Can I plant a new tree or bush in the same spot that I pull a tree out??

 Hello,

I don’t even know if you can do what I want to do. I have a birch tree
that is dying. I knew they were short-lived trees whenever I planted
it over 20 years ago. It is on my hillside and I have chicken wire on
the hill helping hold the mulch on it since it is pretty steep, so I
have a mess on my hands.

The tree is about 20-feet tall now. It is a clump birch with three
trunks. Each trunk is about the size of, say, a softball or smaller.

I believe I can cut it down and get a fair amount of roots out. If I
wait a few years, can I plant in exactly the same spot? Or would I be
forced to move 6-8 feet away? If it is the latter, I simply cannot do
it. Could I plant anything in the same hole? A tall bush or something,
at least? The tree helped shade my deck plus I sort of “need” the
height, if you know what I mean…

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
ray

 busbus wrote:

   Ray,

   Do you know why it is dying?  Birch trees can live beyond 20 years.

   If it is a birch borer, there are ways to treat that.

   It's a shame to cut down a mature tree and I like clump birches,
   especially the river variety.

   If the tree is really dying of old age, there should be no concern
   about planting something else.  To be on the safe side, I would remove
   a good deal of soil from around the removed tree and replace it.

                        Sherwin

  busbus wrote:

Birch trees can live 100 years and more.  But birch requires fairly strict
growing conditions, they are not tolerant of excessively dry or excessively
wet locations.  With excessively dry or wet conditions birch tend to die
from the top down... if dying from the bottom up or equally all over than
I'd suspect some disease.  That yours is on a steep grade (rather than a
low/level area) I suspect quick run off during rainy periods and therefore a
lack of water... birch require deep watering and especially as they become
more mature. Birch do best growing close to streams and lakes and in well
irrigated meadows as they require fairly rich and deep soils... if your soil
is sandy and/or drains rapidly then it is not a good spot for birch, it
would be rare indeed to find a stand of birch growing on hillsides.  It
would be a shame to kill a birch of that size if it's not sick, I would have
a plant nursery check it out and perhaps move it to a more appropriate spot,
or they may take it in trade for a more appropriate tree.  Not knowing where
you are located I can't recommend an alternative, but I will say that large
shade trees generally do not do well on steep grades, and birch are more a
specimen/accent tree, they grow tall and columnar without much spread and
don't have dense foilage so they are not considered a shade tree.

 On 7/18/2009 5:45 PM, busbus wrote:

This is a question for your local nursery or arborist.  It depends on
the type of tree and why it died.

I know that a peach tree can be planted where an old peach tree has been
removed.  Peaches are indeed relatively short-lived.  In commercial
peach orchards, it's not unusual to remove all the trees after about 15
years.  I had one removed after about 17 years.  The tree service ground
out the stump.  That was in the fall.  The following spring, I planted a
new peach in the exact same spot.  This fall (about 20 years later),
I'll have the second one removed and plant a third one there.

On the other hand, I believe that an oak should not be planted where a
previous oak had been removed.  That is because a dying oak develops
root fungus that can afflict a new oak.

--
David E. Ross
Climate:  California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening diary at <http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary>

 

Isn't there some issue about the old tree's roots? When you remove a tree
and grind the stump, you leave the old root system behind. This takes
several rears to rot, which then leaves a void in the soil. If you replant
on top where the old stump was wont the new planting collapse into the void
as the old roots rot?

Jon