Anybody worked with a bur oak?

[Relic37]

I had a three year old bur oak I had grown from an acorn. It's first year a squirrel got a hold of it and chewed off the top. It regrew, but with a weird twist in it which seemed to make it unusable for a landscape tree. I decided to chop it this year from 6 feet to one foot and see if it would be usable as bonsai. It's still in the chlorine bucket I had transplanted it into earlier. I was wondering if I should continue to leave it in the bucket for another year or two and see how it grows, or if I should prune the roots this winter and get it into a training pot. I'm fairly new to all this, and I realize a bur oak (which typically has massive leaves) is not ideal for bonsai, I just hated to toss it. And the new leaves are coming in at 1/20th the size of normal.

 

[0soyoung]

Big thank you to that squirrel !

IMO, there's no need to worry about repotting it until about a year from now or the following spring (2024), maybe. It appears to be growing quite vigorously and will eventually slow down remarkably as it becomes 'pot bound'. We, or maybe I should say I, keep 'finished' bonsai in this state, so there's no need to panic. Plus, internodes will tend to become shorter as roots fill up the pot (or chlorine bucket, in this case). So, I recommend that you let it grow for the rest of the season.

Next spring (2923), I suggest that you cut back all those shoots to one node (the lowest points where there are leaves right now). I also suggest that you saw off that straight trunk down tomat least the point of the highest green shoot you have now. You may want to go lower and you may also want to eliminate some shoots, depending on the trunk line you decide that you want to create.

Meanwhile, I suggest that you look at pictures of bonsai, even ones that are not oaks, and figure out what trunk lines (similar to yours ) capture your interest. Then make it happen! I'll just say that oaks generally have fantastic bark, so you want to pursue a design that will show it off.

 

[sorce]

Squirrel Up.

Welcome to Crazy!

Sorce

 

[Relic37]

Big thank you to that squirrel !

IMO, there's no need to worry about repotting it until about a year from now or the following spring (2024), maybe. It appears to be growing quite vigorously and will eventually slow down remarkably as it becomes 'pot bound'. We, or maybe I should say I, keep 'finished' bonsai in this state, so there's no need to panic. Plus, internodes will tend to become shorter as roots fill up the pot (or chlorine bucket, in this case). So, I recommend that you let it grow for the rest of the season.

Next spring (2923), I suggest that you cut back all those shoots to one node (the lowest points where there are leaves right now). I also suggest that you saw off that straight trunk down tomat least the point of the highest green shoot you have now. You may want to go lower and you may also want to eliminate some shoots, depending on the trunk line you decide that you want to create.

Meanwhile, I suggest that you look at pictures of bonsai, even ones that are not oaks, and figure out what trunk lines (similar to yours ) capture your interest. Then make it happen! I'll just say that oaks generally have fantastic bark, so you want to pursue a design that will show it off.

Thanks for the advice. I'm printing out you response and putting it in my potting shed for next spring. Trust me, I've been buying so many bonsai books to educate myself, I accidentally bought 2 copies of a Peter Chan book. I could stare at the pictures for hours...

 

[RNbonsai]

How’s this one doing?

 

[Relic37]

Well, perhaps not so good. It appears to have died in late July - early August. The leaves all shriveled within a 1-week period and fell off. I've grown lots of bur oaks from acorns and have several 20-30 foot specimens in the landscape, but for whatever reason, this first attempt at "bonsaing" a bur oak was a failure. Perhaps the shock of the chop was just too much. Of course, I still have the stump with faint hopes of a spring resurgence, but I am doubtful...

 

[Potawatomi13]

Come on Spring 23! (too much chlorine?)

 

[Relic37]

Come on Spring 23! (too much chlorine?)

I don't think the chlorine is a factor - all the other oaks have been raised on straight tap water from the garden hose, twice daily in the hot months, and they have all grown quite well. It's a head-scratcher...