How to Transplant a Japanese Maple

How to Transplant a Japanese Maple – In this video I transplant my Tamukeyama Japanese Maple that I contorted the trunk on. It has been with me for many years and now it has a great spot in the garden.

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Welcome to Hort tube my name is Jim putam in this video we’re going to be moving a Japanese maple I’ve got a ukama weeping cut Leaf Japanese maple over here that I’ve had for a long long time I’ve actually contorted the trunk over the years if you’ve been watching the

Channel for any length of time this came from the old house it was actually a display piece I had at the Garden Center uh that I had before that and it made it to my house in a container and it was here for a year in a container then it

Went in the ground last year and you just can’t see it back here where we have it so we’re going to move it out here as more of a focal point in the garden so that’s the actual reason uh that it’s being moved uh there’s nothing in particular that’s different moving a

Japanese maple than there is moving anything else I moved an aelia the other day there were some aelas here actually that got moved as well I’m just off camera because I did a video on moving an encor zelia moved five more out of this space or Stu actually moved five

More out of this space and uh to create this open space for us to uh put the put the Maple in it there’s nothing in particular different other than they’re pretty aggressive rooting out into the landscape so if it’s been in the ground for a long time it’s probably going to

Be pretty hard to get it out of the ground and it’s probably going to need some root pruning uh on it before you move it and we’ll talk about that when we move back here to the uh to where the maple is Japanese maples makes a really

Good focal point Center Point piece uh in the garden this is a cut Leaf weeping maple you know the you also have upright ones and all kinds of different uh Japanese maples and there’s some many Japanese maples videos on the channel if you’re interested in learning more we’re when we’re moving something

Like this I’d like to go ahead and kind of guess about how big uh that root ball is going to be moving over here and get started on this hole where it’s going uh so that when once I get started on it over there and I get some better idea

I’ll come back and maybe make the hole a little bit bigger or whatever but I’m at least going to get some sort of start on it so it spends less time over over all out of the ground uh this uh space um all of our landscape out here has been

Was compost was put down wood chips were put down it’s been mulched several times there’s really nothing I need to add to the soil here at all uh any anytime I dig now whatever organic the humus layer that’s on the top will get mixed in with

The soil down below the one thing we have going on right now though is is bone dry I’m digging digging at the beginning of December I would not expect to go down and have this which is just absolutely bone dry soil never seen it before honestly in in December here uh

In Riley North Carolina I mean other places in the country obviously uh you can have very dry soil any time of the year but here it’s really unusual for us at this point to still be this dry and so I need to other thing about digging

This hole is I’m going to go ahead and water it some too uh I’m using my trenching shovel which was about four or maybe 5 inches longer than this uh when when I first started using this I’m running out of shovel somebody said that the other day in a video and

It’s absolutely true I do need to find another one that I like I’ve purchased a few others I just didn’t like as much as this one but it makes quick work out of digging in this compacted clay I’ve got a pcmatic uh in in in the shop over

There and I could come over here and definitely slam that thing into the ground and break this up pretty quickly but having a small a smaller shovel like this is much easier to stick down uh into the ground again got wide shovels as well just found over the years this

Thing is the makes very very quick work of compacted soil uh doesn’t take much out of the hole at the time though so it’s you’re doing this you know doing a lot of that but uh but the actual digging part goes really really quickly

So I’ve dug a kind of a base hole here let’s go over here and get the maple this Maple was planted in the middle of these three Mojo pit ofp B these are Southern Living plant collection uh dwarf pittosporum and they’re really really beautiful uh and it’s looked

Great in between here but obviously it’s too crowded with too many other things going on I’ve got a gardinia I need to move back here uh as well it was almost planted there to have it because we didn’t know where we were going to put

It at the time so that’ll get moved as well probably out into the Cent it’s going to end up with more space but this Maple has only been in the ground for uh maybe 18 months or something like that at this point it was in a container

Forever and ever it’s going to come out of the ground really really easy and the way I know that I can take my shovel and I can stick it down in the ground uh you know I I just I don’t know how much shovels left maybe seven inches there uh

Went into the ground and I can pull back gently and I can see that tree move that gives me some indication right there that’s just that it’s going to come out of the ground pretty easy you know if I if I stuck the shovel in the ground and

It just you know nothing no vibration went through that tree at all then I know I’m kind of in for it a little bit uh you know in for some work this one’s going to come out very very easily if it’s been in the ground you know for a

