Why wait years or even decades to receive the shade and majesty a large caliper arborous selection will provide?  While smaller caliper trees can usually be moved by the old fashioned way with a few sets of hardworking and thoroughly bribed hands… larger transplants must be accomplished with an experienced team using a commercial tree spade. Unless you want to live in a world resembling Disney’s Wallie, specimen survival is the target.  You will need a healthy root ball for this achievement.  A 60” or 90” tree spade with a competent and compassionate operator makes the job a cinch.  Moon Nurseries operates a large selection of Vermeer tree spades for both residential and commercial large caliper tree plantings.

Moon Nurseries has seasoned professionals and equipment capable of moving large trees with calipers of up to 8”.  The task of moving a tree this size is made possible by a tree spade.  To find out what size tree spade you need, take the caliper of the tree, multiply it by 10 and that is the appropriate sized root ball and thus correct tree spade size.  Skimping on the size of the root ball will harm the integrity of the tree.  As one might have guessed, the dormant period is the ideal time to transplant, so the appropriate time would be mid-late fall before the first frost or in late winter-early spring.

Moving a tree with a spade is accomplished in two steps.  First, one must use a shovel around the tree to severe the roots ahead of time, allowing them to re grown more compactly around the tree.  Then a few months later, the tree will be ready to be lifted off of the ground.  Clay based soils are easier for this task, because its density keeps the roots from spreading out as much.

Moon Nurseries is well known in the Mid-Atlantic for having a large selection of large caliper deciduous, ornamental and evergreen trees. So whether you are looking to add a single specimen to your front yard, or interested in lining an entire campus drive – we’ve got you covered.