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Posts Tagged ‘Air knife’

Bare-root fastigiate beech transplant

Posted in Air knife, Air spade, Air tool, Air tool transplanting, Arboriculture, Bare-root transplanting, Massachusetts Arborists Association, Plant management, Roots, Trees, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 22, 2013| 2 Comments »

Air-tool transplanting is continuing here in Massachusetts; while it hasn’t yet become commonplace, arborists in this part of the world are conversant with the techniques, and some firms have been routinely been moving trees bare-root for the last few years.  Leahy Landscaping of Lynn, MA, has a team of transplanters, led by Mass. Certified Arborist Bob Dobias.  Bob recently sent me some photos of a project his crew carried out this past summer; they moved a beautiful 14′ Fastigiate Beech in Salem with air.  They relocated the tree from a location right next to a building to a spot further out on the property, where it can now grow to its full potential.  Here are the pix Bob sent:

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This tree has been growing nicely next to a condo entry, but was likely planted there when it was a much smaller specimen.

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Bob has exposed the topmost roots, and is working his way underneath the root mass.  Note that he’s wearing ear protection and has dust barriers set up around the work area.

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Fastigiate Beech is a narrow tree, and while a blowout to the dripline frees most of the roots, some root mass still had to be cut.  Bob reports that his crew cut one root that was growing under the driveway.

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Nice root mass on this tree.  The time had arrived for this tree to be transplanted; notice that the roots to the right are shorter and have been redirected down by the presence of the building wall.  A tree that grows for too long this close to a wall might not be as readily moved as this one — not because it can’t be dug out, but because the root mass has grown too asymmetrically for the tree to stand well away from the wall.

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The Beech being introduced to its new home.  According to Bob, the crew could have lifted the tree by hand, but decided to use the machine to minimize hazards to it.  For the actual move, they tied the tree to the forks; this shot, it has been untied and is being guided into the planting hole.

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And from a different angle.  The hole receiving it could be a bit wider, to make the backfilling and mudding in easier, especially as there are no obstructions around it.

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With the tree placed in its new home and backfilled, the crew waters and muds it in.  Leahy added better loam for backfill, and secured the tree with duckbills, to insure stability while it grows into the new location.

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Proud Leahy crew and Fastigiate Beech.  The Beech should now be able to grow a little fuller both above and below ground on the side that had faced the building.  The transplant operation took about six hours from start to finish.

Bob reports that the tree has experienced some stress from the move, but he expects it will equilibrate crown and root growth and leaf out well next year.  We’ll keep an eye out for more pix next year, to check its progress.

Fastigiate Beech moved by:

Leahy Landscaping, Lynn, MA

Arborist in charge:  Bob Dobias, MCA

Crew:  Alfredo Esteban, Shane Corcoran, Greg Beatrice

 

 

 

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Katsura update

Posted in Air spade, Air tool, Air tool transplanting, Arboriculture, Bare-root transplanting, Plant management, Roots, Trees, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 31, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Last February I wrote about the bare-root transplant of a large Katsura tree (Cercidophyllum japonicum) at UMass, beautifully executed by the pros at Foti Landscape and Tree. Matt Foti just sent me a photo he took last week of the tree, which has settled into its new home nicely.

Though the crew kept a large slug of soil under the tree’s butt for the move, Matt told me that they did some excavation at the root flare, as they always do, to check for girdling, circling, or damaged roots. (I hadn’t noticed the excavation when I first saw the transplant photos, but if you click back to that post you’ll notice it.) The crew found a girdling root and removed it — and clearly, from this current photo, the tree didn’t skip a beat.

Even in a backlit shot on a very hot day this tree is looking happy.

Even in a backlit shot on a very hot day this tree is looking happy.

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Moving maturity

Posted in Air knife, Air spade, Air tool, Air tool transplanting, Arboriculture, Bare-root transplanting, Plant management, Roots, Trees, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 11, 2013| 11 Comments »

Last fall Matt Foti‘s excellent crew moved a mature Katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) on the UMass campus in Amherst.  Jim Flott showed one photo of the tree in his New England Grows presentation last week, to illustrate the breadth of a root mass; take a look here to see what it looked like during and after the soil blowoff.

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Notice the trench dug around the entire root mass.  Typically, the crew uses a line tied to the trunk to swing and mark the edge of trench at the tree’s dripline.  If really significant roots appear once the first buckets of soil have been dug, the crew can decide to shift the trench edge outward to save more roots in the blowoff.  Alternatively, if no roots are found that far out from the trunk, the excavator can dig closer in to the trunk until roots appear, and the trench placed at that diameter out from the trunk.

Plywood is visible to the left of the photo; soil is blown into the trench for removal, but plenty of soil and dust fly around, and the plywood barriers help contain it, and keep the surrounding site cleaner.  The soil pile behind the plywood is what has been excavated to form the trench.

