NEWBIE - HELP REPLANTING A VERY IMPORTANT PLANT

[russellodonoghue]

Hi, albeit I enjoy gardening, I am a total novice and need to advice on replanting an Acer. See attached.
It doesn't look much but it's now over 20 years old and was purchased by my mum just a few weeks before she suddenly died so it's an important plant!
Question: I am due to move home in by 30th November and want to take it with me but this time pot it - I appreciate it might be a risk, but to me it's worth it. Can anyone help me it timing; soil to use in the pot and the pot style and or size - if you could give me some advice on size of pot in cm as opposed to litres it would be massively appreciated as the I struggle to visualise litres.

Thanks in hopeful advance!!
Russell O'Donoghue
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Chuck]

When transplanting a tree of that size it should be done during dormancy. You must dig up as much of the root system as possible and the pot should be at least twice the size of the root system. Even then it is very unlikely that the tree will survive. It is just too big and the root system is too large. But, to help with the transplant shock you should use a product called Super Thrive before and after the transplant. You will have a much better chance by taking cuttings than by digging up the tree.

 

[DirtMechanic]

@Sean Regan Your skills are required please. It appears this person is in central UK.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I would agree with Chuck generally. I have seen a small flowering cherry transplanted from one area of the garden to another. There was a three foot trench dug all the way around and a ball of earth taken out that took three of us to lift out, and it still never did very well afterwards. You would need a huge pot, and I would still doubt it being successful.
Taking cuttings is an excellent idea, and now is a good time for it. I always take a good few and give them different conditions, the 'experts' are not always right, conditions vary and sometimes it is one lot that takes, sometimes another. I would heel some in at an angle, put some in pots, keep some of the pots moist, keep others standing in water, and so on.
A cutting is the same plant, not just an identical twin but actually part of the plant.

 

[Sean Regan]

Hi, albeit I enjoy gardening, I am a total novice and need to advice on replanting an Acer. See attached.
It doesn't look much but it's now over 20 years old and was purchased by my mum just a few weeks before she suddenly died so it's an important plant!
Question: I am due to move home in by 30th November and want to take it with me but this time pot it - I appreciate it might be a risk, but to me it's worth it. Can anyone help me it timing; soil to use in the pot and the pot style and or size - if you could give me some advice on size of pot in cm as opposed to litres it would be massively appreciated as the I struggle to visualise litres.

Thanks in hopeful advance!!
Russell O'Donoghue
(e-mail address removed)

Hi and welcome.

Your acer should be shedding its leaves soon. So it is no longer growing, Leave moving it until nearer the end of November.

If you're going to pot it permanently, get a decent sized pot.
The bigger the root ball you can take the better, they are quite shallow rooted, but go down at least 18."

Add ericaceous compost to the pot.

They like a bit of shade.

We've two large acer palmatums, one we've had over thirty years, the other around twenty.
They are always in full sun, so I mist spray them around 2.00pm if it's really hot. They don't like to be short of water.

But both these are in dedicated beds.
They are starting to shed their leaves now.

Gaps appear in the foliage canopy, as the leaves fall.

We've also this acer palmatum Taylor, we've had for a couple of yeas now and it seems quite happy in this ceramic pot.

But it lives on the patio. It sits on a plastic pot mover. They can dry out very quickly in hot weather, but with my pot movers some water gets retained, so no fear of it drying out. There's a small hole I drill in the bottom of all our pot movers, we've over a dozen roses in ceramic pots on two patios on them and I put a dab of silicone over the hole in each for the summer, then remove it in the autumn, so any retained water runs out over the winter.

It's "in training," the wire is helping to get the branches to be better balanced. Once they've "set" I'll remove the wire.

You'll find over the winter some branches die off. With mine, I get a bucket full of bits I prune off over the winter when it's not frosty. They are replaced by new growth from the top.

 

[russellodonoghue]

I would agree with Chuck generally. I have seen a small flowering cherry transplanted from one area of the garden to another. There was a three foot trench dug all the way around and a ball of earth taken out that took three of us to lift out, and it still never did very well afterwards. You would need a huge pot, and I would still doubt it being successful.
Taking cuttings is an excellent idea, and now is a good time for it. I always take a good few and give them different conditions, the 'experts' are not always right, conditions vary and sometimes it is one lot that takes, sometimes another. I would heel some in at an angle, put some in pots, keep some of the pots moist, keep others standing in water, and so on.
A cutting is the same plant, not just an identical twin but actually part of the plant.

thanks Oliver - as mentioned, I'm a total novice, how or where from the plant do i take a cutting, and what does it need to be planted in? [any advice is greatly appreciated]

 

[russellodonoghue]

Hi and welcome.

Your acer should be shedding its leaves soon. So it is no longer growing, Leave moving it until nearer the end of November.

If you're going to pot it permanently, get a decent sized pot.
The bigger the root ball you can take the better, they are quite shallow rooted, but go down at least 18."

Add ericaceous compost to the pot.

They like a bit of shade.

We've two large acer palmatums, one we've had over thirty years, the other around twenty.
They are always in full sun, so I mist spray them around 2.00pm if it's really hot. They don't like to be short of water.

