John P.
Chumono
I’ve been picking up some deciduous and evergreen (“live”) oak material over the past few years, and decided maybe one thread for all would be better than several separate threads. All of them are California natives except for the cork oaks, Quercus suber, which are a Mediterranean oak.
Having some experience now under my belt, I can say there are some myths online about their care that I’ll address along the way.
These were the first ones I bought in July 2018 from an eBay seller—three coast live oaks, Quercus agrifolia, in the pond basket on the left, and one cork oak on the right:
(Pictured late September 2018)
Myth 1 — Wire Marks Take Forever to Disappear (if at all) on Smooth(er)-barked Oaks
I wired them for movement soon after the above picture was taken. As it happens I left the wires on too long, and there was some nasty wire bite on all three coast oaks. The cork oak ... that’s another story for later.
The good news is only a year and a half later the wire marks are almost entirely gone. So even on smoother barked oaks like coast live oaks ... time heals. It helps that they’re putting on some caliper; this one is now in a raised garden bed with 100% orchid seedling bark as a substrate.
Okay, so that cork oak? That’s it in background in the picture above. Little $hiT grows a couple leaves each year but never really grows. Not dying but not really living, either.
Having some experience now under my belt, I can say there are some myths online about their care that I’ll address along the way.
These were the first ones I bought in July 2018 from an eBay seller—three coast live oaks, Quercus agrifolia, in the pond basket on the left, and one cork oak on the right:
(Pictured late September 2018)
Myth 1 — Wire Marks Take Forever to Disappear (if at all) on Smooth(er)-barked Oaks
I wired them for movement soon after the above picture was taken. As it happens I left the wires on too long, and there was some nasty wire bite on all three coast oaks. The cork oak ... that’s another story for later.
The good news is only a year and a half later the wire marks are almost entirely gone. So even on smoother barked oaks like coast live oaks ... time heals. It helps that they’re putting on some caliper; this one is now in a raised garden bed with 100% orchid seedling bark as a substrate.
Okay, so that cork oak? That’s it in background in the picture above. Little $hiT grows a couple leaves each year but never really grows. Not dying but not really living, either.
?