Long time this is true of any Woody shrub especially true with trees and especially true with Maples Maples again root pretty aggressively out into the landscape Japanese maples not as much as like red Maples or the shade you know shade trees but still pretty aggressive what I would do is come over

Here and actually root prune it I would do what I just did which is stick the shovel down in the ground uh out you know out toward the edge of the drip line I don’t need to go that far out with this particular tree because I know

It hasn’t rooted out there yet but I would go around the drip line and actually cut the feeder Roots the Roots that are in the top 3 4 Ines okay I just cut those just go around the circle cut them and then just leave the tree in

Place for a few months and allow it to just kind of recover from that initial damage and then move it over there the best time of year to do this is just anytime it’s DN I think most people watching can move one of these from December through March probably

March being the absolute best time to do it uh just because it’s about to wake up it’s about to put on some root growth it may recover a little quicker uh having done it at that time but down here in zone 7B 8A where I’m at uh the winter is

Just not going to be tough on it but you can see right there that it’s just going to come out pretty easy so I’m going going to go around cut these cut these little Feeder Roots around it hopefully not breaking the maple today and not doing too much damage to these

Pittosporum cutting a much smaller root ball than I normally would but I just know it’s not rooted out very far yet may have a smaller root ball on it than when I put it in this move is really kind of funny normally I’ll put a tree

Or a shrub or whatever on some sort of plastic uh tarp or something like that and I’ll drag it to where it needs to go or I’ll stick it in a low wheelbarrow and I’ll you know Drive ride it over so that I can get close to where I’m going

Without knocking all the soil off of it I’m trapped here and then kind of trapped there so the best thing for me to do in this case is just to lift it up uh and take it over there uh the timing on this is is super important um you

Know I said that winter would be the absolute best time while it’s dormant especially with the size of the root ball versus the size of the tree that I have on this because I had it contained in a container for so long uh it hasn’t rooted out a whole lot I mean

There just weren’t Roots I mean I I started before we started filming I I went out a little bit wider than that hole just to see if there were any there were just no roots out there they’re all pretty contained toward the middle uh so having this small root ball and the size

Of the top on this thing if I moved it while it was in leaf it would probably drop the vast majority of its leaves pretty quickly uh if I was trying to do this during the summer time sometimes we don’t have any choice let’s say you’re

Moving out of a house you want to take this Japanese maple with you that’s been your favorite plant in your garden and it’s some summer time you know you don’t have any choice I just get it quickly out of the ground and into a container some sort of potting soil around it

Maybe reduce the size of the canopy just a bit you know cut back the end of each branch maybe 6 in something like that to reduce the amount of water it’s having to use and that may prevent you from losing you know a whole lot of leaves on

It but if it it may go through some sort of transition where it has to DEA and then it should have enough energy though to relief out uh you know anyway I’m going to move this I’m going to pick it up and move it it’s not very

Heavy uh and I still haven’t watered this hole I said I was going to and I’ve got to do it so I’m going to move this back over here and get all of this water real quick we we can go over to the root ball and just kind of measure the depth with

Our shovel to see how far down it needs to be and it looks like I need to go a little bit deeper I don’t need to go a whole lot wider but I think it does need to go down just a hair more this is going to have to be watered

Several times when you not the best time of be moving something when it’s this dry but I can I can deal with it by watering several times if I superficial water one time it’s not going to penetrate way deep down in the soil you

See how dry it is a foot down I’m going to have to water again and again and again to actually get this thing wet over the next uh two or three days we’re supposed to get rain two days from now as I’m filming this like an inch and a

Half of rain that would be the perfect day of just gentle rain on it to Res saturate this when I water it also I’m watering a much wider area than just the root ball of the plant if I’d only water right there and there’s dry soil right

Here the dry soil is going to Wick that water away it’s going to rebalance the watering so water the bigger bigger area down here in the real clay now all right let’s see what that does for us so this plant’s going to become a focal point here in the garden and

We’re going to have to turn it accordingly to uh make it really stand out but you can see the contorted trunk on it I did this over the course of several years of bending it back and forth it didn’t hurt it at all very very happy tree uh so we’re going

To so tell me what you think stuff is that is the other side probably um tortion is perfect okay that looks pretty looks pretty good there yeah yeah okay anything need to my left Tey bit like that’s too much little left that’s perfect okay all right yeah I just watered all that soil