According to Matt, this tree is 20″ dbh, with a 22-24′ wide root mass.  The crew blew it off in one day, and moved it about 2,000′ away the next day.

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One of the benefits of air tool work like this is the fact that roots become visible, and it becomes clear how a tree grows below the soil surface.  The roots here obviously cover a huge area, and their density and branching suggest resilience and vitality.

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Notice how much soil remains around the base of the tree.  Leaving a slug of soil makes it easier to place the tree level in its new location, at the correct depth.  The crew usually blows soil first from the root tips, and works back toward the trunk, always blowing soil toward the trench.  The circular track around the tree’s trunk was made by the crew toward the end of the blowout, as they worked their way around the tree.  Pigtails of roots are held off the ground with lines tied back to tree branches well-padded with burlap.

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Katsura en route to its new home on the UMass campus.  Interesting to note how dense and finely branched the tree’s crown is, especially in light of how dense and finely branched the root system is.

Stay tuned for more photos of this tree in the next few months, when we get some followup shots after it has leafed out.

Location:  University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA

Moved by:  Matthew R. Foti Landscape & Tree Service, Inc.

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Underground Peek

Posted in Air knife, Air spade, Air tool, Arboriculture, Miscellaneous, Plant management, Roots, Trees, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on January 22, 2013| 1 Comment »

It was just over a year ago that an ecologist and ISA-Certified Arborist, Lisa Montana, contacted me from AECOM, the global architectural/engineering giant.  She works in New York City, and is involved on projects that require utility trenching under sidewalks and around the roots of adjacent street trees.  When her project sites have contaminated soils, excavation must take place with shovels and bars, the old approach to bare-rooting plants.  On sites with clean soils, the workers use air tools, which let them remove soil and preserve important tree roots.

Lisa kindly sent me some photos of air-tool trenching projects she has overseen, and with my apologies to her for the long delay, I’m posting them here.  Take a look, and note how persistent and vigorous those critical roots are even underneath concrete pavement.

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This one is a 26″ dbh Honey Locust.

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This astonishing root mass belongs to a 28″ dbh Oak.

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These roots come from an enthusiastic 29″ dbh Norway Maple that needs the rooting area in the lawn beyond the sidewalk.

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This final photo shows a 32″ dbh London Plane whose roots are seeking moisture in the bed beyond the fence.

It appears as if each of these trees is reaching underground toward open ground, where adequate moisture and air can be found to sustain them.  I have been mulling over these photos for some time, and especially since Hurricane Sandy, when so many uprooted New York street trees appeared to have root masses that conformed to the bar-like shape of their planting spaces.  I wonder if those root masses had been cut at some point, as is often done for the reconstruction of a sidewalk or for utility work done in a less sensitive way than AECOMM’s methods.

Thanks, Lisa, for sharing these photos, and giving us a peek at what’s going on under some sidewalks.

Location:  New York City

Arborist In Charge:  Lisa Montana, AECOMM

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Hornbeam progress

Posted in Air knife, Air spade, Air tool, Air tool transplanting, Arboriculture, Bare-root transplanting, Roots, Trees, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on November 15, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Last spring I posted photos of a lovely little weeping hornbeam that the Foti crew had transplanted bare-root in downtown Boston a month earlier.  Matt Foti just sent me a couple of update photos, taken when his guys had been down on the Rose Kennedy Greenway to move a collection of trees from one of the park parcels near Quincy Market (a couple of photos from that project will show up in my next post).

The hornbeam thrived through the season, and is doing beautifully.  It had fully leafed out after planting, and the foliage looked awfully good.  Take a look:

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Nice dense foliage on the transplanted hornbeam.

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This tree apparently didn’t miss a beat when it was moved.

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Blow off the cobwebs…

Posted in Air knife, Air spade, Air tool, Air tool transplanting, Arboriculture, Bare-root transplanting, Plant management, Roots, Shrubs, Trees, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 5, 2012| Leave a Comment »

…and go back to school for a day.  If anyone in the Massachusetts woody-plants world has not seen the latest in tree- and shrub-planting techniques, here’s your chance:  on September 27, Rolf Briggs and Matt Foti will be giving a workshop entitled At The Root:  Air Tools Workshop at the New England Wild Flower Society’s Garden In The Woods.   Matt and Rolf will discuss and show the best techniques for planting trees and shrubs fresh from the nursery (air tools not necessary for this), as well as how to use air tools to trench under trees, decompact soil, and transplant trees.

