Show me your biggest root ball

[Josh-O]

Dooms Dave inspired me to start a thread about posting your biggest root ball or your palm trans plant. Here are a few pictures I took today of a massive jubaeopsis caffra I'm having dug and craned to my Vista garden project. I'll post pic's when She's planted in her new hole.

it took 4 guys total to did this monster out

I'm guessing the root ball weighs almost 1 ton

this bad boy will be craned in the next couple of days. The root ball is solid and 5' W X 4' D

If you have any palms that you have dug or transplanted post your picture and tell us how it did?

[LJG]

Looks like it was growing in some great dirt. Hey, the good news is that it doesn't have far to travel to its new home

[Josh-O]

true dat Len

It has a short drive and the dirt didn't even fall apart

[trioderob]

you guys are killing me.

what a nice transplant ...............that's a bitchin acquisition

[Jim in Los Altos]

Man, Josh, that's a beaut! I'm looking forward to your planting photos.

[Ben in Norcal]

Hey Josh, you should sell that Jubaeopsis to me. How much for shipping? Can you look into that with UPS?

[Danilopez89]

Perfect job. Did you move it yet? I'd like to see where it's going. I bet its gonna look awesome.

[NorthFlpalmguy]

This are my biggest of the windmills and the only pics I have on my phone of root balls. I hand dug all these in 1 day. The Butia and Sabal root balls are closer to your size but we really don't need much more than 3 ft depth here. The clay in my fields around 2ft deep holds everything together nicely. I move mine around with a backhoe and tractor with a front end loader.

[Firepalm]

One of my favorite palms. Real nice pickup, hope it grows well for you!

[Josh-O]

Man, Josh, that's a beaut! I'm looking forward to your planting photos.

I'll post some photos tomorrow when the crane comes doe its thing I'll probably just start a new thread

[Josh-O]

One of my favorite palms. Real nice pickup, hope it grows well for you!

Thanks

[Josh-O]

image1.JPG

This are my biggest of the windmills and the only pics I have on my phone of root balls. I hand dug all these in 1 day. The Butia and Sabal root balls are closer to your size but we really don't need much more than 3 ft depth here. The clay in my fields around 2ft deep holds everything together nicely. I move mine around with a backhoe and tractor with a front end loader.

wow!!!!! you did all that in one day. that must have been one long day. It took 5 hours with 4 people just to dig mine out.

Nice Job is this what you do for a living?

[Josh-O]

Perfect job. Did you move it yet? I'd like to see where it's going. I bet its gonna look awesome.

I think I'm gonna start a new thread and post some pic's tomorrow night.. it's going to be a very long day tomorrow...lol

[Josh-O]

Hey Josh, you should sell that Jubaeopsis to me. How much for shipping? Can you look into that with UPS?

lol....

so funny Ben!!

[Josh-O]

Man, Josh, that's a beaut! I'm looking forward to your planting photos.

Thanks Jim, I super stoked to get this bad boy into my new garden. pic's to follow

[NorthFlpalmguy]

image1.JPG

This are my biggest of the windmills and the only pics I have on my phone of root balls. I hand dug all these in 1 day. The Butia and Sabal root balls are closer to your size but we really don't need much more than 3 ft depth here. The clay in my fields around 2ft deep holds everything together nicely. I move mine around with a backhoe and tractor with a front end loader.

wow!!!!! you did all that in one day. that must have been one long day. It took 5 hours with 4 people just to dig mine out.

Nice Job is this what you do for a living?

No, I do it for fun mostly. My palm addiction ran over onto our farm and you can't keep them all. I have a good friend who digs native sabals for a living and he showed me the ropes on digging palms. Our soil is much easier to dig in if you can stay away from the oak roots.

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

This one weighed about 3000 lbs. But its probably only the 5th biggest here at Palm Locos. The biggest weighted at least 4 tons, 8,000lbs. But I don't have a pix of it at the moment. Will have to dig around a little.

Livistona decora planted 3-26-15

[bgl]

Josh,

Wow, that is a VERY impressive rootball! Glad I don't have to deal with that!

Bo-Göran

[Josh-O]

This one weighed about 3000 lbs. But its probably only the 5th biggest here at Palm Locos. The biggest weighted at least 4 tons, 8,000lbs. But I don't have a pix of it at the moment. Will have to dig around a little.

Livistona decora planted 3-26-15

Keith, that is a MONSTER root ball. Do you do this for a living?

[Josh-O]

Josh,

Wow, that is a VERY impressive rootball! Glad I don't have to deal with that!

Bo-Göran

I hear ya, Imagine if you had to dig it out in your volcanic/ lava soil...yikes

[_Keith]

Where is Ken on this thread?

[Josh-O]

seriously!! Ken, chime in with your root ball... I bet you would take the cake with some of your dig outs?

