Coast Redwood digging process

[hampton]

I’ve got a coast redwood I’ve been growing from a seedling. This spring I put it into my grow bed with the intention of lifting it before winter due to my zone. Just wanted to run down my plan and see if anyone has any pointers or cautionary tales.

Once temps start getting into the mid 40’s over night I’ll chop this around 12”, more for overwinter storage than anything.

Then I’ll dig and take as much of the root ball as I can get and drop the whole thing into a 7 gallon root bag and place the whole thing in my cold greenhouse to keep it above freezing.

Come spring I want to work the roots, put it in a pond basket, and potentially drop it back into the bed for another season before going into a training pot in 2026.

As always, any feedback is appreciated

 

[Dabbler]

Honestly you should have put it in a growing flat then put that in the ground. That would allow any roots to escape and let it grow like you wanted. Try to not disrupt as many as roots as possible, and hope for the best, and I don't know how a chop will work this late in the season in your area. Every time you disrupt the roots, it sets the tree back, as it has to put a ton of energy fixing/establishing them. With doing root work twice a year, maybe put it into a flat and then just move that around and bury that, allowing the main root ball to stay established till you need to work the roots?

 

[hampton]

Honestly you should have put it in a growing flat then put that in the ground. That would allow any roots to escape and let it grow like you wanted. Try to not disrupt as many as roots as possible, and hope for the best, and I don't know how a chop will work this late in the season in your area. Every time you disrupt the roots, it sets the tree back, as it has to put a ton of energy fixing/establishing them. With doing root work twice a year, maybe put it into a flat and then just move that around and bury that, allowing the main root ball to stay established till you need to work the roots?

That’s generally the plan - given that it’s only 3/4 years old I’m hoping it responds reasonably well to lifting.

Re:chopping - I don’t have to go that low but will have to take off some height/width to get into storage.

Should have gone into a pond basket at first but we live and learn