Saturday Morning With Jack Tame

Winter dormancy is the best time to shift a tree or a shrub (or plant a new one), especially when they originate from a “temperate climate” (the kind that shed their leaves and hail from UK, Europe, North America, etc).  When considering shifting a sub-tropical/semi tropical one, wait a little to just before spring sets in (mid-end September).  These sub-tropicals do not really like to be dumped into a wet and cold soil for many weeks of deepest winter – it could kill them!  Besides, as discussed last week, with these cold and wet soils all kinds of Root Rots (Phytophthora, Armillaria, Pithium, etc) might terminally affect your trees.   Here are some ideas to make it work as well as possible:   1) Consider the size of the tree – smaller ones are much easier to (trans)plant than big ones.   2) Get a “trenching spade”. These long, narrow, sturdy blades are much more efficient at digging into cold, wet clay soils than the ordinary, wider spades.   3) Destination site – select