't move anything until we at least get the first frosts to make them dormant!

muckyhands

I wouldn't attempt to move it either as they don't transplant well generally speaking, and due to the age.

If you want to move a mature tree it needs to be done in stages over say 3 years, you would trench around the plant, one third each year, so as to create a sufficiently compact rootball within the trench.

I dont know how you would go about trenching a mature hedge in such a way without causing damage or death, and as single trees they will no longer have leaders as its been pruned as a hedge.