Oak Bonsai questions?

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I second the twisted trunk encouragement, do collect a couple of you can.

I have 3 but oak seedlings. One "expert", suggested I do summer transplanting, after new growth has hardened off. So far, so good, in my 5th year with these. Transplanted twice. But I am in an area moderate summers and very cold winter. Basically the guy suggested doing all you work in middle of summer.

When I first got them they were dormant, and I pruned roots very hard, left very little. If you do collecting while dormant, you can be very aggressive removing roots. They will only open as many leaves as remaining roots can support.

 

[parhamr]

I think I’ve just today read why Quercus garyanna is so hard to collect. There’s a function that foresters and arborists use to determine the “critical root zone” for an individual tree. It’s a relationship between the diameter of the trunk and a diameter of a zone in which roots shall only have minimal disturbance to ensure trees survive work.

Quercus garyanna is reported by arborists to have one of the largest “critical root zone” areas. They must have more roots included during collection than nearly any other tree. This appears to me as a major contributor to its losses during collection.