White or English oak acorns?
splaker
8 months ago
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
8 months agoken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
8 months agoRelated Discussions
Questions about white oak acorn
Comments (5)I don't have extensive experience, but I've found that keeping them in pots for two years works well. I have tried planting out the first year and germinating directly in the ground, but tend to lose more that way. I do repot after the first year to accommodate root growth (white oaks like tall pots). By the second year, I find they're tough enough to fend well on their own without too much care. I still cage them and weed regularly. White oak seedlings are so beautiful, I actually like having them indoors over winter, but if you prefer to bury the pots outside, they'll do fine too. I would love to raise a few every year, but I run out of choice spots to plant them in....See MoreRed oak family acorns form later than white oak family acorns?
Comments (6)Well, I went looking for signs of Q. velutina acorns ripening on some trees. Well, I was staring up into a tree a guy came up to me with sawdust all over him and said "hi". He was part of a crew that had from what he said just chopped down a large chestnut tree in the back of one of the homes by the road I was on. He told me that I was a month too early for the Red oak acorns, but, the squirrels were eating up the other nuts (chestnuts?) like crazy. I did see a Q. Alba with little green acorns on it. So I guess that's my answer. As far as the one pic on someone else's post here wanting an ID of their red oak ( I think a Q. Velutina) I don't know how to explain that one. I guess they had a already half formed Red oak family (Q. Velutina was my guess) acorn. The place I was at when the guy came up to my car, has tons of mature trees. Oaks, Chestnuts obviously, Maples. sycamores, Hickory, many others I am unfamiliar with some Walnuts, I don't know a black Walnut from any other Walnut. Pecans look like Walnuts to me as far as leaves. I would need my Field Guide to tell the difference. I didn't go to the place that I will be going to in mid to late September for a Q. Velutina acorn search. If they had been ripe I could've gotten them where I went today. I may look there first, (where I went today) in mid Sept. If I find any I'll offer some to anyone here who wants any. I have 2 Q. Velutinas. I have one that is close to a Q. Robur, and one that has enough room to grow to a nice wide spreading tree. I love the one that is in the open....See Morehybridizing English oak with Cork oak
Comments (12)Well, this is certainly an interesting place for a highly technical discussion about rare oaks, especially intersectional hybrids. My name is Dave. I was the guy in charge of planting 9,000 trees around the Apple Park Campus. About 4,000 of them were oaks of more than 60 taxa. My website is www.oaktopia.org. My iNaturalist page is: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&user_id=oaktopia&verifiable=any I thought I'd throw in some direct experience with intersectional hybrids after having grown tens of thousands of oaks of dozens of different taxa. My learning laboratory initially was the Shields Oak Grove at Univ. of California Davis, the Stanford University campus, and anywhere else I could either plant an interesting tree, or find an interesting and unknown tree. My first oddball oak was a super random Q. x hispanica in the Don Ramos Park in Palo Alto. Took me a month to ID the tree. It's on my iNaturalist page. This discovery opened the door to many subsequent discoveries. Regarding intersectionals. For this discussion, probably the most interesting observation concerrns Q. tomentella (Island Oak - CA super rare native) and Q. ilex. After learning that Q. tomentella grows over wide areas of California, I sought them out. Found a nursery that had a bunch, and went to look. And all of them looked as much like Q. ilex as Q. tomentella! There were nearly 100 trees in the block, all intermediate. I got into quite an argument with an 85 year old nurseryman over it. Years later, I learned where he got his seed - and it was from an authentic island-sourced Q. tomentella, except that mother tree was surrounded by Q. ilex! Then I moved to Santa Barbara, and found more of these tomentella x ilex all over town. As I spoke with other professionals about this oddity, I received confirmation these hybrids were being seen all over the state. So I bought 50 of the hybrids, and grew them for 5 years. Some of them were heavy acorn producers, and we attempted to grow seedlings. But, as noted elsewhere in the science listed here, the acorns either didn't germinate, or gave incredibly weak offspring. The hybrids themselves are actually pretty nice ornamental trees, being rather better than either parent in an ornamental setting. But there is of course a fair bit of variability. My other experience in intersectionals comes from the Shields Oak Grove. The biggest trees are Q. castaneifolia (though European oak collectors pointed out that they are actually Q. castaneifolia x cerris from the giant mother tree in Kew Gardens). Regardless, I've grown upwards of 5,000 seedlings from these trees over the last 15 years. The seedlings turn out to be quite variable in leaf shape and growth habit. And, many of the seedlings showed an enlarge central leaf sinus. Wonder how that got there? Might it be related to the enormous Q. macrocarpa located 200 feet away, across a big lawn? The Int'l Oak Society people I showed the trees all said it was just Q. cerris showing up, and in fact they all just call these hybrids Q. cerris from looking, which does not fit well with the actuality of these trees. Interestingly, the vigor on these trees is pretty much off the charts - we see 5 feet per year with decent watering and soils. Super vigorous. Haven't done progeny testing on these - that will be interesting. In the Shields Grove is also a Q. trojana which everyone I've talked with agrees is actually Q. trojana. A lovely little tree shown on my iNaturalist page. But again I've grown thousands of nice seedlings, and almost all of them have an enlarged central sinus! And what are the trees growing next to that lovely little Q. trojana? More Q. macrocarpa. But these Q. trojana seedlings are much more uniform than my the Q. castaneifolia hybrids. And they also show excellent vigor. I'm seeing what looks like an intersectional hybrid with good vigor, which might suggest greater genetic affinity than currently recognized. Haven't done the progeny testing yet on these either. As for the hybrid that started the thread, suber x robur, it's not really of interest to me. Having grown upward of 1,000 Q. suber, I know all too well that they are semi-evergreen, not evergreen. They drop their leaves sometime in March typically, and it takes them 4 to 6 weeks to get their leaves back. In the meantime, it's always fun to field inquiries from clients asking why all the Cork Oaks suddenly died.... And we get hideous sooty mold and honeydew drip off Q. robur throughout coastal California with our enhanced marine layer. I do like Q. x hispanica, and have actually managed to grow four of them by collecting acorns off a Q. suber in the Shields Grove that was literally growing next to a Q. cerris. But no Q. x hispanica are truly evergreen. For my evergreen trees, I turn to nature, and look south. Into the Madro-Tertiary flora with dozens of well-adapted evergreen oaks. Q. hypoleucoides is just going into commercial production in California, thanks to my efforts, along with Q. rugosa and Q. oblongifolia. The trees we really need in California are in the Sierra Madre of northwestern Mexico, one of the noted global Quercus hotspots, but the entire area is cartel controlled and considered highly dangerous. Have fun and stay safe....See MoreWhite oak acorns question
Comments (31)The stem will grow without light, but it will soon want some as the leaves unfurl. It might be better to give it some now, so the stem doesn't get too white and then sunburn when you give it more light. This shoot was kept in the dark so it grew white. As soon as it's grafted, it will be given more light. The only reason I included the picture was to show you how white they get with no light....See Morebengz6westmd
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8 months agoLarry Dale
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8 months agoBillMN-z-2-3-4
8 months agoBillMN-z-2-3-4
8 months agolast modified: 8 months agosplaker
8 months agoLarry Dale
8 months agoViburnumValley central KY Bluegrass z6
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