Largest tree that you can buy in a container (landscaping, growing, palm)
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I was wondering, what is the largest tree that you can buy in a container?
In a typical case you bay a 2 pound bag with a tree, then wait 30 years until it grows big. Like an oak or something. Different tree nurseries push this to different limits and sell larger or smaller containers. I know it is even possible to relocate mature (40feet) trees, I have seen it being done at a nearby office building, where they moved several of them to allow for a new larger building that replaced a smaller building. For buying them from a nursery you would need the nursery to grow them for like 10 years.
And of course, where do you buy these very large trees? I am in the SF bay area in California.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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We have a "Big Tree" nursery where you can buy a 40' tree with rootball wrapped in burlap. It requires a fork lift and flatbed truck to deliver, and backhoe (or broken back) to plant, but they are readily available. Even the regular nurseries (not home centers) have 20' trees in large plastic pots. Most areas will have a big tree nursery or 2, and any landscaping company will know where they are. A place in Southern CA called "Big Trees Nursery" has trees in boxes up to as big as 108". I would think that even a good local nursery such as Navlet's in your area would be able to order larger trees and arrange the planting. When we were in the Bay Area we used to get some pretty good sized trees in Hayward at Western Garden Nurseries, which I think has moved to Pleasanton.
I was wondering, what is the largest tree that you can buy in a container?
In a typical case you bay a 2 pound bag with a tree, then wait 30 years until it grows big. Like an oak or something. Different tree nurseries push this to different limits and sell larger or smaller containers. I know it is even possible to relocate mature (40feet) trees, I have seen it being done at a nearby office building, where they moved several of them to allow for a new larger building that replaced a smaller building. For buying them from a nursery you would need the nursery to grow them for like 10 years.
And of course, where do you buy these very large trees? I am in the SF bay area in California.
Two of the best in Northern Cal.
Valley Crest and Bonfonte Specimen Trees.
I've purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of trees from them over the last 15 years.
Largest required a 100 ton crane to put into place.
There are also a few in SoCal I've used when what I needed for a client wasn't available in NorCal. Palm trees specifically.
Thanks. this Bonfante in Gilroy seem to have very large ones.
What do they mean by for example 72" box?
What are typical prices of a 20 feet tall non-exotic tree?
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,550 posts, read 81,117,303 times
Reputation: 57755
Quote:
Originally Posted by buenos
Thanks. this Bonfante in Gilroy seem to have very large ones.
What do they mean by for example 72" box?
What are typical prices of a 20 feet tall non-exotic tree?
72" box is the size of the wooden crate built around the tree's rootball for shipping, like the smaller trees being 1 gallon or 5 gallon. One that big is likely to be at least $4-5,000 but depends on the variety.
Thanks. this Bonfante in Gilroy seem to have very large ones.
What do they mean by for example 72" box?
What are typical prices of a 20 feet tall non-exotic tree?
Varies greatly.
Very large palm trees are usually only sold by the foot.
For most large trees, they need to have been grown in that container for a few years or they will not have the root structure needed to take up water in a new environment. Typically an in-ground tree has roots that spread out many feet (often 10 or more) from the trunk, and it is near the ends of these big roots that the tiny little roots that take up water and nutrients grow.
So some nurseries will go out into a field and cut off all the roots that are more than 2 ft from the trunk and plunk the tree into a container. Beware of this, the tree will not live more than a year because the important tiny roots have been left in the field.
Reputable nurseries either grow the trees in container their whole lives, or if they dig them from a field they do partial digs for a year or more to get the tiny roots growing closer to the trunk. Then after usually two years of this they safely put them in the container and the tree survives potentially for many years.
Smaller trees will get established and grow faster than transplanted big trees. It takes a long time for bigger trees to recover from that stress, if they do at all.
Smaller trees will get established and grow faster than transplanted big trees. It takes a long time for bigger trees to recover from that stress, if they do at all.
I agree. In 10 years a seedling will be a much healthier and more beautiful tree. Also, a lot of the 15'+ trees are topped to fake a mature form. In time, this leads to all sorts of problems with the branching structure.
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