Nursery find Red Oak: Just couldn't pass it up

At a mom and pop nursery today and I happened upon this Red Oak. I know there aren't very many Red Oak bonsai out there because of their larger leaf size. But this tree had a great taper that I just couldn't pass up. The tree had some issues further up the trunk that I used to my advantage in negotiating the price. She originally wanted $140 which I was able to get down to $30. She planted it from seed 13 years ago and probably wasn't transplanted very many times (if any). It was very rootbound. It also has a root circling the trunk. I was a little worried about that root. If it had grafted itself to the base of the trunk, it would've been a pretty ugly situation. First thing I did when I got home was remove this root and it popped right off. Not even an impression where it wrapped around. So next I chopped it. Tree was about 10' tall. Due to the stress of the tree, It had sent out two very low buds last year, pretty close to perfect placement I might add. I then pulled the tree out of the container and raked out the roots. I cut off about 30% and put it back in the 15g container with free draining soil. I also cut off a few unsightly roots. I will have to address other roots in the future. But for now, I've done enough.

The base of the trunk is 4 1/2" and its 6" to the top of the chop. Its almost 2" wide at the top. Camera phone doesn't do it justice.

Hopefully this will be a nice bonsai one day. I just couldn't pass up this tree.

I'd seal up the cut. In my experience oaks tend to die back from major pruning sites.

bleumeon said:

I'd seal up the cut. In my experience oaks tend to die back from major pruning sites.

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Done. I've read no need. But it can't hurt.

Sweet! I'd love an oak and that's a nice fat base! I've got a few tiny little seedling sticks I pulled up from the somewhere I work last year and they got buds on but they are SMALL so gonna be a LLOOOOONNGGGG time before they're good for anything!

very cool, hope you can come across a good method for leaf size reduction on oak

Do you know species designation? Leaves not same as my N Red oak(Q.rubra).

Haoleboy said:

But it can't hurt.

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Even if it's only a .000000005% chance...
I have to disagree!

What of you trapped some pathogen that would have been killed over time with exposure to air at a certain temp.?

Sorry...I'm in rant mode!

This is one of the dopest bases I've seen...
And on an oak!

Friggin wicked!

Sorce

Potawatomi13 said:

Do you know species designation? Leaves not same as my N Red oak(Q.rubra).

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After researching, I believe it to be a hybrid between a Nuttal and a Texas Red Oak. Not much fall color though. Not the typical oak for this area. The owner of the nursery told me she ordered the seeds from N Carolina when she moved down here. This was the last one of that group.

Haoleboy said:

After researching, I believe it to be a hybrid between a Nuttal and a Texas Red Oak. Not much fall color though. Not the typical oak for this area. The owner of the nursery told me she ordered the seeds from N Carolina when she moved down here. This was the last one of that group.

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Thank you.

Spectacular base on your oak. Hopefully....you'll continue to post growth photos as you develop the tree after chopping. Oaks around my area develop a massive fissured trunk...very defined bark in grays and blacks....except for a Columnar Oaks. The base on your oak reminds me of a Columnar English Oak....it's the spots and base weight wrinkling that resemble it most.

Could be a good little project, for a great price!... it would be nice to take it back to them in 10 years when you've turned it into something dramatic.

Tieball said:

Spectacular base on your oak. Hopefully....you'll continue to post growth photos as you develop the tree after chopping. Oaks around my area develop a massive fissured trunk...very defined bark in grays and blacks....except for a Columnar Oaks. The base on your oak reminds me of a Columnar English Oak....it's the spots and base weight wrinkling that resemble it most.

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I'll definitely post updates on its progress. I'm only guessing at what kind of oak this is. Seems there are many possibilities as to which kind it is. Hopefully, it'll be identifiable in the future.

Leaves do look like typical red oak for my neck of the woods, Quercus rubra. But the red oak - black oak group is a complex of species, maybe 5 or 6 species, and they freely hybridize with each other. For bonsai purposes, red oak is good enough.

I would let both branches run, as much, and as long as they can, until the top one is close to half the diameter of the trunk, and the bottom one until it is near 25% of the diameter of the trunk. Wire the bottom one so the first few inches are horizontal, if you want it to become the horizontal first branch (or what ever angle you want the first branch to become).

Then once they are thick enough, you will chop them back to within a few inches of their origins. I found oaks will bud back pretty reliably, if you are not chopping them every year.

It will be a long road, but this can become quite nice. Good start.

Do you have an update?

barrosinc said:

Do you have an update?

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These are from about 2 months ago.

Cool, do these heal well?
Have you ever chopped one of these to no buds?

barrosinc said:

Cool, do these heal well?
Have you ever chopped one of these to no buds?

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The branch on the left, was broken by a cat. Several branches emerged there. Not much of a callous where I chopped the trunk. This is the only one I have. I haven't done anything but let it grow. But it appears to back bud pretty good. Really hoping it back buds just as good when I chop it again.

barrosinc said:

Cool, do these heal well?
Have you ever chopped one of these to no buds?

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I see you're oaking today. ?

Haoleboy said:

The branch on the left, was broken by a cat. Several branches emerged there. Not much of a callous where I chopped the trunk. This is the only one I have. I haven't done anything but let it grow. But it appears to back bud pretty good. Really hoping it back buds just as good when I chop it again.

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This oak looks like an interesting project.

When I have nothing much to do I often go out to an old orchard with some prunners in my hand. There's many wild trees that I play with, but unfortunately I have no more space for them...
But chopping or hard pruning oaks in ground, they calluse well. With time and growth left to extend freely.

petegreg said:

I see you're oaking today. ?

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Busted! Hahaha