Question: Someone told us we should “root prune” our shade tree before we try to move it. What is that, and how beneficial would it be?

Answer: Root pruning really is good business. It’s the process of cutting the lateral roots so that the new root growth will all be within the eventual soil ball. It results in far less transplant shock, provided you give the plant enough lead time to regrow its roots. Ideally you’d want to do the root pruning no later than early fall for a mid-winter transplanting. If you could do the root pruning the prior winter, so much the better.