Swamp White Oak: Cornfed Edition

[cornfed]

I'm going to start threads for my new trees to use as a progression journal. I'm very new to this, and will undoubtedly be learning from mistakes, so it'll be good to have a record of them.

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First up is Quercus Bicolor, Swamp White Oak. I had 11 (free) yearlings in one-gallon nursery pots planted in 80% composted pine bark, and this was my favorite of the group.

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My goal for this tree is to thicken the trunk and develop the roots by repotting it in a larger, 5-gallon Rootmaker container with a more air-retentive soil. I realize I could plant it in the ground for maximum thickening, but I simply don't want to.

This is what I found after knocking some soil off. It looked like it had been kept in the 4-inch container too long, as it had some thick roots circling around. Maybe why it was free.


After trimming thicker and longer roots as well as roots going in bad directions.


This is what I put in the soil. Now that I'm looking at the photo I think I should've taken more thick roots out. But at the time, I thought they might work in a design.


On the bench.
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I'm using a kitchen-sink blend as a substrate. I ultimately need 50+gallons of substrate to up-pot my newly acquired trees, so using up as much of the material I have recently purchased for my soil tests was beneficial. It's equal parts Sifted Pine Bark, Grit, Turface & Diatomaceous Earth (2-5mm) with a dash of Sphagnum Peat Fines. I tested the soil's mechanical properties at 29% Saturated Porosity (air-filled space), and 25% Field Capacity (water-filled space) after draining. Hopefully it will work, because conventional substrates are difficult to find. I added the fines back into the mix after sifting the

I am currently divided on whether I should trim the trunk now, like an inch above the first branch or directly above it, or if I should just let it grow naturally for the year.

I will be posting separate threads for my other species as I get them in pots this weekend.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Let trunk grow for enlargement/sacrifice several years while beginning training on low branch to become new trunk. Unless desiring forever skinny trunk this is best way to get bigger trunk ASAP.

 

[cornfed]

Let trunk grow for enlargement/sacrifice several years while beginning training on low branch to become new trunk. Unless desiring forever skinny trunk this is best way to get bigger trunk ASAP.

So don't cut anything, just let it grow. Also, wire the low branch where I want to the trunk to be in the future.

 

[Potawatomi13]

So don't cut anything, just let it grow. Also, wire the low branch where I want to the trunk to be in the future.

Indeed yes.

 

[Thelorax]

How’s the tree? Any new pictures?

 

[cornfed]

Sorry @Thelorax, I just saw this. There she is, just growing.



I had 9 spares that I left in the nursery pots this spring. The leaves were getting big and blowing over in the wind, so I chopped all the trunks a couple weeks ago as an experiment. They're throwing buds now!

 

[Forsoothe!]

Are you sure this is not a Red Oak?

 

[canoeguide]

Are you sure this is not a Red Oak?

I came here to also ask this. I've never seen a white oak with pointed leaf tips.

 

[cornfed]

Well I can't be certain, but it's on the tag and I trust the nursery so I have no reason to think otherwise until now. I will take a better leaf photo tomorrow.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Are you sure this is not a Red Oak?

Same question here. Looks VERY much like my 3 Q. rubra. Wonder what leaves of other 10 look like? Likely mislabeled during dormancy.

 

[cornfed]

 

[Forsoothe!]

Looks like you got two different trees!

 

[cornfed]

Yeah, the leaves up top don't look like the leaves down below and neither look exactly like the drawing in the image in my first post on this thread.

It's a mystery.

 

[cornfed]

This photo is from one of the other plants labelled swamp white oaks. Since I chopped the trunks of the others I will have to wait a bit for them to grow leaves.



I think you are right, at least one of them is mislabeled.

 

[LittleDingus]

Bicolor leaves will feel velvety on the undersides. They have lots of fine hairs on the undersides of their leaves. They "flash" white in the wind.



Though they do not always look white up close.

Otherwise, around these parts anyway, they can often be confused with chinquapin.

It's been my observation that white oaks can get pointer leaves in drought conditions...but generally not as pointy as the red oaks.

Oak leaves have a lot of variation even on the same tree. Acorns and flowers are better identifying characteristics for most oaks.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Don't change labels just yet, oak leaves are variable. ESPECIALLY in young juvenile trees that are growing rapidly, leaves can be quite different looking from "the type specimens". Leaves from a 50 year old oak in a park or arboretum setting will conform to type. Young trees can vary wildly until they get a decade or two of growth. But be open to being mislabeled, but don't change labels for a few years.

About your soil mix. Ingredient list was good, until you added back the fines. You may find yourself doing emergency repotting sometime in the second or third year.

Using a organic supplement with humic acids, like liquid seaweed will help create structure in the fines. It might buy you an extra season. Keep an eye on water penetration. If drainage declines, you will need to repot to eliminate the fines. Your good for at least one year. But fines increase the need for frequent repotting.

 

[Forsoothe!]

Using a organic supplement with humic acids, like liquid seaweed will help create structure in the fines. It might buy you an extra season. Keep an eye on water penetration. If drainage declines, you will need to repot to eliminate the fines. Your good for at least one year. But fines increase the need for frequent repotting.

No comprende.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

No comprende.

Using humic acids, actually causes fines to clump together. The action is partly because humates encourage mycelium, but also that they act like a flocculation agent. I don't quite have a grasp of the specifics to explain with my usual verbosity. I ran an experiment on the farm, and cam to this conclusion after 2 year trial. Sold the farm, so the experiment has been discontinued. I'll start again this summer.

"Humates are good" is a mantra that should be on all bonsai hobbyist's tongues. Seaweed extracts, and other extracts are good sources of humates. I was using seaweed extract with powdered fulvic acid and fish emulsion as the treatment. Chemical fertilizer for the control. The difference in soil structure was surprizing between the two groups.

 

[cornfed]

Well I can confirm that the underside of the leaves is not fuzzy. It is smooth like vinyl.

Thanks @Leo in N E Illinois for the notes on the substrate. While it is too late for the first five trees I potted, I did second guess myself and did not add any fines to any future substrate mixes.

I'm not too worried about drainage. They are in 5-gallon air-pruning pots with lots of drainage holes. And the fines were really only about 10% of my mix.

If anything, I'm worried about all the moisture hanging out in the bottom of the container while it dries out too fast nearer the surface, where I stashed the roots.

But my first year in bonsai is all about learning these types of things. Next year I will spend more energy collecting in Feb-March because my collected trees seem to be doing better than all of the saplings (although that could be because of the root work I did on the saplings.)

 

[cornfed]

Are you sure this is not a Red Oak?

New leaves coming in red hot. I think you're right. This tree looks nothing like the other SWOaks I have. I still like it though. But I think you are right about it being a red oak.