Expert: Long Island Gardener - 7/19/2007

Question
Hi: I live in Zone 6 and want to move some of my lilies to a less crowded location. What is the best time of the year and when, after moving should they be fertilized.
Thanks

Answer
Transplanting anything should be done off-season.  But only tap-rooted plants will find mid-season movement devastating.  If you can manage to thin these Lilies out AFTER they are done blooming, taking the entire rootball with them, they will get through the crisis unscathed.

Let me explain:

Transplant 'shock' is in reality damage that is entirely done to delicate, microscopic roothairs that grow out of the roots.  These are very, very small -- so delicate that merely breathing on them too hard would cause them to detach and float away.  Many of them are connected, in the friendliest way, to Fungi and other microbes in the soil, trading elements and services for one another.

Although these root hairs are extremely tiny, they also multiply the surface area of the Roots many, many times over.  The Roots absorb water and nutrients effectively without them, but they count on the root hairs to work the most efficiently.  Damaging the root hairs, or completely wiping them out, leaves the Roots to do all the work.  They can't keep up.  The plant wilts.  We call it 'shock'.  Watering it more won't help, because the Roots cannot work fast enough.  They NEED the help of the root hairs to keep up.

Quickly, the Roots re-grow their root hairs.  It takes a few days, because those root hairs as I said are so tiny.  Replacing the lost root hairs is the top priority for any plant.  As soon as those root hairs are back, they're back in business, absorbing moisture.  The longer the plant is down, the more new Fungi friends they make, trading services, doing the job of drawing nutrients out of the soil and into the Lilies.

To minimize transplant shock, keep a small container of Harpin Protein in your garden shed or garage.  Harpin Protein jumpstarts the Message to the Roots:  'DAMAGE CONTROL NEEDED!  EMERGENCY!  BUILD NEW ROOT HAIRS!'  You can purchase Harpin Protein as 'Messenger' at your local garden center.  It is also sold on the internet.

We did not know some of these things as recently as 10 years ago.  Today, we know some AMAZING things about botany and microbiology.  So we know that when a plant is experiencing 'transplant shock', it is in crisis mode, without water, shutting down systems, waiting for a new supply of root hairs to grow and go online.

Bottom line:  Try to move your Lilies in the late fall after they are Bulbs without Leaves.  If you MUST move them sooner, dig them one by one with as much of the soil as you can, and as little physical activity as possible, into a pre-planned hole waiting for them.  Water, but don't overwater.  Hold off on fertilizer until next spring.  Minimize stress with Harpin Protein.

I hope that's clear.  And not too long.  Let me know if you have any questions.  Thanks for writing.