Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
I wound up cutting off a tier of roots and exposed almost 2 more inches of that fat trunk. It looks good. However, that meant the tree lost a major portion of its root mass. I now will have to baby it back to health.
Cjr live oak yamadori #2
- Thread starter Cajunrider
- Start date
Keithconn
Yamadori
Just wanted to say this is a fantastic job! I’m a bit jealous!
Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
After two weeks of recovery in part shade. It is now back to full sun to get energy for regrowth.
Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
That was a very drastic move. Moving into a bonsai pot and cutting off the entire top tier of roots shocked the tree. It was dicey for a while but it is now rebudding vigorously!
Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
Paratrooper err… paracord training
Potawatomi13
Imperial Masterpiece
Such a knotty clever boy you are
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Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
The tree recovers nicely while I was gone on vacation.
Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
We are all the way back to growing well. Had to cut the apex because it was getting a bit out of hand.
Before
After
Before
After
Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
January 2023 silhouette
Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
As soon as the tree wakes up in the spring, I am planning to do wedge cut on some of the branches to drop the angle lower.
BrianBay9
Masterpiece
If you're going for a traditional live oak style, wouldn't you want the limbs to start going up and out? Seems like you've got a good start on most of those if you cut back further then train the new growth you get to go down and get twisty.
ChefB
Mame
You could cut the branches back and then when they back bud, cut to a bottom bud after you’re up and outs. Do you think you could guy wire those two bottom branches down and just tweak them a little by little? It would add a little taper to those branches also.
Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
The very old live oaks have branches that are so long they droop down. Some actually rest on the ground for support.
BrianBay9
Masterpiece
Yes, but at the trunk they still start up and out, right? then droop as they move further out.
Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
Not really, as the branch droops with the heavy weight the angle changes. I have tried to pull my branches down but they spring right back up even after months of being pulled way down. I am going to do wedge cut on them and see how that goes.
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BrianBay9
Masterpiece
OK. Your live oaks and our live oaks behave a bit differently then. Good to know. This is Q lobata, our biggest live oak. Branches start up and out, then droop.
Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
For this live oak I am trying to make it looks like the Sallier Oak in Lake Charles.
Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
Ours start out like that too but once the oaks reach 200+ year old, being in the wet humid climate, the branches hold a lot of water and are super heavy so they droop a lot more.
For me in the beginning I was really concerned with the big chop scars but lately all our oaks around here have huge scars due to hurricanes so mine now looks normal to me
Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
I am super sad over the death of this tree. After the hard freeze we hard came a month-long period of warm weather and the tree started to push out lots of bud. Then came 2 nights of frost with temperature around 32 deg F, which I didn't think would be an issue. The frost killed all the young buds and the tree never recovered.
rockm
Spuds Moyogi
How do you know it's dead?
FWIW, I had a smaller live oak I brought up from Texas a while back. I overwintered it in the backyard for about five years. In that time, it lost every branch it grew the previous summer when it froze over the winter. It's roots were heavily mulched and weren't killed off. The plant sprouted new buds every spring.
I finally gave up on it because I couldn't get branching on it.
All that means the root mass (and probably significant portions of the top) on yours may still be alive. I wouldn't give up on it just yet.
