Hman, I scanned through the Scaffolds archive and couldn't find the article. Bugs me when I can't find the reference. Scaffolds recommended oil in the fall for pear blister mite, so maybe it wasn't them who mentioned the risk of winter damage from dormant Fall applications of oil. A quick Google search did yield a reference that a Fall oil app. can cause winter damage by delaying dormancy, but that's not the reference I was looking for. For the last couple years I've not put on a Fall oil spray (except for a little as a sticker). I never liked the way a 2% oil application turned the bark dark before winter. Then when I read (somewhere) that it can make the trees more susc. to winter damage, I started saving the main oil spray for the Spring as either a dormant, or delayed dormant. Saying all that, I never noticed a problem with winter damage from a Fall application. Have you ever seen winter bark damage from applying oil in the fall, or damage from a dormant oil spray applied near freezing weather?

To determine the proper depth at planting, I'd gently dig down/flake the soil off of the top of the rootball until I got to the first root. Trees should be planted so that the highest root is approximately at ground level (in some cases with poorly draining soil, just slightly above that). Often trees and shrubs come planted at the wrong depths from the nursery. Unfortunately you can't assume that the top of the rootball is the correct planting depth. With some growers, as long as there is dirt and a plant in the pot, it's ready to sell. I will provide a link to my planting instructions below. If read carefully, I think/hope they will answer most of your planting questions. Weed barriers (the plastic and fiber stuff) will usually kill preexisting weeds and grass by cutting off their light, but they do nothing, or next to nothing, to stop seeds from germinating and growing roots down through the material. They also do nothing to control spreaders (like Bermuda grass), which also sends roots down through the material. When weeds and grass anchor themselves through the weed barrier, they can become impossible to remove without removing the entire weed barrier. I've actually done jobs where we had to remove the entire weed barrier by either cutting it into small sections and digging the whole mass of weeds, roots, and weed barrier out or use a skidsteer to scoop the mess out. Talking about a disaster! The second reason that root barriers are bad is because the repel water and nutrients and decrease soil gas exchange. All of them do this to some degree; some are worse than others. The ones that do the best job of blocking weed growth are probably the worst for blocking water, nutrient, and gasses. Another reason they are bad is because they block decomposing mulch from being mixed into the soil. Mulch can really benefit the tilth and fertilization of your soil if allowed to break down and mix into the soil. Here is a link that might be useful: Planting a Tree or Shrub

Oaks don't 'like' to be forced to do anything. - staking a tree that size will be remarkably unproductive - the current lean will never be enough to cause it to fall from it's own weight - the crown will even up but that section of trunk will retain that lean Looks like a Live Oak? It's not a tree with a long central leader anyway so the current form will evolve into a form that you'd note as typical for the species (ie. not having a long straight dominant leader).

Thanks everyone for your answers. Here are some pictures. These trees were planted about a year ago, I think in Sept.. They were already about 115 cm tall (4 feet) and now about 2 metres tall (6 ft). Generally, I was really pleased with their condition and growth until this late Summer (July, August). Normally, I did not water daily (for winter and Spring I didn't water at all even until about June), but this part of Europe (Hungary) has had little rain all Summer, and the drought is expected to go on until November. The Laurel bushes and rose bushes were wilting in the heat, and the grass was basically unsaveable. The Thujas didn't seem to grow at all. So, yes, at that point I did water almost every day in June and July. The Laurel bushes signigicantly increased in growth, and the rose bushes as well. The Tuthja trees did better as well, very lush and green. But even so, I like a lot of other people, couldn't keep up with the watering due to the heat (I just have a garden hose), so between July 15, and August 20th, watering was intermittant. Still, the Thujas looked fine until about two weeks ago when we finally had a large rain.. The heat continued, and is still continuing. One other factor is that I had used a weedeater (string trimmer) near the Thuja trees about once a week for the last two or three weeks which may (or may not be a factor) in what happened. One of the Thuja trees is perfectly healthy. It is planted just 1 metre away from the other sickly ones. (the Thujas are planted together about a metre or a little more from each other). The healthy Thuja had the same watering, and lack of, as the others ones. I know grapevines are not anything similar to a Thuja tree, but I found they did a lot better when their base was dry and kept free of too much moisture and particularly free of weeds that might get a fungus/mold that would spread to the vines. In the case of the Thuja trees, I had left the grass cuttings/weed cuttings on the ground near the area. The hot summer made it difficult to stay out too long and the Thujas seemed to be doing fine. I think the grass and weed cuttings may have conttibuted to a fungus. However, I don't really know. Currently, I have raked out the debris from their bases, and removed weeds. Drought conditions are still here, with regularly hot days (it was over 30 degrees centigrade daily, and even 40 or more in July). Now it is 28, and daily cooling down, but the heat feels hotter than that, and it is easy even now to get sunburned. Earlier I removed the dead branches, and the brown needles. The surgery was significant on two of them, and maybe I took too much off of them. But believe me, the negative change with the Thuja trees was very quick. I left them alone for a few days (before cutting anything), but their condition seemed to be rapidly worsening. In the case that removing dead/diseased branches is the wrong approach, I have stopped that. But what I left was the green, or greenish branches so there is no percieved need to do that at this time. My watering regimen (due to the drought) is to give each tree a bucket of water at its base every 3 or 4 days, only if the ground at the base of it is dry. At this time, one Thuja is inexplicably very healthy and lush. A second one is medium healthy with significant lush parts. Two were really in bad shape. At this time, all seem stable, with the worst off seemingly not getting worse. They are not turning brown, not turning more yellow. I hope nature, and rain, will cure them. One more thing is that most people here have Arborvitae trees. Two of the neighbors have some of these trees that are two or three times taller than mine (been there longer or a different type). The neighbor behind my home (40 metres from my trees) has 7 Arborvitae trees. Of the 7, three have serious levels of brown/diseased branches with one the entire top 30% of the tree is brown. The other neighbor (30 metres away) has 17 of these trees with 6 or 7 of them very brown (some completely) and two or three of these may be completely dead as all the needles have fallen off and there are just bare branches. I am providing some pictures of my trees and will gladly listen to any constructive thoughts. Thanks for your time and your help! The first picture is the healthy Thuja of the four. The second and third pictures are the sickest one. The fourth picture is the other sick Thuja. (A third Thuja is somewhat sick, but I have shown you the two worst). And the last picture shows a closeup of the needles. Some of what I cut out was bare branches or very brown or weak needles that were just falling out. A lot of the needles and smaller branches were so dry that they would fall out at the touch. The healthy Thuja is completely unlike that, with lush needles.