Wisteria

[JohnAndSancho]

Anybody familiar with these, particularly their roots? My mom had one planted right in front of the house, and my brother says it's on top of our water line. Personally I think it's horribly ugly, at least in its current form - it looks like some kind of horror movie vine is trying to eat the house. 

 

Anyway, how deep and how far out should I dig to relocate it? When is the best time to do this? Mom likes the flowers, so it has to live. 

[Rivera]

It ain't worth it! But if you gotta save it for your Mom then I guess that's the way it is.

I grew up with a couple of these. I've never dug one up, but I'm told they have a very substantial (and potentially invasive) root system. The amount of that rootball you get may be determined more by what you're able to move without hurting yourself than by what is best for the plant.

I've wrestled 25 gallon or so citrus trees out of ceramic pots and boxes into the ground, but I could never lift a rootball that size out of the ground on my own. If you have equipment or are feeling clever, that may negate this difficulty, but you'll have to be cautious around the waterline, which may also present a limiting factor as to how much of the rootball you're able to keep intact. 

Wisteria can be grown from cuttings, and many vines can regrow from a relatively small portion of the plant.

If it suffers a lot of root damage as a result of the transplant, it may miss a couple years of blooms as it endeavors to re-establish itself.

As far as when to do it, they're winter dormant. You could prune the plant heavily and dig before you anticipate the onset of its growing season in the spring, but I'm just taking a stab at it and assert no substantial knowledge.

Good luck!

[rprimbs]

Wisteria is extremely tough, but I think some people misunderstand how roots work.  They don't look for water, they 'follow' it.  They grow in the wet soil that is feeding them.  The more water, the more growth.  Roots end up in pipes that have leaks.  I have wisteria roots under my houses concrete slab because my main sewer drain was rusted out.

[JohnAndSancho]

Welp

 

Funny story. My shower clogged up real bad - turns out there was a massive 15 year old dried up hairball in the drain, but my brother panicked and thought the wisteria roots had maybe broken the line to the septic tank. There's now a big hole, and a very unhappy dried out looking wisteria on the other side of the property. 

[Rivera]

4 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Welp

 

Funny story. My shower clogged up real bad - turns out there was a massive 15 year old dried up hairball in the drain, but my brother panicked and thought the wisteria roots had maybe broken the line to the septic tank. There's now a big hole, and a very unhappy dried out looking wisteria on the other side of the property. 

Ha, oh no! 🤦 So it goes.

[happypalms]

On 10/11/2023 at 10:34 AM, JohnAndSancho said:

Anybody familiar with these, particularly their roots? My mom had one planted right in front of the house, and my brother says it's on top of our water line. Personally I think it's horribly ugly, at least in its current form - it looks like some kind of horror movie vine is trying to eat the house. 

 

Anyway, how deep and how far out should I dig to relocate it? When is the best time to do this? Mom likes the flowers, so it has to live. 

A triffid of a weed it will eat a house any roots you leave in will sprout suckers if you need to destroy and propagate it root division but mom knows best don’t forget 

[JohnAndSancho]

7 hours ago, happypalms said:

A triffid of a weed it will eat a house any roots you leave in will sprout suckers if you need to destroy and propagate it root division but mom knows best don’t forget 

Guess like I'm gonna dig a bigger hole, because we definitely did not get all of the roots lol. And what we got was hacked up. This was a guerilla operation with, like, no planning or thought. It literally went from a clogged shower drain, to grabbing a shovel. Pretty sure the tree is dead, and I did at least fix the shower. 

[happypalms]

14 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Guess like I'm gonna dig a bigger hole, because we definitely did not get all of the roots lol. And what we got was hacked up. This was a guerilla operation with, like, no planning or thought. It literally went from a clogged shower drain, to grabbing a shovel. Pretty sure the tree is dead, and I did at least fix the shower. 

Iam not a fan of herbicides but if that’s what it takes herbicide it is