Transplanting / Planting Shrubs
Choose an overcast day for transplanting, preferably the morning.
- Dig planting hole twice the size of your root ball, setting aside removed soil.
- Mix, removed soil, with a triple mix soil to the ratio of 50/50. This mixture is used to back fill around shrub.
- Add soil mix, than bone meal to the bottom of the hole, allowing for an inch of soil between bone meal and root ball.
- Top of the root ball should not be buried below surrounding grade.
- If plant selected is of large size, root ball should be mounded above surrounding grade a few inches, or leave soil undisturbed in the bottom of the hole.
- Water shrub well before removing plastic pot. If the container doesn’t come off easily, make a couple of cuts down the sides and remove.
- Gently loosen roots, removing any loose soil by hand. If roots appear pot bound, make a few half inch deep cuts from top to bottom, spreading roots and root ball slightly when placing in hole.
- Back fill planting half way, water thoroughly eliminating air pockets.
- Continue to back fill, watering once more to aid the compaction of soil around your plant. When using a transplant solution, do so at this stage.
- Water shrubs regularly for the first year or two, when the top inch of soil is dry.
For transplanting an existing shrub in your yard the above steps are still applied, with a few extras. Remembering to prep planting hole first, you don’t want to leave a shrubs root ball exposed to the elements for a length of time.
- Dig a trench with a spade using the widest part of your shrub as a guideline for root ball width. Use the length of the spade for the depth of your trench.(Average root ball is about ⅔ of shrub spread)
- Once trench is dug, slide spade under shrub to loosen from hole. Pruners may be used, if spade is not sharp, to cut some roots.
- Gently remove shrub from hole, placing on a tarp or in a wheelbarrow for ease of transportation.
