Wulfskaar's Coast Live Oak #1

[Wulfskaar]

This Coast Live Oak seedling was planted in fall 2020 in garden soil.


In 2023 or 2024, it was a whip that I wired to get some shape into.


In 2025, I began pruning, and it exploded with new growth in response.

Before pruning.


After initial pruning, it began throwing out new branches.


I pruned a couple more times last summer, and it kept putting out new branches. The trunk thickness has increased by at least 50% since spring 2025.

Repotted today, 1/11/2026.

Before repotting.


The full root ball. The taproot was about the size of a Sharpie marker.


I cut the taproot in roughly in half, as it had some feeder roots above.


The roots on one side were very weak, so I tried to comb them out laterally as much as possible. The lower roots are buried, but will eventually be removed.
I used a mix of pumice, akadama, and Repti-bark.


Once in the pot, I cut back heavily at planned locations.





The Plan:

The long term plan is to grow a nice, small oak tree. I will mainly be using clip-and-grow.

The secondary trunk on the right might be too long and straight, so I'll probably go back out and trim to cut point 1, if not to cut point 2.

The new branches should come straight out of the leaf bases near the end of each cut.

The blue line is the main future trunk line.

 

[Wulfskaar]

I went ahead and cut back to cut point 1 because that was my original plan.

 

[Wulfskaar]

CORRECTION:
This was actually after the first pruning. The first cut was to the whip. Those branches you see coming out above were new growth after the first cut.

 

[Wulfskaar]

I went ahead and chopped at point 2, since that branch was way too long and straight.

Now, just let it grow before the next round of chopping. Once the new branches come in, I'll cut back much cleaner.

 

[Esolin]

Fingers crossed for ya! Seedling rootwork survival for me is always 50/50. Don't know why. This one has a great start. I hope it thrives!

 

[Wulfskaar]

Fingers crossed for ya! Seedling rootwork survival for me is always 50/50. Don't know why. This one has a great start. I hope it thrives!

Yeah, I've had bad luck with the younger seedlings. I was happy to discover this tree had a lot of fine roots. It's the best roots I've had so far on an oak.

My previous attempts also were in spring, when they should have been in winter. They tend to start putting out new growth in late January, so I wanted to get to it right before that.