Transplanting trees
I end up doing a lot of transplanting of plants. Mostly due to poor planning in the first place, but that is another story. One move in particular stands out in my memory. A few years ago I was forced to move a row of flowering crab apple trees I had planted about 8 years earlier. They were huge and, worst of all, the road project dictated that I move them in mid-July, which has to be the worst time of the year for disrupting a plant. ( I think early Spring before leaf-out is probably the very best time to do it.) My secret weapon was adding RESCUE REMEDY in a bucket of water to the tree immediately after transplanting it. I subsequently misted the trees with RR and water every day for the next few days. I also placed white sheets over the canopies to protect them from the blazing sun for several days. It is now years later and every tree is alive and loving it's new location. I have saved many traumatized plants with the RR. It works on the plant's nervous system in the same manner as it works on ours (see the movie: "The Secret Life of Plants" on this). This is perhaps the most important medication to keep in the barn, home, car or stable. It will save lives. The Farmer's Almanac gives exact times and dates for transplanting according to the moon cycles. The moon advice for pruning is equally useful. I found the information from Gil to be very insightful and helpful. I especially like the idea of tagging North on the trees to insure the proper orientation. I wish I had done that with all of my transplants in the past. Best wishes, Will Winter, Tree Hugger
WENDELL BERRY: The Agrarian Standard
http://www.oriononline.org/pages/om/02-3om/Berry.html This article is an abridgement of an essay that appears in the 20th Anniversary Issue of ORION, the magazine of the ORION Society. The Orion Society is a charitable organization that focuses on the Environment. They need your help to stay active. To encourage you to support them, they are offering a very good deal on a trial subscription to their quality publication (which often features the likes of Wendell Berry, Barry Lopes, Rick Bass and Gary Snyder) This year, more than ever, we need your support. For a limited time only, you can give new subscriptions to friends and family for just $18. More about this offer at: http://www.oriononline.org/holidayoffer ) This essay appeared in the 20th Anniversary issue of Orion. It in was drawn from this spring's "The Future of Agrarianism Conference" which was held April 25-28 at Georgetown College in Lexington, KY. It has been further abridged for the web, where this post was drawn from. If you would like to read the full version, please click here https://ssl.crocker.com/orionsoc/freeom.cfm for a FREE copy of this special 20th Anniversary Issue. Please make time to read this essay carefully. It literally drips wisdom. THE AGRARIAN STANDARD by Wendell Berry The Unsettling of America WAS PUBLISHED twenty-five years ago; it is still in print and is still being read. As its author, I am tempted to be glad of this, and yet, if I believe what I said in that book, and I still do, then I should be anything but glad. The book would have had a far happier fate if it could have been disproved or made obsolete years ago. It remains true because the conditions it describes and opposes, the abuses of farmland and farming people, have persisted and become worse over the last twenty-five years. In 2002 we have less than half the number of farmers in the United States that we had in 1977. Our farm communities are far worse off now than they were then. Our soil erosion rates continue to be unsustainably high. We continue to pollute our soils and streams with agricultural poisons. We continue to lose farmland to urban development of the most wasteful sort. The large agribusiness corporations that were mainly national in 1977 are now global, and are replacing the world's agricultural diversity, which was useful primarily to farmers and local consumers, with bioengineered and patented monocultures that are merely profitable to corporations. The purpose of this now global economy, as Vandana Shiva has rightly said, is to replace "food democracy" with a worldwide "food dictatorship." To be an agrarian writer in such a time is an odd experience. One keeps writing essays and speeches that one would prefer not to write, that one wishes would prove unnecessary, that one hopes nobody will have any need for in twenty-five years. My life as an agrarian writer has certainly involved me in such confusions, but I have never doubted for a minute the importance of the hope I have tried to serve: the hope that we might become a healthy people in a healthy land. We agrarians are involved in a hard, long, momentous contest, in which we are so far, and by a considerable margin, the losers. What we have undertaken to defend is the complex accomplishment of knowledge, cultural memory, skill, self-mastery, good sense, and fundamental decency -- the high and indispensable art -- for which we probably can find no better name than "good farming." I mean farming as defined by agrarianism as opposed to farming as defined by industrialism: farming as the proper use and care of an immeasurable gift. I believe that this contest between industrialism and agrarianism now defines the most fundamental human difference, for it divides not just two nearly opposite concepts of agriculture and land use, but also two nearly opposite ways of understanding ourselves, our fellow creatures, and our world. THE WAY OF INDUSTRIALISM is the way of the machine. To the industrial mind, a machine is not merely an instrument for doing work or amusing ourselves or making war; it is an explanation of the world and of life. Because industrialism cannot understand living things except as machines, and can grant them no value that is not utilitarian, it conceives of farming and forestry as forms of mining; it cannot use the land without abusing it. Industrialism prescribes an economy that is placeless and displacing. It does not distinguish one place from another. It applies its methods and technologies indiscriminately in the American East and the American West, in the United States and in India. It thus continues the economy of colonialism. The shift of colonial power from European monarchy to global corporation is perhaps the dominant theme of modern history. All along, it has been the same story of the gathering of an e