I have my reasons to promote this workshop (and it’s next-day partner, At The Root: Understanding and Managing Healthy Soils), and they center on the fact that every planting season I find myself coaching laborers on how to deal with the root balls of plants that we’re planting on my job sites.  The boss, not knowing or having taught his laborers the proper planting techniques, usually has priced the work based on a quick  installation (dig the hole, stick the plant in, cover up the root ball, basket, and burlap), and the laborers, knowing only the quick and dirty method, look sideways at me as I show them what I want them to do.  The guys do the work the way I want it, but really, the process would go much more smoothly, and more landscapes would establish and grow in better, if everyone knew , priced, and carried out the work in what are considered the most plant-friendly ways.

Some of the most effective tools available to see what can be considered plant-friendly, and to work in soil crowded with roots, are pneumatic air tools.  I believe that Rolf and Matt will be transplanting a tree bare-root, using air, which will afford workshop attendees a chance to see what a tree’s roots really look like when the soil is blown away.  It’s an experience that can change how anyone working with plants understands how a plant grows and anchors itself, and for that alone this workshop is worth attending.

Watering in a newly planted tree-form Taxus from Weston Nurseries.

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Another species transplanted with air tools

Posted in Air knife, Air spade, Air tool, Air tool transplanting, Arboriculture, Bare-root transplanting, Plant management, Roots, Trees, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on April 2, 2012| 4 Comments »

Last week Matt Foti sent me photos of a bare-root transplant his crew performed on 25 March 2012 in downtown Boston.  They blew soil off the roots of an 8.5″ caliper weeping hornbeam tree (Carpinus betulus ‘Pendula’), and moved it from one end of the city block to the other.  Take a look at this beauty:

This 8.5″ caliper weeping hornbeam tree is getting transplanted from a bed on Summer Street, outside Boston's Federal Reserve Bank building. Note the pigtails on the tree’s near side, and the thick burlap wrapping to protect its trunk.

The tree being moved to its new home in a 3-4′ tall planter on the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Congress Street. Burlap tied under the root mass helps contain loose soil during the move.

Weeping hornbeam in its new location. The Federal Reserve does an excellent job tending its plants, so this one should get the consistent aftercare all transplanted trees need.

With this warm winter and spring, trees have been leafing out several weeks early; this one had just begun to leaf out before it got moved.  The Foti crew has had good success moving trees bare-root even during bud-break; it’ll be interesting to watch this tree and see how it settles in to its new home over the coming year.

 

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Air-tool questions, Part 1

Posted in Air knife, Air spade, Air tool, Air tool transplanting, Arboriculture, Bare-root transplanting, Plant management, Roots, Trees, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 12, 2010| 2 Comments »

A reader, Mark Vanderwouw from Shady Lane Expert Tree Care, Inc. wrote a comment on the post titled Another Air-Tool Bare-Root Transplanting (cross-posted from TakingPlace.net, the other blog I co-write for landscape architects).  His company is excavating out several large specimen trees for a one-year storage period, after which they will plant the trees in their new home.  I answered his questions in the Comments section of that post (click on the link above and scroll down to the Comments), but they, and the questions I’ve been asked quite a bit in the last few months, need airing and discussion in a larger format.  So here goes:

Q:  How long did it take to excavate the Taxus and the Kousa Dogwood that were  growing next to each other?

A:  It took the better part of a day to excavate and transplant these trees.  Because their roots were intertwined, the process took longer than it would have had they been stand-alone specimens.

Interwoven roots of two trees to be moved makes the excavating process more time-consuming.

Q:  Is it necessary to keep the roots moist during the excavation?

A:  It is a good idea to do so, as compressed air tends to dry soil and roots.  Having a hose on hand to spray down the exposed roots every so often makes sense.  There has been some discussion among the arborists doing this work that because such a large volume of root mass gets saved, the tree is much more resilient and adaptable to the short period of drying caused during air-tool work.  Compressed air will blow off quite a lot of the tiny feeder roots — but they tend to regenerate pretty quickly once planted in the new site, and the ‘reservoir’ of moisture and nutrients in the remaining large roots helps sustain the tree during the excavation and move.

I don’t know of any scientific experiments that have been done to date to test this hypothesis — right now, the results are anecdotal — but I’m guessing that we will be hearing in the next few years about controlled experiments that prove or disprove this idea.  In the meantime, if you have been transplanting trees bare-root with air tools, feel free to write in and share your experience, and join the community that’s pushing into this new territory.

Q:  Do you use hydrogel on the roots of air-excavated trees?

A:  If a tree is being moved from one location on a site to another within a relatively short period of time (say, within a day), then hydrogel is probably not necessary.  If the tree is being moved from one site to another, and trucking or trailering is involved, a hydrogel spray and a secure tarp covering are probably advisable.  The following pictures come from Bransfield Tree Company LLC, which moved a large Beech tree last fall (subject of post next month):

Jonathan Bransfield spraying down the root plate of a tree with water and a 1% solution of Wilt-Pruf before tarping. Hydrogel was used in the backfill at planting.

