Swamp white oak

[Drohnen]

I think these are swamp white oak. Is it worth trying to air layer these? I hear they are not very keen to take.

I'm thinking about chopping both and waiting a year. Also, I wonder when I should trim the root balls?

(Edit: images help )

 

[Drohnen]

Oh, perhaps this is a water oak?

 

[Potawatomi13]

Leaves seem too wide for Q. nigra. Several seem much like Q. marilandica(Blackjack Oak). Minor possibility of relation to Q. arkansana a rare tree. Oaks "can" sometimes be layered but mostly when very young thin stems. Straight boring lower trunks seem not best subjects for collecting, may also have long tap roots or long running root systems with few feeders near trunk. (Also consider steel fence post.) Possible to consider getting seedlings or acorns from tree instead?

 

[rockm]

Given your location, the leaves and I'd say this is a Blackjack oak (Quercus marilandica). Huge leaves, extremely hard wood and they tend to develop nice bark as they age. They are all over Texas.

Unfortunately, You're not going to have much luck air layering either one. Chopping them and leaving them in place is a crap shoot. They may die off, maybe not.

As bonsai, they are extremely rare You'd be on your own as far as how to care for it and apply bonsai techniques to it. Best way to go about it would be to collect that smaller one next spring.

Nice score on this oak which I believe is blackjack oak.

Hey guys I know there’s a recent appreciation for oaks and their potential to make good bonsai so I just thought I would share my newly acquired prebonsai material. I got this tree from Ray at Bent Tree Bonsai in Dallas and I think it has potential to make a nice tree at some point. The trunk...

www.bonsainut.com

 

[Drohnen]

Thank you for the input. The fence is not buried and the post isn't going to scare me away

The leaves are actually quite small. A Google search for blackjack oaks show some similar leaves to mine, some the leaves on mine are hardly longer than a lighter.

I think I'll dig up the smaller of the two and try to just keep the little guy alive as a starting point.

I've successfully kept two dwarf alberta spruce alive for about 7 or 8 months.. so this will be a continuation of my learning the discipline of basic tree care.

 

[rockm]

Thank you for the input. The fence is not buried and the post isn't going to scare me away

The leaves are actually quite small. A Google search for blackjack oaks show some similar leaves to mine, some the leaves on mine are hardly longer than a lighter.

I think I'll dig up the smaller of the two and try to just keep the little guy alive as a starting point.

I've successfully kept two dwarf alberta spruce alive for about 7 or 8 months.. so this will be a continuation of my learning the discipline of basic tree care.

Was fooled a bit by the scale of the leaves in the original photo. May not be a blackjack. I'm changing to water oak given the small (ish) uniform leaves. "Small" is relative here. Those are still too large for other than a very large bonsai. Also, I'd hold off digging one up at this point, if you're only 7 months in on bonsai. Oaks aren't easy to collect. Texas oaks are even more difficult, given the soils there.

Alberta spruce isn't large collected oak...

 

[Drohnen]

Was fooled a bit by the scale of the leaves in the original photo. May not be a blackjack. I'm changing to water oak given the small (ish) uniform leaves. "Small" is relative here. Those are still too large for other than a very large bonsai. Also, I'd hold off digging one up at this point, if you're only 7 months in on bonsai. Oaks aren't easy to collect. Texas oaks are even more difficult, given the soils there.

Alberta spruce isn't large collected oak...

I'm going to hold off. I'd be upset if I killed one of these guys. There are hackberry trees and ficus all over my property for me to mess with for now!

 

[Drohnen]

The owner of the property next door killed plants on his side with chemicals a few months after my post. They're dead! At least I didn't kill them this time