pear info
Gil, wonderful information, but what I really need is when according to moon signs, etc is best to transplant. This is a very young tree, planted this past spring and never grew much but UP. If the root sys is any indication, it has a taproot 'to China', but somehow I doubt it. It was where I was gardening the last several years and now it's necessary I move the garden to a new location. I wanted to move the pear this winter (now) while it's somewhat introspect (dormant). There are about 15 deer using that area as a highway through the mare's pastures, and I found a solitary buck rubbing his antlers on my little pear tree. I just need to bring the tree closer into the yard area, or within whatever realm of 'landscaping' I call myself doing. But I'll definitely file your information since it was so well thought out and explained. thanks again!
Re: pear tree
Hi! Flolo, Outside the seasonal considerations:- If you can move a big enough ball of soil around the roots, you can move most trees anytime. On a small scale this can be that which two or four men can lift, to requiring mechanical aid. Trees with a few exception, have two types of roots, feeder roots which are largely horizontal and tend to be near the surface. The other are water seeking and are largely vertical. Most trees have a tap roots which branches, which is among the these if not the sole water seekers. One group is whitish and the other noticeably off white, but with out looking it up, I do not recall which is which. The size of the root ball is relative to the drip line of the canopy of the tree and as deep or deeper. A couple of weeks ahead of the big day, hand dig a trench around the root ball and as deep as that to be moved. Cut any roots with sharp tools. If conditions are hot or the soil loose, support the root ball with hessian or old carpet tied in place. This will allow the side roots to get used to being cut and start forming new branches, while the tree is still supplied from below. I would also reduce the canopy by a quarter to a third, keeping in mind the shape of the tree. If the time is not available, just do it all on the day. If possible, also dig the new hole ahead, based on the size you will need to get the new tree in place and remove what ever you use to carry it. If you have heavy clay soil, a good dressing of gypsum in the hole at about two kilos to the square metre, can be watered in. In dry conditions, it is also good to get some water into the sub-soil. When the big day comes, start by sorting out the direction of North and mark the tree by tying a bit of ribbon, so the tree can be placed the same relative position in the new hole. This is most important, as the tree has a number of different areas that have functions relative to the ambient energies. If placed in another rotation, it will have to re-establish these and take longer to recover. Have to hand, some canvas, a small tarpaulin, large bag, heavy plastic, or what ever is being used to carrying it. If using a tractor or crane, have the slings etc. Have one person pull the tree to one side and support it, while another person, using a sharp hand saw, cuts through the root ball at the required depth. With the tree tipped to one side, fold half of the canvas etc, using lots of small folds, preferably zig zag like a fan, rather than rolling. The folded part is placed as far under the root ball as possible and the tree rocked back and held on the other side. The folds are then undone and you have you tree sitting on the canvas ready to lift. If the soil is very loose or has to be moved some distance, it is good to put two layers under and bring the upper one up and tie it tightly like the covering on a christmas pudding. Using as much man power as required, lift by the canvas and carry to the new site and place it in position, remembering to get it right way around. Check the level of the soil at the trunk, it should be close to the same level as the general ground level. If necessary, adjust. When happy all is well, reverse the earlier process and tip it one way and fold one half under, then tip the other way and remove. Back fill the hole, using the same soil as came out of the hole. If the soil is heavy clay, it is very important not to fill the hole with potting mix or light soil, as this will give a water trap and you will drown the roots, possibly killing the tree. A little good compost can be added in layers. Firm down as you fill, taking care to not leave air spaces. Water in. Happy tree moving, Gil [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I need to move a young pear tree. According to the calendars, > when is the best time to do it?
pear tree
I need to move a young pear tree. According to the calendars, when is the best time to do it?
