English Oak

Frank Kelly

Does anyone know how well oak respond to leaf cutting , and whether it can be carried out in successive years ? Do the leaves have a good reduction ?

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tmull

Last year I defoliated two Quercus robur trees to test how well they respond. Both trees responded well and both came out with an increased amount of smaller leaves. However, one of the trees became infected with mould on the leaves. I treated this one with lime sulpur, with good results. The healthiest of the trees I will pot up this year.

rockm

Do not leaf prune anything two years in a row. May not kill the tree outright, but you will weaken it consdierably, leaving it open to all kinds of problems.

English oaks seem to be able to handle leaf pruning, and the leaves reduce. I don't have an Enligh oak, but do have a live oak. I've also tried North American forest white and red oaks. Almost all the forest oaks produce LARGER leaves when leaf pruned. This can happen with some trees, as leaf pruning forces the plant to produce a new crop of leaves fast. That means the plant will expend the least amount of energy for the maximum amount of return--larger leaves are easier to produce than alot of smaller ones and can cover the same area on the plant...

soonami

yup^^

As I understand, the best way to reduce leaf sizes in most oaks is to constrict the roots by repotting into sucessively smaller containers.

CScott

I have a black oak and an English oak. Instead of defoliating I cut back all the large leaves and apical leaves by two thirds. If you have lots of time you can cut the leaf with lobes so it looks more like an oak leaf, but I'm usually too lazy or get overwhelmed by so many leaves. I haven't tried it the same year the tree is repotted. The year I defoliate the new leaves were smaller but the following year they were as large as ever. The advantage I have found in defoliating is that the tree back buds beautifully. The photo is my black oak that is getting too gangly and was losing branches right and left. After defoliating by trimming leaves it has put out new sprouts from the trunk to work with.

This all may be overly cautious, but it is hot where I live (110 degrees today), and I don't want to push my luck.

Carmen

Attached Images

	Black-oak-2005.jpg (62.6 KB, 135 views)
	Oak-defoliation.jpg (65.3 KB, 159 views)

justdog

Hi:

I retrieved a 3 inch oak seedling from the forest today.

I planted it in an insualted pot outside sheltered from wind in a moist soil.

The roots were given root powder.

I defoliated 5 leaves that were still green

Was it wrong to take the leaves off?

Zone 5a 5b Temp probably will not go above 50 degrees again.

The acorn was still attached in a root ball that was 2inches in diameter.

That tap root was 6 inches long terminating in nice micro roots.

Would this eventually make a good subject for Bonsai?

How long should I pot it for?

Canada

Thanks

lance111

yea english Oaks are great..

They are very vigorous as bonsai (when the growing season comes in) you can get the reduction of the leaves down to very small and they look great.. alot of people tend to stay away from oaks as they are put off by the leave size and they think they are slow growers, but as bonsai they respond very well to the techniques...

My mate works with alot of English oaks, and some of his trees are mouth watering..

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bonsainotwar

What else works is simply not root pruning the tree,and keeping it potbound.

rockm

Not much. Those things are the primary factors behind leaf reduction, along wiht maximum sunlight exposure. Leaf pruning can produce smaller leaves, but not necessarily with oaks.

Some folks withhold water at key times during leaf development in the spring, but this technique is very dangerous, especially if you don't have any expereince with it. You can wind up killing the tree pretty quickly.