Given your potential for airborn salt, that's going to have to be the limiting factor it seems. Trees being long-term projects, it's just as bad if salt gets them ten years from now as if it happens next storm season, maybe worse. I'd use that as a guide. BTW, to each his own but the tawny orange-brown of red oak leaves through fall and winter look just fine to me.

+oM

Yeah, but a deciduous tree that loses its foliage to salt spray can shrug and grow a new set more easily, if it has some stored energy. I think the only trees we lost to the salt spray itself were evergreens. I'm wondering if previous posts on this topic overestimated the salt factor, Although wind took out some deciduous trees. The Mystery Maples occasionally look sick due to salt or lose branches to wind but have survived the salt spray.

Anyway, which of these trees would tolerate salt spray better? How does the fall color of white and red oak compare? Which is less bothered by inorganic rocky soil?

hey ed ...

have you ever spoken with your county dudes??

ken

I think we've covered that. I have purchased things from their sale. Never encountered anyone associated with the county who knew trees and was available for advice...the person selling trees gave me some misinformation. That's for my parent's county. My own county doesn't appear to have a website or sale anymore.

Ed, I'd use fairly scholarly web pages, like those of the USDA Forest Service, or perhaps some others, to get that kind of detailed info. Off the top of my head, I have no idea. I only listed that factor as being a controlling one because you yourself listed it as a site condition. Other than my state's all-out salt frenzy when it does snow here, I don't deal much with airborne salt.

+oM

OK, how do the various trees do with poor sandy soil? How is white oak's fall color?

This question brings back long ago memories of those days when the primary street tree grown in salt laden air of the Cape and Islands (MA) was the American elm. When the 1938 devastating hurricane roared over all on its way to Boston many of those old elms planted during the whaling days survived with branch damage while maples uniformly lay on their sides for mile after mile. An unforgettable sight!

Perhaps one of the newer elm varieties might be considered. Tupelo and chestnut are also salt air tolerant.

Thanks! This plan is being inspired by an issue similar to the "America Elm". The road used to be planted with Black Pine, which were very salt tolerant. An epidemic of bark beetles wiped them all out. Interestingly, I had been looking for salt tolerant evergreen replacements before, and never ran into the name pinus radiata. I'd be worried the bark beetles would take them out. Eastern White Pine is IMHO the prettiest pine and totally immune to the local diseases, but particularly vulnerable to salt. That's what the neighbors planted. Ended up using pitch pine, which is very salt tolerant, but still might have some beetle vulnerability. Also considered Atlas Cedar. There are a lot of wild Juniperus virginiana thriving on the sight.

Euonymousis an invasive species here. I did consider sea buckthorn for erosion control on another spot. While it isn't considered invasive in my area, I'm told some are worried it will be.

I'll have to look into Holly Oak...it should survive here. It's rated for my zone.

Tupelo is a tree I really think is in theory perfect for the area. Very wind resistant, slightly salt resistant, beautiful fall color, not particularly susceptibility to local diseases. The catch is this is for my parent's property...I won't be there to water them. I can't find a cheap source of tupelo, and I hear it doesn't take well to transplanting. So my "plant a bunch and hope some survive neglect" strategy likely won't work for it. I'm waiting until I can get my parents more interested in the project to plant a couple tupelo in the "place of honor" where they can be seen from the house.

At the moment, I'm looking for a row of cheap bare root things I can plant in a row along the road in front of the field. This part of the project is deciduous because I want to keep the Fall color of the area and not completely obstruct the neighbor's view.

I found Nandina's comments interesting. Yes, maybe some kind of elm. And personally, I like the fall color white oak tends to develop. There really isn't an unattractive oak in the fall IMO, but quite a variation in terms of what they do. And individual populations in the wild will exhibit varying degrees of fall coloration too. I see white oak do best in fairly deep loamy ground, but all oaks have at least some degree of adaptation to sand.

+oM

Is there any particular difference between how well red oak and white oak tolerate sand? And personally, which one's color do you prefer? Should I care that my source says they root prune the red oak but not the white oak?

I was always afraid of elm and chestnut because of disease. Currently the row has pitch pine on one end and black walnut on the other.

Oooh yes, Nyssa - I would like to grow that very much myself but it will not stand for chalk or limestone...and my soil is highly alkaline. If your soil is neutral or acidic, there are few better trees for that sort of position. Wych elm (ulmus glabra) has been resistant to the beetle here in the UK ( I think there is a sterile clone - Camperdownii?) but yes, 1976 truly was ther annus horribilis for english elms.

I have no access to water in my wood, Edincoln, so autumn is my only planting season. With trees, I puddle them in - literally fill the hole with as much water as it will hold, plant them small - maidens if possible, mulch and they never see a watering can again. So far, all is surviving, even the large transplanted wild roses I couldn't bear to leave on the allotment.

Chestnut - castanea sativa - would be a possible contender but I understand all is not well with sweet chestnut in the US. A terrible shame when tree species are wiped out - we are facing a similar meltdown in Europe with chalara in ash and leaf miner and phytopthera in chestnut (aesculus)...however Indian chestnut (x carnea)appears to have much higher resistance than white chestnut.

The soil is quite acidic. Effectively I water the trees once a month or so when I visit. Every year I by a bunch of cheap bare root and a few survive.