And it didn’t penetrate that pile at all just got to firm it in a second here other thing about using this shovel is it’s I can do this kind of stuff is that okay okay all right normally you’re dealing with a container plant it’s going to have

Pretty straight walls on it you know the the root ball is and so it’s easy to Tamp straight down when you dig something out of the ground like this it’s almost always going to come out in kind of a bowl shape you know have a you know has a Center Point that’s touching

The soil down there and then it just kind of rolls around that leaves Pockets underneath it where you’ll end up with air pockets if you don’t go in and Tamp uh Tamp down around it and I’ll do that in just a minute most important thing the most important

Thing on your Japanese maple is knowing where the graft is this one was grafted right here you can see this tamiama Japanese maple was grafted onto a different tree stock a root stock and right there is where it was originally grafted that graft is up high and dry uh it’s healthy looking and

In order to keep it that way I’m always going to make sure I’m never covering that it’ll never have pine straw or mulch or anything on it of course this one’s pretty high so it wouldn’t never be a problem but sometimes your graphs will be right down

At soil level and it can be problematic uh if you’re mounding stuff up on them so make sure they’re high and dry okay so I’ll take my the the back end of the shovel and just Tamp a little bit right around the outside there just to get this any air big air

Pockets filled in not trying to stamp all the air out of it soil needs to have air it’s just gently gently Tamp this is a ter very small root ball for a tree this big uh after 15 years or 12 years or whatever it’s been Lucky in that regard this morning this

Thing had actually been in the ground for 12 or 15 years this would be a whole different struggle with a much wider a much wider root ball all right I think that’s pretty much it there’s nothing covered that was covered before so whether you’re taking out of a container putting it in the

Ground or moving it from one space in your landscape to another anything that was above the ground I can still see it it’s mounted just a up we probably Mount things up a hair higher here in my clay soil and Raleigh just to keep things a

Little bit high and dry and we get plenty of rain here normally not now but normally and so I leave things up just a bit I also leave things up a bit because I anticipate that the loose soil that’s underneath the plant where I just dug the hole is also going to

Recompacted bit so if you plant a plant completely level with the ground uh you’ll know notice over the next few months it may like like a vacuum sucking it back down into the ground is because there’s some loose soil under the bottom of it so keep things up regardless and

If you’re in clay soils leave them up even a little bit more than that so that even after they settle they’re still up above the grade a bit this needs mulch got several places out here in the garden anytime I’m flipping soil over like this I want to come back and put a

Mulch cap on it regulates the water will regulate the cold uh the temperature during the winter time and then prevent the million weed seeds that I just uncovered by digging that hole out here in the middle of the bed if I didn’t do anything with

This I didn’t cover it up this winter by Spring this would just be completely and totally covered in in Weeds germinating because that’s what nature does nature covers the ground so cover the ground for it and then it doesn’t have a reason necessarily A need to you know to cover

Itself so let’s get this thing watered in I’m going to water it several times uh you know just water it till the ground won’t take any more water and then I’m going to come back and do it again that will help get the rest of that soil settled in around it you see

Me Tamp that soil down a little bit with my foot and the end of the shovel uh but again I’m not trying to Tamp it to the point where it’s re it’s just so compact around it I need I want the roots to go out into it I want there to be air

Available I just don’t giant air pockets where that soil will fall in on itself later so gently tamped uh into the ground water the whole surrounding area until the ground starts to refuse use water and then turn it off come back again if the soil was dry you can do

This once if the soil was already a little bit moist but based on the fact that this area is so dry I’ll Water it two or three times to make sure that I actually saturate this entire area doing it this time of year despite the fact

That that was a small root ball this plant’s not going to miss a beat our soil is warm enough here uh by February and March before it starts leafing out it will have Roots it’ll have new roots on it uh By the time it’s leafing out I

Need to do a little bit of pring pruning on it this winter to show off a little more of the trunk and so I’ll if you’re watching any of the pruning videos in February or March uh that will definitely be included in it we’ll be pruning the Japanese maples we

Have I think we have two more coming and I think there’s three or four out here in the landscape at this point and they all need a little bit of attention they’re small but they need some attention while they’re small it’s certainly easier while the trees are

Small to be able to manipulate them like you want to manipulate them even if that just means having a straight trunk uh you know it’s easy to do while they’re small so thank you guys for watching following along with the channel and uh move finally moving this kind of art

Piece out here where it’s a focal point uh in the garden thanks for watching