I also have recently moved to a new QTH. At my last, I was
a devotee of ground mounted verticals with many buried
radials. My main antenna there was a 42 foot vertical, with
48 buried radials, each about 50 feet long. This time, being
older and less inclined to digging, and work in general, but
still being a devotee of verticals, I decided to try a
vertical dipole in a tree. It is 28 feet long (tall), with
the bottom end inches off the ground. The feed is in the
middle with open wire line and an air-core balun. I use a
"balanced balanced" Richard Measures-style "L" network tuner
in the shack. The tree is a tall, skinny one, and the
vertical wire is about five feet from the tree. I have been
using it for about three months now, on 80 through 20
meters, mostly on my favorite, 40 cw.

I suppose at this point, following the pattern of others, I
should go into a dissertation on signal absorption by trees,
effect on pattern, effect of lack of radials, etc. I don't
have any first-hand information on all that, but I can say
that it works great for me. Performance is comparable to
the aforementioned vertical at my previous QTH, considering
that it is somewhat shorter. I certainly wouldn't advise
against trying one because of seemingly adverse theoretical
considerations.

Steve W9HJW