Had a guy come out today and move some 15 foot tall ponderosa pines around the house. One of the trees took a 90" wide tree spade. The others were 65". Just kind of amazing to watch them drive themselves down into the dirt. And beat the hell out of planting little trees in my slow growth environment. Now wanting to plant more lol.

At $250 per tree to move them I really didn't feel it was a bad deal.

The tree spades are a great tool.
I wish it was cheaper to hire one.

Whose 90"? Gold Creek?

Speaking of tree spades... Here's a couple of spades that a buddy of mine owns. I can't recall the size, but the one on the 963 was the largest one made at one time. I mounted the stack of counter weights on the rear end of the 963. I think the weights are over #600 a piece.
It's pretty impressive to watch em work.

Don, That 90 was from Ponderosa Tree Service.

TN, that big red rig is impressive.

make sure you water 'em good and really tamp in the cuts so the root don't get air. Most of these spade guys guarantee for one year, but they don't expend the physical energy to tamp in properly. And these pines will make it a year in an unsealed hole before dying in the second year......

Here's a pic of the red one in action. Believe it or not, these spades are for the smaller trees that he re-locates. The larger trees have to be dug, wrapped by hand and set with a crane. The second pics shows where his bread and butter is at.

I'm thinking that cost more than $250 lol. Thanks for posting. That is a monster tree to move. I am sure there is a science to all the details involved with that.

Don, going to tamp them down again this weekend. Watered them really well yesterday. Neighbor has put in about 15 over the last 4 years and so far they are 100% survival. Hope that holds.

There are 200 transplanted pines here at the ranch. 7 years and have only lost one....and it still has some live needles at the top.