Joe Dupre'
Omono
Well, one clue is when you can't close the tailgate on the truck. 
I've been eyeing this one for a couple of years. Too big, I thought. But in a fit of weakness, I tackled it........... SLOWLY. I dug until I hit a root, then carefully dug around it with my hori hori knife. I cut that root and moved on to another. Not too bad. No tap root, mostly shallow horizontal ones. She was out in about an hour. The trunk as it was loaded in the truck was probably 100 lbs or better. With the trunk chopped, roots pruned and field soil removed ...........still 75 lbs or so. I misjudged the size and had to add a bit of height to my mortar tub. The base at ground level is about 24 inches. The tree had decent roots close to the trunk. We shall see if it they are enough. The back side is hollow, having been a "sprout" of a much bigger, mother tree that died in the distant past.
I've been eyeing this one for a couple of years. Too big, I thought. But in a fit of weakness, I tackled it........... SLOWLY. I dug until I hit a root, then carefully dug around it with my hori hori knife. I cut that root and moved on to another. Not too bad. No tap root, mostly shallow horizontal ones. She was out in about an hour. The trunk as it was loaded in the truck was probably 100 lbs or better. With the trunk chopped, roots pruned and field soil removed ...........still 75 lbs or so. I misjudged the size and had to add a bit of height to my mortar tub. The base at ground level is about 24 inches. The tree had decent roots close to the trunk. We shall see if it they are enough. The back side is hollow, having been a "sprout" of a much bigger, mother tree that died in the distant past.
