Re-potting tree that's in a tub and over 4m high

My Bay tree's over 4m high and growing in a half whiskey barrel which has reached the end of it's life:



That picture was taken when it looking it's worse following the freezing winter, but is now bursting into bud nearly everywhere and I'm rewarding it with a 'new' half ex-whiskey barrel. Those (suckered?) shoots to the LH side have also burst into life and I want to remove & pot them up separately.

I was thinking of using half a dozen or so small pallets and gradually working the tree in it's existing tub up to a level where the remains of the existing tub could be removed, the small bays around the perimeter cut away, and the whole thing lowered into a new tub.

My plan includes for watering it whilst it at the top, based on the assumption that moist soil might hold together better when the staves are removed (although I expect it will be mainly root in there after all these years, then wrapping around the sides of the root ball with some medium duty weed control barrier just in case it wants to fall apart.

Has anybody done this sort of thing before or got any other ideas? (I don't have anywhere to plant it in open ground)

 

Hi Scrungee

Your plan sounds well thought out, but I would probably opt to move it when it's less actively growing, such as in the winter when drought and possible damage may not be so much of an issue.

Matthew