![]() ![]() ![]() LIVING EARTH RED OAK HOW TOThis may cause trunk rot.Įditor’s note: For more information on planting oaks, see the University of California page on How to Grow California Oaks. You can mulch with oak leaves but do not build a volcano of mulch next to the trunk. If you like to dig, make your hole wide, but do not make it deep. Dig your hole no deeper than the root ball of your tree. But the loose soil in the bottom of the hole usually settles a few inches, just enough to sink your tree into the danger zone. Many people dig a deep hole and back fill to the appropriate depth. The most common source of transplant mortality is from planting a tree below the root-line. You can make the hole wide, but don’t make it deep. This introduces the mycorrhizae species that aid nutrient exchange in your oak.Ĭreate the right-size planting hole. If you are worried that your soil is poor, inoculate the planting site with a little soil and litter from under an established oak of the same species. Oaks are adapted to soils low in nitrogen and doses of fertilizer can trigger rapid growth periods that split the bark or stimulate lush leaf growth that is prone to insect infestation. Be sure to remove the fencing before the tree grows into and around it, and remember that young bark can get sunburned too.ĭon’t fertilize your oaks. This scrapes the bark off and can easily kill the tree. When the tree grows well about the cage, remove the cage and loosely wrap the trunk with plastic or wire fencing material to discourage damage from “buck-rub” (bucks like to rub their antlers against trees with a 2- to 3-inch diameter trunk). This might seem like overkill at first, but your oak will fill the cage in just a few years. ![]() I use five-foot-high wire fencing material and form a cage about 5 feet in diameter around the oak. If you purchase an oak, buy the smallest one the nursery offers. Be sure to water them until they are well established. Tend them in their pots through the first summer and then plant them into your yard in early September. In both cases, I recommend starting your acorns in deep pots and protect them from mice, chipmunks, and squirrels until the plant is well above the soil line. Acorns from the red oak group wait until spring to germinate, so they can be stored through the winter with a little bit of soil in a sealed plastic bag in the refrigerator. Then, in the spring, the young plant will shoot up towards the sun. They will send a radicle (embryonic root) straight down into the soil and spend the winter that way. Collect acorns as soon as they fall from the tree.Īcorns from species in the white oak group germinate right away in the fall, so they need to be planted immediately. Planting an acorn or small seedling is the best way to go. dwarf chestnut oak), most oaks will become large trees much faster than you think, so picture the area a mature oak (and its root system) will occupy in 20 years. Although some species remain small even when mature (e.g. The good news is that all of these problems-transplant difficulties, root-bound plants, and expense-can be easily avoided if you plant your oaks when they are small. It is now over 30 feet tall, and I can assure you, I am enjoying it! I am writing this as I sit under a willow oak that I planted 16 years ago from an acorn. I have heard landscape professionals tell clients not to plant oaks because they won’t live long enough to enjoy them. Oaks also have a reputation for being slow-growing. Trees that have been root pruned when successively moved to larger containers have a good chance of survival, but will not be as vigorous as a tree planted directly from an acorn. A potted oak that is 5 feet tall may be root-bound, with a high probability of choking itself to death once in the ground. Oak roots grow so fast that a potted oak can become root-bound in a single season. Photo by: shapencolour / Alamy Stock Photo. At maturity, red oaks reach 50 to 75 feet tall with an equal spread. Several Quercus rubra (red oak) line a driveway. ![]()
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