Overwintering Quercus

Lesley

I am a neophyte to bonsai and have read newsletters from my club and books about winter care. I have been lead to believe that leaves that haven't fallen from decidous trees should be removed and that the trees should be sprayed with dormant spray. I have three quercus trees trained by other now in my care. Acording to Sunset they are deciduos and evergreen. Do I defoliate them, some of the leaves are drying and falling off? Thanks for the help!

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Ladybug

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TreeBay

Hi there Lesley

Some oaks are deciduous and some are evergreen. If you can determine which you have, you can treat them accordingly. Dormant spray at recommended strength is often too strong for the leaves of evergreen plants, and depending on the type, the dosage recommended for them may be lower.

Midori Vice Prsident John Thompson does a lot of work with oaks and he will do some defoliation of even the evergreen oaks towards late winter to aid in getting light into the tree. Since you're also a Midori member, John would be the one to ask. If you are attending Midori's holiday dinner tonight, maybe you could ask him and report back what you learn!

Regards,

Matt

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Lesley

Matt

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm on the forum because I'm under the weather and can't go out for a few days. My questions just popped into my head while I was reading other threads. I'll sadly miss the party and auction, but I'll take your advice and wait until I can get info from JT at next workshop meeting at end of this month. I hope it's OK to use the forum like this?

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Ladybug

DavidN

Being in California isn't it zone 9 which means you don't have to do anything to your trees to over winter them. I'm in Zone 9 and I have never worried about defoliating and overwintering issues. I just treat them the same as the rest of the year.

David