Moving ash trees

blue5000

I'm under a bit of (financial):mad: pressure from the dept. to clear scrub along a boundary. I didn't get it done last winter, but hope to get it done this winter. It's a mix of mostly blackthorn and hawthorn with some hazel, gorse, briars, holly, an odd oak (which I will leave where it is) and ash. The oak is approx 25-30 years old, ash varies from saplings to 40ish years.

My question is whether it's worth moving the young ash and holly to a rough corner in another field about 200m away? No sign of any disease on the ash yet that I can see. I know it's a bit of a 'how long is a bit of string question'. Or would I be better off to forget about it.

tabby aspreme

I would definitely move the Holly , but not sure about the Ash as its only a matter of time for it , sounds bad but that's the reality

Oldtree

Take as big a rootball as you can with the holly. Can be very difficult to move barerooted as would need loads of water till well settled in. I've tried moving a number of small holly and it didn't go very well.

Other small saplings would be easy to dig up and to slit plant in the new site. No harm to move a few ash.

greysides

Maybe cutting back the Holly to increase the root to foliage ratio would help its survival. If the nursery corner was damp it would help too.