fall transplanting

[mboatman]

Hey all. I am considering placing most of my 40 some trees into the ground to speed up development and to let others grow to see what comes of them. As a result, that would leave 6 trees in bonsai pots since i am happy with them now. I want to remove them from their pots and plant them in the ground in a nice healthy growing bed area. Is it safe to do so between now and the end of september? These include my competition tree(juniperus procumbens)

[plantmanky]

Mitch,

Actually now is a perfect time to do it so your trees will do their fall growth spurt in the new soil in your planting beds and establish themselves before the onset of winter. I wouldn't do too much to the roots other than to lightly tease them out of the root mass as your planting them. Good luck and hope to see some pictures of your collection here on the website. We are always looking for nice digital images of Native American trees for the ABS Gallery Reference image collection.

[mboatman]

Thanks for the info. While we are at it, is now a decent time to collect as well?
Also i have posted a pic of one of the rock elms in development in the native trees used for bonsai thread. Did you see the pic?

[plantmanky]

Mitch,

I would wait to do any collecting. You need to wait at least untill the material in the ground has had at least 2 or 3 killing frosts before collecting. Making sure the tree is asleep in it's winter slumber is critical to ensure it's survival. In addition, I would only select tree species that are very hardy (in the root) for Fall collecting and if they are not, getting an overly large root ball is encouraged. Yes, I did notice your Rock Elm (U. thomasii) and its quite nice indeed. It will become even better as it ages and fills out some. Keep up the good work bud!

[mboatman]

I feel the same about fall being a less than ideal time to collect. Its just that it gets confusing when i hear of fall being the ideal transplant time. Repotting and collecting, to me, are different forms of transplanting. I feel most comfortable collecting between February 15th - march 15th where i live. I almost never have failures at those times IF i have good rootage(barerooted or rootball preserved) i have made REGRETABLE mistakes by not paying attention to a one side rooted tree where as i trench around, i sever the only lifeline due to it having just one root along the rocky soil. Gotta pay attention to that.lol collecting season cannot come soon enough!
thank you for the kind words on my elm. Of a collection of 40+, 3 are non native( boxwood, dwarf alberta spruce, and amur maple.) The rest are the lovely natives of ohio!