Coast Live Oak Long Term Project

[LuZiKui]

I've been looking around at the Coast Live Oaks in my area and after seeing some of the stuff that @BrianBay9 and @Wulfskaar were doing I figured it was time to start some of my own. This will definitely be a long term project so come back in 15 years and we'll see what I've got

I collected about 80-90 acorns in September/October of '22. I had my 2 boys help me collect the acorns and they loved it. I was originally going to collect a few but they were having so much fun we ended up with a ton. I collected from 3 different areas (20-30 miles apart), multiple different trees. I didn't note which acorns were from which trees so it will be interesting to see the variation.

I bought 3 rootmaker trays and planted about 40-50 of the acorns in those. Some of the cells got 2 acorns but most got 1. The remaining 40-50 acorns were put into a box. I used a mix of perlite, pumice, and some cactus mix that I had laying around. They were planted mid to late October and started sprouting in December.

Initial Observations- the ones in the box are taking off quicker than the ones in the rootmakers. That makes sense since they have more soil volume. Also, I got the 1 piece trays for the rootmakers, I think next time I would get the individual cells. I can already see it's going to be a pain to wire them and repot when it's time. Out of the 90 or so acorns that I planted, I think my germination rate was around 60%-70%. I think on last count I had around 30 in the box and about 30 in the trays.

My plan was originally to keep 5-6 of the ones in the trays and bring the rest to my bonsai club for raffles. I didn't plan on planting all of the ones in the box until I saw how many extras I had. Now I have to decide what to do with those ones.

If anyone has made it this far, I have a couple of questions on young oaks. I don't see much on younger oaks (LOL for good reason since they grow slow) so I'm curious if anyone has some feedback.

• I like the idea of starting an oak forest. Can I just keep growing all the oaks in the box and turn it into a forest or should I plan on removing them at some point and repotting?
• For the ones in the trays, should I go ahead and wire now or wait a bit? Also, does anyone have a feel for how long I should leave them in the rootmakers? If I have to up-pot 30+ seedlings into gallon nursery containers my wife is gonna kill me

 

[BrianBay9]

I've been looking around at the Coast Live Oaks in my area and after seeing some of the stuff that @BrianBay9 and @Wulfskaar were doing I figured it was time to start some of my own. This will definitely be a long term project so come back in 15 years and we'll see what I've got

I collected about 80-90 acorns in September/October of '22. I had my 2 boys help me collect the acorns and they loved it. I was originally going to collect a few but they were having so much fun we ended up with a ton. I collected from 3 different areas (20-30 miles apart), multiple different trees. I didn't note which acorns were from which trees so it will be interesting to see the variation.

I bought 3 rootmaker trays and planted about 40-50 of the acorns in those. Some of the cells got 2 acorns but most got 1. The remaining 40-50 acorns were put into a box. I used a mix of perlite, pumice, and some cactus mix that I had laying around. They were planted mid to late October and started sprouting in December.

Initial Observations- the ones in the box are taking off quicker than the ones in the rootmakers. That makes sense since they have more soil volume. Also, I got the 1 piece trays for the rootmakers, I think next time I would get the individual cells. I can already see it's going to be a pain to wire them and repot when it's time. Out of the 90 or so acorns that I planted, I think my germination rate was around 60%-70%. I think on last count I had around 30 in the box and about 30 in the trays.

My plan was originally to keep 5-6 of the ones in the trays and bring the rest to my bonsai club for raffles. I didn't plan on planting all of the ones in the box until I saw how many extras I had. Now I have to decide what to do with those ones.

If anyone has made it this far, I have a couple of questions on young oaks. I don't see much on younger oaks (LOL for good reason since they grow slow) so I'm curious if anyone has some feedback.

• I like the idea of starting an oak forest. Can I just keep growing all the oaks in the box and turn it into a forest or should I plan on removing them at some point and repotting?
• For the ones in the trays, should I go ahead and wire now or wait a bit? Also, does anyone have a feel for how long I should leave them in the rootmakers? If I have to up-pot 30+ seedlings into gallon nursery containers my wife is gonna kill me

I usually just throw a handful of coast live oak acorns in one gallon pots and see what sprouts. Weirdly, I've found that repotting them after the first growing season results in a high mortality rate. Best to repot after their second year. They seem to do fine if left to grow in a clump. Got some on their fifth season now, and some of the clumps look pretty natural.

 

[LuZiKui]

I usually just throw a handful of coast live oak acorns in one gallon pots and see what sprouts. Weirdly, I've found that repotting them after the first growing season results in a high mortality rate. Best to repot after their second year. They seem to do fine if left to grow in a clump. Got some on their fifth season now, and some of the clumps look pretty natural.

Sounds good! I'll get some wire on some of them and leave them as-is.