But both these are in dedicated beds.
They are starting to shed their leaves now.

View attachment 93338

Gaps appear in the foliage canopy, as the leaves fall.

View attachment 93339

We've also this acer palmatum Taylor, we've had for a couple of yeas now and it seems quite happy in this ceramic pot.

But it lives on the patio. It sits on a plastic pot mover. They can dry out very quickly in hot weather, but with my pot movers some water gets retained, so no fear of it drying out. There's a small hole I drill in the bottom of all our pot movers, we've over a dozen roses in ceramic pots on two patios on them and I put a dab of silicone over the hole in each for the summer, then remove it in the autumn, so any retained water runs out over the winter.

It's "in training," the wire is helping to get the branches to be better balanced. Once they've "set" I'll remove the wire.

View attachment 93340

You'll find over the winter some branches die off. With mine, I get a bucket full of bits I prune off over the winter when it's not frosty. They are replaced by new growth from the top.

WOW firstly you have a wonderful looking garden with some fantastic looking plants and trees!! secondly I massively appreciate your help here - I love to garden but have limited time and very limited knowledge - are you able to suggest the size of a pot to buy? I appreciate I don't know how deep the roots go yet but pots on websites etc. all seem to be sold in litres and I'm struggling to visualise how big physically say a 10 litre pot is.....thank you again

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I would look for lengths about nine to twelve inches, about pencil thickness, and I would pot in a compost mix that contains a fair bit of sharp sand. Cut your cuttings with a square cut across the bottom and a slanting one at the top, then you won't get any upside down. Try and cut a piece so your cut is just below a bud, it may not be a huge bursting one, but the way it interferes with the straight run of the tubes in the wood encourages roots, as does the sand. The other thing that does that is hormone rooting powder, dip the end of your cutting in water, then in the rooting powder, that makes it stick. I also use non-hormonal rooting powder and mix it into my potting mix; it's debatable whether it really works, but it seems to to me.
Having laid out the instructions I would say that I then mix it up a bit. I'll use a spade to lift a bit of earth and put cuttings into garden soil at an angle, then firm them in with my heel; I'll leave some outside and put some in the greenhouse, maybe have some a bit longer or a bit thicker. There don't seem to be cut and dried rules about what works and what doesn't, but some things do help.
I have never tried it with acers, it maybe that people with more specific experience can tell you better which techniques to go for.

 

[Sean Regan]

WOW firstly you have a wonderful looking garden with some fantastic looking plants and trees!! secondly I massively appreciate your help here - I love to garden but have limited time and very limited knowledge - are you able to suggest the size of a pot to buy? I appreciate I don't know how deep the roots go yet but pots on websites etc. all seem to be sold in litres and I'm struggling to visualise how big physically say a 10 litre pot is.....thank you again

Thanks for the kind words.
We've two fairly large plants that share the central bed in our garden.
The mimosa, which is about 8ft high, is where it is now, in my second photo, for the winter.

For the summer, we have this sambucas.

Just a case of changing them over.

When out of season, they live on the small patio behind our shed. (Nowhere else to put them!)

The tubs have sort of handles on the sides, to make them easier to lift.

I'd suggest you get something similar.

The tubs are plastic and about twenty inches in diameter. They've been in them for well over a decade.
As you've shown an interest in our garden, here's a tour.

 

[russellodonoghue]

I would look for lengths about nine to twelve inches, about pencil thickness, and I would pot in a compost mix that contains a fair bit of sharp sand. Cut your cuttings with a square cut across the bottom and a slanting one at the top, then you won't get any upside down. Try and cut a piece so your cut is just below a bud, it may not be a huge bursting one, but the way it interferes with the straight run of the tubes in the wood encourages roots, as does the sand. The other thing that does that is hormone rooting powder, dip the end of your cutting in water, then in the rooting powder, that makes it stick. I also use non-hormonal rooting powder and mix it into my potting mix; it's debatable whether it really works, but it seems to to me.
Having laid out the instructions I would say that I then mix it up a bit. I'll use a spade to lift a bit of earth and put cuttings into garden soil at an angle, then firm them in with my heel; I'll leave some outside and put some in the greenhouse, maybe have some a bit longer or a bit thicker. There don't seem to be cut and dried rules about what works and what doesn't, but some things do help.
I have never tried it with acers, it maybe that people with more specific experience can tell you better which techniques to go for.

Oliver thank you so much - if only i had this knowledge! i'll give it all a go - might even report back in time of how i got on....thanks again!

 

[russellodonoghue]

Thanks for the kind words.
We've two fairly large plants that share the central bed in our garden.
The mimosa, which is about 8ft high, is where it is now, in my second photo, for the winter.

For the summer, we have this sambucas.

View attachment 93344

Just a case of changing them over.

When out of season, they live on the small patio behind our shed. (Nowhere else to put them!)

View attachment 93345


The tubs have sort of handles on the sides, to make them easier to lift.

I'd suggest you get something similar.