The newly tarped root plate getting sprayed down with water before the tree's drive to another site.

Q:  Have you seen any mortality from this method of moving trees?

A:  There is some evidence that trees with particularly tender bark don’t do well with direct pressure from compressed air.  Matt Foti notes that two cherry trees he moved last year died; a few weeks ago he moved a cherry on his own property, and had his crew blow soil out from under the tree, aiming the air in toward the trunk from the blowout trench.  He has planted the tree out in his nursery and will watch it for the next year, to see how it respond to the more sensitive treatment.   Here’s an instance where the technology is available to do the work, but our knowledge is still catching up with the technology.  If anyone wants to do a controlled, scientific study, this species-specific question would be a great one to explore.  In the meantime, arborists doing this work will report in as they learn more.

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Picea glauca bare-root transplant

Posted in Air knife, Air spade, Air tool, Air tool transplanting, Arboriculture, Bare-root transplanting, Plant management, Roots, Trees, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on February 19, 2010| 2 Comments »

At New England Grows, I met Jim Doyle, one of Wellesley College‘s team of arborists. He told me about an air-tool transplant that he and a colleague performed last November at the College.  He was kind enough to send photos, and with them included this text, which I have edited only slightly:

“My colleague Don Garrick and I performed the transplant on Nov. 3rd 2009.  The reason for the transplant was that the tree, a Picea glauca ‘Conica’ (Dwarf Alberta Spruce), had outgrown its current location and was providing too much shade to the greenhouse.  An old accession tag we found told us that the tree had been planted in 1956.

The tree in its original location, quite close to the greenhouse.

Jim using the airspade to locate the root zone's outer limits.

Don digging a trench outside of the root zone.

In this and in the next two pictures, Jim removes soil from the Picea's roots.

  

Working in from the perimeter toward the trunk.

Don lifts the tree out of the hole.

Transporting the tree to its new home across campus. The tree has been laid down for stability.

The tree in its new location, with plenty of room for continued growth up and out.

During the whole process we watered the roots every 5 to 10 min.  We wrapped the roots in wet burlap for the transport.  Once we had placed it in its new home, I sprayed the tree with with anti-transpirant and we then staked it, as its new home was a very windy location on the lake.  The stakes and guys will probably be removed this summer once we can confirm that the tree has settled well enough in its new hole.”

Here’s an example of the thoughtful management of plants on a property.  This Dwarf Alberta Spruce was in good shape, but had grown out of its original location, tucked behind the greenhouse.  Moving it was a fine way to save the tree, preserve the antique greenhouse glass adjacent to it, eliminate the greenhouse interior shading problem, and revamp the area — and now the tree, in its new spot, has room to grow and is visible to the Wellesley College community.

Project site:  Wellesley College campus, Wellesley, MA

Project arborists:  Jim Doyle, ISA-Certified Arborist; Don Garrick, MA-Certified Arborist

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A tree is a living organism

Posted in Air knife, Air spade, Air tool, Air tool transplanting, Arboriculture, Bare-root transplanting, Plant management, Root-washing, Roots, Trees, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 13, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Another question asked at last week’s New England Grows about bare-root transplanting was “How do you make sure the roots don’t dry out?” The answer, of course, is that you water the tree you’re moving.  You water it thoroughly a couple of days before the transplant, to insure that the tree’s tissues have good turgor pressure and moisture reserves for the bare-rooting.  You take a break every now and again during the blow-out (if you’re using compressed air) and spray down the exposed roots with water.  You may spray more water on the roots — the top, bottom, and inside of the root mass — when you pick the tree up on forks to deliver it to its new home.  You ‘mud in’ the tree as you backfill, saturating the backfill soil with water to eliminate any air pockets and again, to combat root dessication.   And once you have mulched the tree well, you water still more.

Water in all phases of the operation is key to tree transplanting.

Cornell’s Urban Horticulture Institute advocates using a hydrogel slurry to hold water on the bare roots during planting.  Their excellent Creating the Urban Forest:  The Bare-Root Method describes the process of planting young trees bare-root, and is well worth reading.  The challenge of using a slurry for large-tree transplanting would be in getting a consistent coating of hydrogel on the roots (you can’t dip the root plate in a tub, the way you can with a sapling root mass) — but there must be a solution (so to speak) to that problem. And finally, aftercare is critical.  Moving a large specimen tree bare-root takes time and effort, and it would be folly to follow all the steps, get the tree in the ground, and then leave its re-establishment and survival up to chance.  Some arborists add fertilizer and bio-stimulants to the backfill, some don’t.  What is essential, again, is water.  Consistent and adequate water for the first growing season is the best way to make sure that a transplanted tree makes the transition to its new home, survives, and thrives.

Watering in a root-washed pin oak at Cavicchio's Nursery. Photo courtesy of Carl Cathcart.

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