I was going to ship a bare root tree to a friend and wonder if anyone could give tips on the best way to pack the tree for shipping.  I've seen trees that had some kind of gel around the roots to hold moisture. Has anyone used that gel when shipping trees?  I was planning to put some moist sphagnum moss around the roots and wrap them in plastic.

If the tree is dormant, the SM or damp paper covered with plastic is fine.

I've never shipped a bare root tree but I would think that damp sphagnum moss should work well. Like you said if you wrap the roots with enough moss and put that in a plastic they shouldn't dry out and the moss would help cushion the roots. The only thing that could damage it would be if you are shipping to a cold destination. If it's too cold the roots wouldn't be able to take it well as the limbs could. Just my 2 cents.

wrap the roots in wet/damp paper towel and bag the roots/saran wrap etc it will be fine 

that gel stuff i have used. i got mine from walmart miracle grow made the stuff i got. looks like salt in the bag. add a tsp to a cup of water and in 5 min you got some ice looking gell stuff. if your not planning on shipping alot them go with moist but not dripping newspaper and or sp moss.

i would not ship a fig tree bare root unless it is dormant. wrap the roots in plastick or bag them, or both.

Thanks for all the replies and information.

I received small trees just like that, a piece of paper towel  and a plastic bag over the roots that were folded to fit in the bag with a small tie on the bag to the trunk.. it was fine. 

Are the roots able to fit into a toilet paper tube?

Go to walmart. In the "Shipping" isle, there is a tube shipping package. The size is roughy three inch diameter X 36in long.
1. I take a gallon ziplock
2. shove a several fist full of spagnum (dont be shy about shoving a lot of spag)
3. close the ziplock
4. I place thin card board (or a torn up raggy t-shirt) laid at the BOTTOM
5. I place the ziplock on TOP of the card board/ raggy t-shirt to be rolled, and taped all OVER. If my trees are branched, I tear up strips of cloth and tie it down.

Finally I squeeze the contents in the tube. 

Jennifer

Just ship it out...

Or that.. LOL

I have received trees from France (legally with all paperwork) and what Baud did was put them moist inside a plastic bag and packing tape around the top of the bag to keep it fairly closed, there where not much in the way of openings but some small ones.

They were then packed into a cardboard box. with some paper crushed to keep them from moving around in the box, most of them are growing, a couple maybe got hurt because they sat in customs for a week longer than they should have, all in all about 3 weeks from shipping to receiving to planting so I think that method is near 100% for what it's worth, the damp sphagnum is probably good insurance though.

Thanks again for the help.  The tree is in a 2 gallon pot.