 

[Wulfskaar]

I've come a long way, but still have a lot to learn.

I've planted acorns in garden soil and bonsai soil in 1 gallon pots. The first year's growth was definitely faster in the bonsai soil. However, I recently noticed that the ones in the garden soil have caught up to the ones in the bonsai soil. My theory is that in the first year, the acorn supplies the majority of nutrients. In the second year, I didn't fertilize much, so the ones in the garden soil have more nutrients than the ones in the bonsai soil. Just a theory.

The squirrels have planted them all over the place, so I see them growing out of hard-packed soil, soft soil, and in other veggie planters, so I think they can grow just about anywhere. I even have one growing out of the central pocket of another plant!


Last year, I planted 6 Shreve oak acorns in bonsai soil and they all grew very well. This year, I planted several different types of acorns I found at a local arboretum, and the ones growing best right now are in bonsai soil. I'm not even totally sure what they are. One is a complete mystery. It has CLO-looking leaves, but much, much softer to the touch. They are really nice. The others look like they might be California black oaks, so I'm happy about those. I also have some 1 year old valley oaks that I'm excited about.

As far as repotting, I would wait as long as you can. Most of the ones I repotted in the first year (mostly due to wind or squirrels knocking over pots) died quickly. Also, the ones I've dug up from the yard died. I think it might even take a couple more years just to get lateral roots that aren't a super long taproot. When you do move them into bigger pots, I would be careful with the roots as much as possible and probably just slip-pot them.

For wiring, my 2nd year oaks are still pretty flexible, but they probably could have been wired last year.

Regarding your forest idea, I'd be a bit worried about the root issue I mentioned above. At some point, you'll have to remove the long taproots, so you'd probably be better off creating a forest later on down the road.

Otherwise, I love that you are growing so many oak trees and love that you're going to share them with your club!

 

[LuZiKui]

Playing around with some of my oaks this weekend, made a little mini forest. Not sure if they'll survive but I have about 80-90 total trees so I have a couple extras to mess with.





I will say, one of the downsides of these rootmaker trays is getting the seedlings out. Next time I will get the individual cells which should make it easier to transplant these. I basically have to scoop these out and it is pretty hard to get all of the roots. Also, my box planting is going crazy. Those trees seem the healthiest. Not sure what I'm going to do with it, maybe just leave it for a 39 tree forest planting

 

[LuZiKui]

No surprise the ones I repotted very early on in gallon containers are the largest. The ones in the box are a close second. Also not surprisingly, the more room for the roots to run the bigger the trees have developed. I’ve got wire on some of the trees in the box which is getting hard to see. I’ll have to try and get in there to remove it at some point.

 

[Esolin]

That's a lot of seedlings! I thought I went nuts in planting twenty or so CLO this year. Now I don't feel quite so crazy.

Anyway, they're looking healthy. I'm sure you'll find a good use for them. Lots of things you could try from clumps to saikei to RoR. And you can always sell or donate the ones you don't want at your club.

 

[LuZiKui]

Hi all, I'm looking for some feedback if anyone has experience and would like to share!

My box of oaks is coming along nicely, I've got about 35-40 trees in here. Originally I was thinking this would make a pretty cool forest composition. Is that a reasonable goal? If so, should I start shaping it a little bit or just let them all run for right now? I was thinking of cutting some of the trees around the perimeter so they don't outgrow the middle ones. Any thoughts/feedback/ideas are appreciated!

 

[BrianBay9]

The coast live oak forests I spend time in are maybe 50% clumps (3-7 trees) and 50% individual trees. So that looks "normal" to me now. You might try tightly grouping some of your trees to create clumps that you can incorporate into your forest design. Some of mine are looking decent. I'll try to take some pics this weekend.

 

[LuZiKui]

The coast live oak forests I spend time in are maybe 50% clumps (3-7 trees) and 50% individual trees. So that looks "normal" to me now. You might try tightly grouping some of your trees to create clumps that you can incorporate into your forest design. Some of mine are looking decent. I'll try to take some pics this weekend.

You're right, I should think about how these trees grow in nature vs. trying to make this into a Zelkova forest or some other style that grows very dense.

Now that you mentioned it I don't usually see more than a couple of these trees together, and a lot of times it'll be just one big one by itself. Thanks for the different perspective, it's very helpful!

 

[Wulfskaar]

Yeah, the CLO forests around here usually aren't tightly packed together, even in the canyons where they are most dense. Up on the hills, they dot the landscape. They tend to grow outward in nature rather than just upward.

 

[LuZiKui]

Fooling around with this little forest. Added some wire to spread them out a bit. Good amount of growth for a little under a year.

 

[Wulfskaar]

Nice! Those are as large as my 2 year old oaks!