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

This one weighed about 3000 lbs. But its probably only the 5th biggest here at Palm Locos. The biggest weighted at least 4 tons, 8,000lbs. But I don't have a pix of it at the moment. Will have to dig around a little.

Livistona decora planted 3-26-15

Keith, that is a MONSTER root ball. Do you do this for a living?

Nope, that's a local landscaper. My biggest root ball was about 4 tons. It took a 40 ton crane to get it into position.

[virtualpalm]

Here's one for ya. This is a solid rock rootball weighing in at around 5 tons, which is on the upper end for a palm. Now we have had tree rootballs in the 30 ton range. The largest that I know of took a 300 ton crane to break the rock free.

[kwtimo]

Here's one for ya. This is a solid rock rootball weighing in at around 5 tons, which is on the upper end for a palm. Now we have had tree rootballs in the 30 ton range. The largest that I know of took a 300 ton crane to break the rock free.

Wow! Simply amazing!

[DoomsDave]

Wow my biggest ain't diddly.

Hmm. Feeling a new thread coming on . . .

Extreme small rootballs . . .

[MattyB]

Jody,

I'm curious, why did you go so deep if it turned into solid rock? I would expect more of a flat pancake shaped rootball.

[virtualpalm]

Three reasons, Matt. The first is that there is literally only a few inches of soil in that area of south Florida, and we would damage numerous roots if we try to peel the pancake rootball off the rock (which would likely kill the palm). Taking the rock underneath increases the chances of getting more intact roots. The second reason is that we have to dig fairly deep to be able to safely undercut the rootball to a point where it will break free (that can be tricky). The third reason is for extra stability of the palm after it is planted in the new location (you want it bottom heavy rather than top heavy, so the taller and heavier the palm is the deeper and larger the rootball should be).

[Danilopez89]

Wow my biggest ain't diddly.

Hmm. Feeling a new thread coming on . . .

Extreme small rootballs . . .

Hehehehe!

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

OK, here's the biggest root ball we ever handled here at the homestead. Its a Phoenix reclinata that we rescued from a construction site. It was free, the move wasn't. But it is a great plant relocation story. So, bear with me as I indulge in telling it with a sense of humor. The story is even better if you have a margarita in hand. So, please, take a minute to get one...then read on.

This tree was planted around 1955 up next to a home in Winter Haven FL. The home was recently purchased by a couple that wanted to rehabilitate and expand the living space. Unfortunately, the tree blocked access to the double car garage, so it had to be removed if the garage was ever to hold a car again. So the owners, recognizing the tree as "not your average Pygmy Date", put the tree on Craigs List for "free". Several folks jumped at the offer, said "I'll come back and get it", then disappeared never to be heard from again.

So, I posed for scale, and David, snapped a pix and sent it to a "landscaper" in Jacksonville that was going to move a few trees from our place in Jacksonville to Winter Haven. The landscaper told David he would move the trees from Jacksonville to Winter Haven, as well as dig this reclinata and its twin then move them to the new house 3 miles away for $1000. I can't post the exact language I used when he shot the price back, but lets just say, I knew instantly he had no idea what he was getting into. I'm a professional horticulturist with a bad plant addiction. I've moved a few trees and I had a pretty good idea what this was going to take. So,the planning was complete...now the execution.

On "the day", our new landscaper friend started by digging out 3 small plants at the place in Jacksonville. I knew we were in trouble when it took 4 people 4 hours to dig 2 plants. Turned out they couldn't get one...it was too hard to move! So, it was 3:00pm when they finally showed up in Winter Haven ready to start the hard work. His "crew" looked to be escapees from the county jail, and, as it turned out, only one was fit to work. As luck would have it a serious lightning storm arrived about the same time and it was too dangerous to work much in our garden/field as lightning was striking all around. At the time, I figured it was an omen, and it WAS! I took them into town and told them I'd plant the other trees myself when the lightning stopped. So about 3 pm the whiz bang "landscapers" began "digging" the tree. By midnight, the poor thing had been jerked from the soil and laid helplessly in the hole since it weighed too much to lift with the equipment on hand. The Bobcat was screaming at the abuse, and I was just shaking my head in the rain. After her stern warning of lightning, mother nature must have decided to give us a hand and provided soft rain throughout the whole ordeal...something I'm sure helped the poor tree. Slowly, we did our best to tie the trunks together then fought the tremendous weight to get it onto the transport trailer. As floor boards snapped and popped under the weight, it became obvious we were over the trailer's weight limit, a trailer that carried the bobcat without even a murmur. Then the fun really began.