The tubs are plastic and about twenty inches in diameter. They've been in them for well over a decade.
As you've shown an interest in our garden, here's a tour.

what an amazing garden Sean, loving all the 'acer' type trees etc. you have [and Wisteria!!] and the garden house, very oriental - you obviously put massive amounts of time and energy [and money] into it....congratulations! I'm going to risk removing two acers, the first and the one in my photo, plus another with a much wider spread canopy [I don't think the second is a 'dwarf' one] - I bought a large plastic pot with handles when I removed an olive tree that was growing wild and needed to be moved when I had a landscape gardener in; I'll look at something similar albeit smaller.....if yours in the photo is 20" [50cm] I think mine might need to be slightly larger but will see what's about...a garden centre suggested a multi-purpose compost and suggested "Durstons" - I don't know it but presumably the multi-purpose type is fine?!
Thanks for what you have kindly offered me thus far Sean, its hugely appreciated, Russell

 

[Sean Regan]

Thanks for that Russell.

The garden has "evolved" over the years.
We've had quite a bit of water since we moved here in the seventies.

This was the first patio I built, with crazy terrazzo, over a concrete raft, with a pond, which was little more than a damp window box.

Then I built this 18" deep goldfish pond, in 1985, (the last of our three kids had left home by then) scrapping the terrazzo and replacing it with several pallets of crazy York stone.

I also built the concrete lamps and the 6ft pagoda.

Then I got the koi bug and dug it out the following year to a depth of 5ft for a 3000 gallon koi pool, with a dedicated room in the garage for the filter and a 300 gallon quarantine tank.

This was its last year in 2018, as it developed a leak and it would have been too much work to replace it.
The koi went to a good home two doors away. It took nearly 20 tonnes of eco hardcore to fill it. But I didn't do it, at the age of 78. I got a firm in!

But the fountain came from America and I installed it over the former pump sump and wired it up to the existing cables.

I built our summerhouse in 1987, I styled it on Victorian Japanese teahouses I'd seen in old gardening books in Manchester Central Library.

For the last fifteen years, it's housed one of my several hobbies.

We've only a small semi with a 12ft X 9ft front room which has been my den for decades.

It's full of my other "stuff."

I've an android TV, Virgin Tivo box, two Humax tuner/recorders, a CD/DVD player and a VHS recorder/player, (I've still got a lot of "film noir" recordings for which I haven't been able to swop for DVDs).

My wife is very supportive. Our lounge is twice the size and she has a similar sized TV, a Virgin Tivo box and a CD/DVD player. She's into decoupage card and costume jewellery making, so it's full of her stuff!"

Best of luck with your acers, if you take a big enough rootball, it'll be fine.

 

[russellodonoghue]

Thanks for that Russell.

The garden has "evolved" over the years.
We've had quite a bit of water since we moved here in the seventies.

This was the first patio I built, with crazy terrazzo, over a concrete raft, with a pond, which was little more than a damp window box.


View attachment 93346

Then I built this 18" deep goldfish pond, in 1985, (the last of our three kids had left home by then) scrapping the terrazzo and replacing it with several pallets of crazy York stone.

I also built the concrete lamps and the 6ft pagoda.

View attachment 93347


Then I got the koi bug and dug it out the following year to a depth of 5ft for a 3000 gallon koi pool, with a dedicated room in the garage for the filter and a 300 gallon quarantine tank.

This was its last year in 2018, as it developed a leak and it would have been too much work to replace it.
The koi went to a good home two doors away. It took nearly 20 tonnes of eco hardcore to fill it. But I didn't do it, at the age of 78. I got a firm in!

But the fountain came from America and I installed it over the former pump sump and wired it up to the existing cables.

I built our summerhouse in 1987, I styled it on Victorian Japanese teahouses I'd seen in old gardening books in Manchester Central Library.

For the last fifteen years, it's housed one of my several hobbies.

We've only a small semi with a 12ft X 9ft front room which has been my den for decades.

It's full of my other "stuff."

I've an android TV, Virgin Tivo box, two Humax tuner/recorders, a CD/DVD player and a VHS recorder/player, (I've still got a lot of "film noir" recordings for which I haven't been able to swop for DVDs).

My wife is very supportive. Our lounge is twice the size and she has a similar sized TV, a Virgin Tivo box and a CD/DVD player. She's into decoupage card and costume jewellery making, so it's full of her stuff!"

Best of luck with your acers, if you take a big enough rootball, it'll be fine.

Hi Sean, I'm sorry to latch on to you and your advice but you're clearly an expert [in my eyes!] ....i have found the below which appears to be the same design as the one in your photo - these measures 52 x 52 x 39dp cm - whilst i think the diameter is OK, do you think the depth is deep enough for the size of tree in question? thanks in advance - i'll try not to ask many more questions!

 

[Sean Regan]

Yes, that'll be fine. Our mimosa has lived in a similar one for over ten years.

 

[russellodonoghue]

Yes, that'll be fine. Our mimosa has lived in a similar one for over ten years.

thank you Sean - i am advised to use "durstons multi purpose compost " too but i guess they're all pretty similar!