How to Lift a Balled Tree

Lightweight Trees

1). Squat down so that one knee is on each side of the tree's root ball.
2). Place your arms around the root ball and grab the bottom of the root ball with your hands -- kind of like you're giving the root ball a hug. The further you can get your hands under the root ball the better.
3). Tilt the tree back toward you so that the trunk rests on your right or left shoulder.
4). Lift the root ball by standing up. As soon as you're standing erect, hug the root ball in close to your body to keep from dropping it.

1). Set a 1-inch-thick piece of plywood on the ground next to the tree's root ball. This piece of plywood needs to be close to or a little bigger than the circumference of the bottom of the root ball.
2). Get a couple of people on each side of the root ball and have them hoist it up while you slide the board underneath it. If it's too heavy, tilt the tree on its side and roll the root ball onto the board.
3). Slide the lifting platform of a hand truck underneath one of the sides of the board and pull the rootball in toward the frame of the hand truck.
4). Step on the axle between the two tires of the hand truck with your right foot. Grab the trunk of the tree with your left hand and then pull back on the handle of the hand truck with your right hand to lift the tree. Keep pulling back on the handle and the trunk until you feel like the weight is centered over the wheels and axle of the hand truck.