Water Oak (Quercus Nigra)

[Jay Wilson]

This is another of my native oaks.

Water oaks are iffy when it comes to bonsai. The leaves are pretty big and if you defoliate, they tend to come back even larger. I have gotten some leaf reduction by regularly trimming back to the first or second leaf on a twig.

In my experience, water oaks tend to lose twigs fairly often and because of this, they don't ramify to fine twigging very well.

Over all, I'd rate them as an average tree to work on for bonsai. Fun to play with, but difficult at best to make a good bonsai from.

That said, here is what I would call my best effort so far. I've kind of neglected this tree, so I had to do a fairly hard trim on it.

Before and after a defoliate and trim.


Edit: I tried to take a couple of more pictures from other sides but my batteries died. Maybe later.

 

[Zach Smith]

Nice example of a tough subject, Jay. Water oaks are plentiful landscape trees but have the habit of dying very slowly, over decades, by rotting straight up the trunk. A member of our local club has a decent one as bonsai, but it's got the same hollow up the middle. I've personally avoided them. But you've done well, all things considered.

Zach

 

[Alex DeRuiter]

Even if the leaves don't reduce, this certainly has a pretty winter structure and would be worth keeping in my opinion. You've done awesome work with the branch structure and the hollowing looks (is?) very natural. This makes me want to go hunting for some oaks! We've got some awesome corkers up here. . . .

 

[Jay Wilson]

Thanks Zack, I collected three or four of them several years ago, but none since because of the negatives of them. I'll keep playing with the ones I have though.

Even if the leaves don't reduce, this certainly has a pretty winter structure and would be worth keeping in my opinion. You've done awesome work with the branch structure and the hollowing looks (is?) very natural. This makes me want to go hunting for some oaks! We've got some awesome corkers up here. . . .

The leafless look is OK with these, but I would like a bit finer twigging. The hollowing/deadwood is natural. Came that way from the field.
Thanks for your kind words Alex.
Go ahead, hunt you up a couple! Whats to lose?

Here are a few more pics: the four sides.

 

[Jay Wilson]

A couple more pictures.

The best front?

Closeups of trunk.

 

[Tbrshou]

This is another of my native oaks.

Water oaks are iffy when it comes to bonsai. The leaves are pretty big and if you defoliate, they tend to come back even larger. I have gotten some leaf reduction by regularly trimming back to the first or second leaf on a twig.

In my experience, water oaks tend to lose twigs fairly often and because of this, they don't ramify to fine twigging very well.

Over all, I'd rate them as an average tree to work on for bonsai. Fun to play with, but difficult at best to make a good bonsai from.

That said, here is what I would call my best effort so far. I've kind of neglected this tree, so I had to do a fairly hard trim on it.

Before and after a defoliate and trim.


Edit: I tried to take a couple of more pictures from other sides but my batteries died. Maybe later.

Have you or would you collect a water oak in the fall?

 

[milehigh_7]

Have you or would you collect a water oak in the fall?

I miss Jay... He has not been on in several years that I know of.

 

[just.wing.it]

I miss Jay... He has not been on in several years that I know of.

Miss you bro, where the hell you been lurking?

 

[milehigh_7]

Miss you bro, where the hell you been lurking?

I pop on to read messages pretty often. I am at a place in my bonsai life where I can only have a couple of trees so I am kind of out of the game a bit. I sure do miss it many days.