The second Thursday of the month, the Deerfield Beach Arboretum has a Horticultural program where a speaker comes and gives a short talk on one subject or another. Tonight's program was very unique and something I have never seen before.

There are a few people who move very large trees and it is about half art and half science doing it. Our speaker tonight showed us pictures and videos of some of the trees he moved and a little bit of how he does it. People who want big trees and hire this gentleman are multi-millionaires and billionaires and don't bat an eye when spending $100,000 or $200,000 to move a tree they want.

To move very large trees, you can't move them over streets because they are just too big to fit, so he uses barges to float them down rivers and canals. Huge cranes to lift them too. Some trees are too big for cranes to lift so he employs house moving techniques by getting under the tree with jacks and lifting it that way. Then a trailer backs under the tree and they lower it down onto it.

Some trees he actually cuts into two,or four separate pieces, hauls them to their new home and then bolts them back together as one tree again.

Here is his simple website with a slide show documenting some of this.

http://greenintegritys.com/

Now we need to see how much they charge to move some of Ken Johnson's palms to my yard.

Amazing

Like you said, Jerry, only a very few people or companies do this. I am proud to be employed by one of those few companies who specialize in it. It is great fun to watch it happen in person. A couple months ago I had the opportunity to film -- using a GoPro camera mounted to my bumper -- a wide load transport (carrying a 45' baobab tree with a 4' diameter trunk) across town with two motorcycle police officers stopping traffic at every intersection. I also filmed a 240-ton hydrocrane "flying" a 12,500 lb., 15' x 20' specimen Green Island ficus tree (yes, GI ficus grow into trees!) 120 feet into its new location at a house in Palm Beach. These are just two recent examples. It really is amazing what can be done with the right equipment, experience, and ingenuity.

In Jupiter they moved some monster old oaks for a road project at a huge cost, over the next several years they withered and died.

the cutting in half is the part that amazes me --- any details on it could yo use it for tree ferns ? or to graft cycads this would be a heck of a good knowledge to know !

inquiring minds want to know

Best regards

Ed

Cutting really only works on large Ficus trees, which have no problem growing back together. I doubt it would work on tree ferns or cycads.

In Jupiter they moved some monster old oaks for a road project at a huge cost, over the next several years they withered and died.

Then somebody did something wrong... most likely didn't root prune long enough, planted them too deep, or didn't water them enough. We very rarely lose any trees that we move, and on the rare occasion when it does happen, it is usually because we were rushed by the owner/developer to move it sooner than it should be moved.

I just came across some photos that I took of our Tree Crew relocating a 60' tall Adina cordifolia tree at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden awhile back. According to the folks at Fairchild, this is the only tree of its kind in this country. The tree is alive and thriving to this day because of the expertise of our crew. Check out the size of the hole that was left after the tree was relocated!

Oh... and I almost forgot about the 45' baobab tree that we relocated from Homestead to Palm Beach. The tree had an 8' diameter trunk, and when it was set down in the street after being lifted out of its former location, a chunk of oolite weighing 20,000 lbs fell off the rootball. The tree and rootball then weighed in at around 50,000 lbs. As you can see, it is very happy in its new home.

Great stories guys! Thanks.

Wonderful photos and stories! Thanks!

Cutting really only works on large Ficus trees, which have no problem growing back together. I doubt it would work on tree ferns or cycads.

Walter Acree has mostly done it with Ficus, as you say, but also does it with Gumbos. He said he would not be afraid to try a Live Oak if someone pays him to do it.

When you cut a tree like this, the wood inside never grows back together, however, if you get the parts to touch, the bark generally grows together and the cut is sealed over with new bark and eventually new wood. On Ficus, the aerial roots generally wrap around the trunk, tying the different sections together. But it is really the steel bolts and cabling holding the tree together for the most part.

BTW, the chainsaw he uses has a six foot bar on it. The bar and chain add $600 to the price of the saw. Some of the cranes cost $3500 just to move to a site and another $3500 to move back, but only a few hundred an hour to operate.

Amazing....instant gratification.

Yeah, the big hydrocranes can get a bit pricey. The one we used to lift the baobab in the photos that I posted was a 240-ton and cost $5,000 to set up, $5,000 to break down, and $500 per hour -- totaling around $15K just to lift the tree and load it on the truck. Then, of course, you have a crane on the other end to take it off the truck and install it in the new location. Not something that most of us can afford.

Any more big Bobs like that available ? I know someone who loves them more than I

Any more big Bobs like that available ? I know someone who loves them more than I

There probably are more available. Tree movers scour the countryside for available trees then place options on them. When they get a customer looking for a big tree, they show them pictures of the available ones. They negotiate a price and offer the tree owner some big bucks to sell.

Yes, there are, Mike. We can find pretty much anything. Please contact me privately. Thanks.

Below are three more baobabs we installed in Coral Gables last year.

The first two are smaller trees. These photos show them in their original locations prior to transplant:

And here they are in their new home:

Then we have a series of photos showing the larger one from its original home at our nursery through the install to the final product:

0170-transport.MOV

Finally, here is a shot of all three trees in their new home:

Look up cycad international Joseph moves big baobab all the time, money buys most anything these days

Yeah, I've seen Joe's operation. It is impressive. He also ships them internationally.