My Oak, coming along.

[Damian Bee]

It has been about 6 years since I picked this Quercus up at a flea market, it is coming along ok.
I will work on the branching a little and perhaps take off the smaller trunk.

Any pointers would be welcome

[Chris]

A great looking naked tree Mr Bee

[Damian Bee]

Hmmm, I was going to post it up with a subject heading 'barely clothed' or 'naked beauty' just to see how many hits it got

[Chris]

Mr Bee i love that tree just as it is

[PaulC]

Hi Damian,

nice find at the market !!

Sure you want to remove the lower branch ?

Yes, the concept of a twin trunk is out of the question, as the tree has already left the pot and has branching.

But what about considering removing the upper trunk? ( air layering would be advised, after all, why loose such a nice
future tree ? ).

And...........those smaller branches on the left hand side, keep those.

The lower trunk has better movement.

I would reduce the apex, there seems to be two at this moment on the lower tree.

Then remove or reduce the other long branches as the internode length has become far too long.

You have given an indication of the trees size by the oak leaf in the pot.

I would reduce the tree, to give it some sence of style, perhaps a semi cascade or even a windswept look ?
And concentrate on reducing its size, and aim for some ramification.

I have a box maple, and am not only trying to reduce the leaf size ( which brings another question..........
can you reduce an oaks leaf size ? ), but am also tryng to get some fine branching ( ramification ).

It seems to be working by constant pruning.

I cannot say this will occur on your oak, but I hope there may be others that will advise on this.

Regards,



Paul.

[Watto]

I agree with Paul - keep the smaller trunk as it really improves the taper and it has much better movement. In my very limited experience with Oaks, the more leaves you have the smaller they will be and thus you will need to improve the ramification. BUT, its a good looking speciman!

[Damian Bee]

Hi Paul and Watto,

Thanks for the advice. I think I had better post up some more angles of this Oak and perhaps a pic when I repot as it has an interesting feature in the roots. It has 2 trunks at the moment because I have 2 choices and can't make the decision at present. I do prefer the larger one of the two but layering does assure that I can keep either.
The leaf size does reduce well, I trialed it 2 years ago, last year I did not give the tree much more than a repot.

I also put in some Acorns in during March, they are already up and racing, looks like there will be a couple of dozen more like it in a few years