White Pine – Question

Has anyone here ever transplanted white pines? We have planted thousands over the years, but now I’d love to take some and move them to a property line. From my unprofessional internet research it seems that as soon as the frost is gone, to go for it with pines? The local arborist said it’s definitely feasible, just to not take a tree from the woods and plant in full sun, or vice versa.

I’m looking to transplant 15 of them or so, all about 6-8′ in height so hopefully they are big enough the deer can only damage them now versus completely kill them. It also seems that white pines from planting to 6-8′ grow fairly slow before really taking off after that point.

Yep, my dad dug up several white pine for me and I planted them on my treeline. They were about 3 feet tall at the time, now they are like 25. I did lose one though years in to disease or something.

I had really good success in the past with them, but they were smaller than the ones you’re moving?

B-man wrote:

I had really good success in the past with them, but they were smaller than the ones you’re moving?

^This is my concern. It seems that the larger the trees being transplanted, the more likely it is for something to go wrong with the transplant. Generally it is easier to get a greater percentage of the roots. I’m not really sure how many roots come with a 6-8′ tree?

I live in a sandy soil region and I don’t transplant anything over 3′ tall. You’ll have to protect the terminal buds from the deer until they’re about 8′ tall, and water, water, water. As well as spreading some 10-10-10 fertilizer around the base. There seems to be little benefit to transplanting taller trees unless you can get a huge root bundle to go along with it. And even then, the extra weight of that extra bundle makes it so much more of a chore that i just skip it, plant smaller trees and wait an additional year or two for the growth to catch up. it’s What you do after planting that’s really more important than the size you plant. (Water, proper fertilization, and protection from varmints)

Just make sure you do not have any air pockets with the roots.
The 3rd year they will start growing like weeds.

How are you transplanting? A tree spade will help the odds of them turning out well.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Just make sure you do not have any air pockets with the roots.
The 3rd year they will start growing like weeds.

yep.i was told to fill the hole with water before dropping the tree in!!!!!!!

bucky not sure where you live but i know i guy from wisconsin, around the hagar city area that does this. not sure what he charges but i can give you his cell number if your interested. he currently works at the meyer plant in Hagar city but is retiring this spring!!!!

Pine trees have shallow roots. You will want to go as wide as you can. If you could rent a 44″ spade, minimum 36″, that’s what I would suggest. I’ve moved lots of them and you can’t go too big but you can go too small on the root ball. Move them now until this year’s new growth starts to open. After it opens you will need to wait until that hardens off. Wetting down the the roots so they are moist (not soaked) before transplanting will help hold it together

We’ve moved several from the cabin property to other areas but always much smaller when moved, 1 foot maybe. Moving is the trick part. You do not want to mess up that tap root and you do not want to crowd the new planting. I’d work the ground up well and put wire caging about 6 feet in diameter up around each and put down 4″to 6″ of mulch chips. You mention deer…. use t-posts to support the wire caging. Keep the new planting watered but not necessarily wet. Find out where the new plantings came from and if they came from up north, use some acidifier [Miracle Grow make a good one] lightly on the mulch chips until the trees are about 6 feet tall.

White pines grow slow when young, maybe a foot a year. When they hit six feet they really take off. We have one in our yard that’s about 20 years old and is easily 40-45 feet tall. It was 12″ at planting.

We have an IDO first. Never before has this happened, and it may never happen again.

I’ve been convinced to “go smaller”. Sure, many will now question my manhood around here and my wife may leave me…but I’m going to opt to transplant some smaller 2-3’ trees versus the larger 6-8’ ones we have.

Good choice bucky! Smaller is better for transplanting for sure. Good luck. Try and get a root ball as wide as the lower limbs for best results. I like to put a 5 gallon pail with multiple holes drilled in it and place at the base of the tree for watering if you dont have water close by. Fill that baby up every day or so and it will work fantastic.

buckybadger wrote:

We have an IDO first. Never before has this happened, and it may never happen again.
I’ve been convinced to “go smaller”. Sure, many will now question my manhood around here and my wife may leave me

So true Bucky, it is in fact the first time everyone agreed that something would work better if it was smaller!

When my wife asks what I’m doing hauling trees around next week from the hunting land to the homestead, I’ll just say:

“It’s not the size that matters honey. It’s how you transplant it.”