Odd Oaks with Odder Issues
Moved into our wester central Florida home in the 1980’s. Not a lot of trees on the +acre lot so during travels we dug up some scrub oak saplings from the woods. We planted them in the yard and they seemed to grow good, bushed out to full round trees. Over the years they have all seemed to end up with the same issues. I think what happed was there were several saplings together and these ended up being like a bunch of individual trees growing together, not a single solid trunk. The leaves density has decreased over the last several years and they also they drop a lot of dead branches. Lots. Constantly picking up branches. Fertilized them the last couple years and also bug sprayed, have seen carpenter ants on them occasionally.
Really do not want to lose these but also really would like to do what we can to help them be healthier and grow stronger. Not sure if we should trim them out to reduce the branches off the trunk(s) or what.
Open to suggestions to help these along, as stated before we really do not want to lose them.
Thanks in advance for your help,
Scott
Comments (11)
carolb_w_fl_coastal_9b
3 years agolast modified: 3 years ago
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
3 years agoRelated Discussions
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Comments (7)work with me here.. [and in review.. the post makes me sound really irritable ... but its not meant that way.. so please cut me some slack as i do not have time to rewrite it .. MIL is coming over ... maybe that is the irritation????] the neighbor does not blister your house with snow.. correct ... so he must be an artist with the blower... yes??? i would discuss with him.. whether he would be amiable to 'missing' some plants in winter ... in the alternative.. you would pound in two stakes.. and protect with burlap .. the de groots.. should be 5 bucks for a couple small ones ... try it.. see what works.. i am not talking about $200 bucks a piece ... but beyond simply stating you want to fill the area ... you really havent set a goal for us to work with.. other than covering ground ... frankly.. in my world.. plant about 20 different things... and FIND OUT .. what will work ... it might be an interesting place.. to have a small nursery bed.. where you try things.. and then move them out if it doesnt work out ... i mean really.. how much time to you spend looking at this area.. arent you doing this for the neighbor???? presuming that is your backyard in the first pic.. i dont even understand why you have that much grass... that much room for a garden.. and you are worrying about this little area ... i would be investing in planting the area i can see.. from my lawn chair out the back door ... see pics ... lol follow me???? you have a great day pondering why this area is important ... and let me/us know .... ken one of my chairs facing NW same patio looking east i have a bunch of little areas like yours.. who cares ... i prioritized ......See MoreSmall Norway spruce - odd budding timing
Comments (14)Pinetree: Did you try to explain all of this to me once before? I am not sure, but I remember we had a discussion of the summer shoot growth on one of my very fast growing (a lot of growth each year) white pines. I thought it was some growth that developed from a new bud, like an oak tree that puts out a second flush of growth after the initial spring growth. And I think you explained that this growth with the pine tree was different--that it was a summer elongation of the base of the bud that would be the basis for the growth of the following years shoot. Do I remember right? And is this what is properly called "lammas" growth? I think we also had some discussion of the "free growth" that I thought I saw on some NS trees after weevil attacks (maybe), and on some very young seedlings that seemed to put out new needles at the apex of their shoots without any evidence that I could see that it was an unfolding and extension of a shoot that came from any bud, whether that formed the previous summer/fall or had formed earlier in the summer. I can't remember exactly what you said about this kind of growth. I think you may have expressed some doubts about how I understood and/or described what I saw. Now what I was trying to describe in the post above, and incorrectly calling "lammas shoots", and what gnome posted a picture of, seems to me to be something different from the "free growth" I am describing in the previous paragraph. Now my question is, well, two things: first, is this growth that gnome pictures, and which I describe having seen on my own NS trees a few times, similar to what you described as happening with my special white pine tree (and a few others as well)--a premature extension of the basal elements of the terminal bud that would be the basis of the next year's growth, or is it something different? I think you are clearly saying it is something different. And if it is different, I think I understood from our previous discussion of white pine, that this kind of growth can't happen with white pine. And my second question is: if it is different, could it also be different from what I am calling "free growth." It seems different to me in that the free growth I have observed, at least in young NS seedlings, is continuous with the initial shoot growth--there does not seem to be any stage where the growth seems to have stopped and then resumed. It is more like how a tuliptree grows, unfolding one leaf at a time, than how an oak tree grows when it sends out a new flush of growth from a new bud after the elements in the initial bud have fully extended themselves. To summarize what I am trying to get at here--just how many kinds of, or sources of, summer growth are there, "technically" speaking? I am guessing there are three: Lammas shoots, free growth, and what gnome pictured and I described above--growth coming from the full extension of a new growth bud, like with an oak tree's second growth flush, followed by the formation of a completely new bud for the next year's growth. Well, when I started this reply I had no intention of making it so long. Forgive me, but I have a streak of curiosity about such things, but at the same time don't want to make a pest of myself trying to delve into technical issues. Generally I am a man who hates "delving," in any of the metaphorical senses this term may have. I am happy to delve under the surface of the soil to plant a tree. But as for "delving," in the more general metaphorical sense, I know am best off when I remain satisfied with very superficial understandings of things. "Delving," if that means penetrating the surface to gain a deeper understanding, has proven to be a frightening activity for me and has generally lead to confusion. So I do my best, usually, to avoid it when I can. --Spruce...See MoreOdd type of hardwood floor, need advice
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3 years agoThanks for the feedback and sorry for doing some "worthless" fertilizer, yeah, was spikes. With the sandy soil here in west central Florida and the afternoon monsoons, anything applied on the surfaces gets washed away quick. The trees came from less than 30 miles away from what i remember, pretty much the same environment as here and from reading about water oaks, that sounds like what these may be.
Here's some additional photos I just took today. There are 3 of them basically doing the same thing although we have some others that are much stronger and have basically a single trunk. This is the one beside the house.
These are the other two further back towards the lake:
This is a closeup on some leaves:
This is how the branches shoot off all over the plave:
And this gives you an idea of how the trunk does not appear to be one homogenous tree:
They constantly drop dead branches and there's a lot of dead branches still in the tree. Read that we're not supposed to prune/trim oaks in fall as they don't have time to heal before winter but our winters are usually short and if it gets below freezing it's just overnight.
All help appreciated.
Thanks,Scott
Eric S
3 years agoScott V
3 years agoEric S
3 years agoScott V
3 years agofour (9B near 9A)
3 years agocarolb_w_fl_coastal_9b
3 years agoScott V
3 years ago
Scott VOriginal Author