As it turned out, the trunks were far stronger than any ropes or come-along devices we had on site so the tree really didn't fit on the trailer at all. In fact, it was wide enough to cross two 12' lanes of roadway. As our "landscaper" dragged the poor tree along the street, we bushwhacked roadsigns - on both sides of the road. Luckily it was 2:00 am so no one was actually driving...well except that one guy that had to drive in the grass to keep from being whacked. By the time we had traveled the 3 miles to the new planting site, the humans were zombies having nearly been defeated by a 60 year old palm tree. The pix below shows what we awoke to: dead bobcat abandoned by the landscaper, and a 4 ton tree on its side.

Well, with no landscaper and a dead bobcat in the yard, we went to work buying heavy duty rope and trying to right the poor palm using 3 pickup trucks. The angle was all wrong and we couldn't even move the tree. After mulling all of this over for several days, tree on its side, dead bobcat standing sentinel over the scene, we began to wonder if we had just created the saddest firewood story of our lives. But as luck would have it, the man that owns the company that mows our property ran into a crane operator...completely by chance. Here's the piece of equipment he had....

Capable of lifting 40 tons! Just the ticket!

So, for $300, he came and lifted our sad P. reclinata straight up into the air and placed it gently into the planting hole. The root ball was at least 6' across and 6' deep. But that 40 ton crane lifted it like I lift a 3 gallon plant! So, we hastily filled in the hole and started the water. this is what it looked like that afternoon...Bobcat still patiently watching over the tree.

I hoped to end the story with a current pix, but we're in the midst of a rainstorm so I'm going to save that pix for another day. But this tree has thrived. I had no idea a palm could be so resilient. Somehow, despite being in drought during the dry season, we had rain the whole week it laid on its side. By pure chance, its planted on the "wet" side of the property. It had been so dry since our July 2012 move-in-date, we didn't even know we had a "wet" side. And for those of you with P reclinata, you know they like water.

Oh, the Bobcat finally went back home to Jacksonville, apparently satisfied that it's new friend, P. reclinata was going to be fine. Somehow they seemed to develop a bond, probably during that epic battle of tug-of-war.

[MattyB]

Three reasons, Matt. The first is that there is literally only a few inches of soil in that area of south Florida, and we would damage numerous roots if we try to peel the pancake rootball off the rock (which would likely kill the palm). Taking the rock underneath increases the chances of getting more intact roots. The second reason is that we have to dig fairly deep to be able to safely undercut the rootball to a point where it will break free (that can be tricky). The third reason is for extra stability of the palm after it is planted in the new location (you want it bottom heavy rather than top heavy, so the taller and heavier the palm is the deeper and larger the rootball should be).

Interesting. Thanks for the explanation Jody.

[Jim in Los Altos]

This Chamaerops is being moved by us from one client's yard to another client's yard. The palm is over 50 years old and was free for the taking.

[WestCoastGal]

Josh great topic and that must have been some move. Virtualpalm that is one monster. Keith, loved your story even without a margarita, but having one would have been nice. Man that looked an like an oasis of palm trees. Jim, that's a gorgeous specimen there. Hope the move goes well. I'll dig up a few photos from when we had our two mature mules craned in and post when I get a chance. It's fascinating to watch palms this size get moved and you can't help but develop a real appreciation for these palms in general. Undoubtedly no fun digging the ground for it though.

[willo68]

Keith, Epic story. Thanks for the laugh

[DoomsDave]

Keith, one of the best posts in a while. We all need a few laughs.

[Jim in Los Altos]

Wow Keith, that's quite a story. I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures of the reclinata when you post them.

[Josh-O]

This one weighed about 3000 lbs. But its probably only the 5th biggest here at Palm Locos. The biggest weighted at least 4 tons, 8,000lbs. But I don't have a pix of it at the moment. Will have to dig around a little.

Livistona decora planted 3-26-15

Keith, that is a MONSTER root ball. Do you do this for a living?

Nope, that's a local landscaper. My biggest root ball was about 4 tons. It took a 40 ton crane to get it into position.

wowzeers!! any pic's?

[Josh-O]

Here's one for ya. This is a solid rock rootball weighing in at around 5 tons, which is on the upper end for a palm. Now we have had tree rootballs in the 30 ton range. The largest that I know of took a 300 ton crane to break the rock free.

That's super impressive!!! How long did it take to dig out? days, weeks, years, decades...What species is this palm?

[Josh-O]

Wow my biggest ain't diddly.

Hmm. Feeling a new thread coming on . . .

Extreme small rootballs . . .

I dig it, literally..

[Josh-O]

Three reasons, Matt. The first is that there is literally only a few inches of soil in that area of south Florida, and we would damage numerous roots if we try to peel the pancake rootball off the rock (which would likely kill the palm). Taking the rock underneath increases the chances of getting more intact roots. The second reason is that we have to dig fairly deep to be able to safely undercut the rootball to a point where it will break free (that can be tricky). The third reason is for extra stability of the palm after it is planted in the new location (you want it bottom heavy rather than top heavy, so the taller and heavier the palm is the deeper and larger the rootball should be).

makes good sense to me. Great description