Privet stumps - keeping them alive

[Webos]

Hey Guys,
Came home today and found 3 big privet stumps sitting on my front lawn. A friend's dad owns an old building and he had these privets dug out from next to the front door. My friend chucked them in the truck and dropped them off to me. Apparently they were dug out 2 or 3 days ago and have a lot of soil still around the rootball.

My question to all is - how sensitive are privet to being transplanted? After 2 or 3 days of sitting outside in the elements after being dug, will their chances of survival be severely diminished? How much of a rootprune can these things handle?

Looking forward to your replies

[Bretts]

They have about the best chance of any species of surviving that. Tough as!

[Webos]

AWESOME!!!

[Jarrod]

No harm in trying, love to see pics?

[Jamie]

i would be leaving the rootball as intact as possible for now and then soaking them in a seasol bath for a day or two to get them rehydrated, this should give you a good chance of surviavl for them, from what i know they are tough as hardwood.

good luck


jamie

[Watto]

If you send us a photo or two we will be better able to advise, but generally they are pretty tough as everyone else has said.

[Webos]

Thanks a lot guys.... All sounds promising. I'll try to get photos of them tomorrow before I pot them up first thing in the morn. They are super heavy..I think I'll give them a root prune and a chop top and get them straight into the ground for some recovery.

[Joel]

Hi Webos,

Whilst bushwalking i kicked one small stump out of the ground. It was dry clay soil but not much of it stuck to the roots. It was put (whilst still dry) into my backpack. A week later i remembered it, fished it out, and potted it up. This was about a month ago and it has shot out everywhere. I just thinned back to 3 branches. It is only about 30mm high too!

Yours should be fine.

JayC

[Chris Di Nola]

Hi Mate

They should survive with no problem, if it was me i would bare root the using a lots of water during the process, cut the roots back by a third minimum so that you remove any that may have been damaged or might have dried out from when they where lifted, make sure that all the foliage if any is left, is removed.
Pot up in good mix & water in well, the following day treat with a seasol solution & then followed by a weekly seasol hit until they start to shoot which should be within 4 weeks.

Hope this helps & good luck.

Cheers
Chris

[Webos]

This one here is the 2nd biggest/smallest of the 3 Privets I got yesterday...Let me know what you think guys

[anttal63]

nice adam!!! after all they're related to olives.

[Webos]

I have had great success with yamadori olives...hopefully these privets will be just as successful

[Webos]

UPDATE...

Privets are now shooting. They are showing signs of health and vitality...

Got some info from the person who dug and gave me these stumps... The privets were dug, then came to me exactly 5 days later after having sat outside in the elements. Privet 1 was planted that night. Privet 2 (The bigger one) was planted another week later because I didnt have time the night I received it and had to go away for a week.

[anttal63]

congrat adam! that is great news. that 1st is gonna be sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo nice to work with. cant wait to see what ya gonna do.
today i chopped up 3 oaks and a radiata and into the green waste, more to come thats ok some things have worked out. so it is great when ya dig is worth while and as good as that.

[Hutch11]

Okay,

I have heard the term 'Privets' used quite often on here and I am finally going to ask........... what is a 'privet' exactly, is it a particuliar type of tree or a species?