A friend has given me a few oak saplings from there old trees acorns, here is a picture of one of them, budding out nicely,
I also have one in the greenhouse, and one that has just been left to the elements.
What should I be doing, if anything to them…
Let it grow for the season .does it still have the acorn if so leave it the seedlings get a lot of nutrients from it it will naturally fall off after the first year. I would repot next year. Every oak I have seen will have a big Taproot and it will need to be cut . Unfortunately you don’t often get branching on the tap root for quite a distance. I normally tip the tap root and use it as my trunk. Side note you will often get lots of back binding where the acorn was attached.
Ok, that sounds good, it’s already shed the acorn husk and is doing well I think, don’t know what the roots look like at the moment as I haven’t touched it yet, but thank you.
I have had good luck cutting the tap root - first just to keep it in check and later to reduce it after the tree has produced roots near the where the acorn was located. This includes Canyon Live Oak and Oregon White Oak. I also like to put some movement in the trunks early since they will stiffen up quite a bit. Some of the trees will produce low buds and branches if they grow strong and the leader(s) are cut back. I just repotted a 5-year-old Canyon Live Oak that has about 10 small branches in the first 4" to make a shohin. My final note is to protect the seedling from squirrels until all remnants of the acorn are gone. They will dig them up to get even the smallest bit.
Yeh, thankfully all the acorns are gone so no fear for the squirrels lol, I did think about putting a bend in the main trunk, but after you mentioned using a part of the tap root as the base of the trunk I wasn’t sure, I think the tap root will be coiled around in the pot, on one of the main shoots I’m going to pinch out the very top growing tip, see if it will trigger a couple of the lower buds to grow. Many thanks for the advice…
I thought I would get the same as I have from Facebook groups I’m in…put them back in the ground and don’t touch them for 4-5 years is what I normally get lol
Search and Check this Convo out where you will find some tips on oak seedlings I too applied and worked well with plenty of mine I planted.
Marty where are you located? California? I’m in the valley and would like to get a canyon live oak. Around here all the natives are live oaks but there’s a lot of cork oak in the landscape.(Started a bunch of them this year btw)
Chris - I am in Spokane, WA. These are seedlings using seed from Sheffield’s Seed Company, Not sure why I picked this particular live oak (perhaps cold tolerance - wikipedia lists -11F in the ground), but so far I have kept them in the just above freezing greenhouse in the winter. I may try a couple healed into the bed of the unheated hoop house next winter. - Marty
Here are a couple of my Canyon Live Oak seedlings. The larger one was potted up last year and I will start to do some branch refinement this year to make a chuhin size tree as well as leaving a sacrifice or two. The smaller one was potted up this year to make a shohin - the lower branches are about 4" tall (the pot is one I had around).
Hay everyone who gave me advice and here is a pic of my oak now
In the main trunk I reduced the leaf size by a third and now I have some new back budding just started so now I will probably leave it alone for a while and see how it develops.
Ps, please be gentle about my wiring teqnique, still got a lot to master
Good tip I’ll check out that seed company. My wife has family up that way in Puyallup (no idea how it’s spelled off hand)
I have used this company too for several species and have gone back multiple times to get seeds from them.
Cute little oak 
I don’t have access to growing or developing in the ground, but accomplish the escape root method with a colander or pond basket half way in nursery soil in a slightly bigger nursery can.
My experience is, I wire the bottom half of the trunk with movement since I let the branches run for a couple years and cut back. It produces the fasted trunk thickening.
Next January do some root maintenance and get the tap root cut if there is one. Sometimes they don’t produce
a really strong one on the nursery pot. Lay the roots out nice and put it back in for more development. I would suggest give it enough room for 2-3 years before it needs its next repot. All the while working the tree as you can at the height you anticipate wanting. I haven’t found that oaks kick off lower branches as easily as some other species.
What type of oak, out of curiosity?
These are some of last years acorns from Sheffield. They are California Blue Oaks
Danielle
English oak, thank you
