English Oaks
- Thread starter Teeder
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b116757
5 year old buck +
Nice
I got a very small maybe 12’ tall Chinkapin oak I’ve collected about 100 good acorns from so far this year. I’m almost thinking it maybe a Dwarf Chinkapin oak but either way I’m going to plant the acorns out at the farm this next weekend. I did check on some English oaks last week at a park that I’ll be collecting acorns from shortly when they start dropping, tough to beat the squirrels sometimes.
I got a very small maybe 12’ tall Chinkapin oak I’ve collected about 100 good acorns from so far this year. I’m almost thinking it maybe a Dwarf Chinkapin oak but either way I’m going to plant the acorns out at the farm this next weekend. I did check on some English oaks last week at a park that I’ll be collecting acorns from shortly when they start dropping, tough to beat the squirrels sometimes.
b116757
5 year old buck +
I found three columnar EO at a bank the other day I collected about 25 acorns and planted them at the farm this afternoon all in one area. Plugged the last one walked about 20’ and stepped on a honey locust thorn threw the steel toe boot sole and into my foot. Limped back to the van drove home. Had my oldest boy try to pull thorn out of boot/foot no joy on that one. Finally had him pull toe of boot down as much as he could and got foot out of boot. Thorn was sticking at least a 1/4” into inside of boot. Hurts like crazy can’t tell if thorn piece broke off in my foot or not will give it a day with triple antibiotic cream see if it’s any better if not I’ll have to dig around in there see if I can get the thorn out if it in there. Trouble with honey locust thorns is they hurt and swell even if nothing is in the wound sometimes hard to tell makes me think they have a toxin but it just maybe infectious from bacteria or something.
In posts 10 and 15 above, I attached pictures of a English oak tree that was very prolific in production .... year after year. My greatest concern with this variety of white oak is its early maturing acorns that have largely dropped by the end of September. Nevertheless, it is a great tree to get deer started consuming acorns early in the fall. I checked this tree a couple of days ago and estimate - at this time -it has dropped over 75% of its acorns. if you want to get a feel for the production capacity of a relatively young English oak tree, ... check out the attached photos of the part of a parking lot under the tree.
The tree has a very small catchment area within which to obtain water and nutrients; sometimes I don't understand Mother Nature!
The tree has a very small catchment area within which to obtain water and nutrients; sometimes I don't understand Mother Nature!
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paleopoint
5 year old buck +
On my own oaks (latitude 43 degrees)......the native whites, swamp whites, and reds have long lost their crop.
My EO's have...mostly....dropped too. About 8 days ago I noticed that the crop was fairly well reduced. Then, a 28 degree frost three days ago seemingly motivated a bigger drop. (with my pears too) . However, I still have 4 or 5 EO's that are carrying a notable share of their season' crop. And I know those trees are drawing deer each night ....cams show it, and each of those trees has one or more scrapes under 'em.
My EO's have...mostly....dropped too. About 8 days ago I noticed that the crop was fairly well reduced. Then, a 28 degree frost three days ago seemingly motivated a bigger drop. (with my pears too) . However, I still have 4 or 5 EO's that are carrying a notable share of their season' crop. And I know those trees are drawing deer each night ....cams show it, and each of those trees has one or more scrapes under 'em.
Teeder
5 year old buck +
Here's another oak variation stumper.
I have a 35-40 English oaks, all from the same original source, and there's a couple generations. The fall colors are very dull, dingy yellow-brown. Except for 3 that are the same age and about 10-12' tall. These 3 have the real nice "white oak" red leaves. Everything else looks "english" except that. You can see an English back behind this one. One of them had acorns this year for the first time.
I have a 35-40 English oaks, all from the same original source, and there's a couple generations. The fall colors are very dull, dingy yellow-brown. Except for 3 that are the same age and about 10-12' tall. These 3 have the real nice "white oak" red leaves. Everything else looks "english" except that. You can see an English back behind this one. One of them had acorns this year for the first time.
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williams111
5 year old buck +
How are the EO's doing? Still have acorns hanging?
Teeder
5 year old buck +
The last few dropped over the last week or so. It was a down year with a dry ( for us) summer. Had about 1/3 of the crop as usual. There was a doe sniffing around under Tree#2 last night.
williams111
5 year old buck +
I cant wait to get the ones in the ground I received from you last year, they're still in their pots resting for the winter until the ground thaws this spring. I have some oaks that I lost from my tree planting project a couple years ago that are going to be replaced with these. It seems around here this year the entire timeline for deer shifting from one food source to another has been off a few weeks. I think that is due to a bumper crop of acorns this year. I have heard this same story from many people. I am used to my property becoming very quiet once the acorns begin dropping as I dont have hardly any producing oaks. Hopefully I can tell a different story someday. Usually by now they would be onto corn or turnips/clover more consistently, I rarely have more then a deer or 2 pass through a night based on my cameras and my plots look better then ever. I am hoping that will change in the next week or 2.
paleopoint
5 year old buck +
My EO's had a ginormous year in acorn production. I had one of my oldest....17yrs .... have such a crop I feared limb breakage.
But all have been dropped or pilfered by fox squirrels by November 1st or earlier. None on any tree after 11/1.
But my cams showed plenty of deer activity under the trees from early September on.
And surprisingly, virtually all of my acorn-bearing EO's had very active scrapes under 'em. One tree showed 13 different antlered animals (and a few does) visit the scrape in one 24 hour period.
Lastly, and yeah.....if your primary reason to plant EO's is for fall color......well, don't.
But all have been dropped or pilfered by fox squirrels by November 1st or earlier. None on any tree after 11/1.
But my cams showed plenty of deer activity under the trees from early September on.
And surprisingly, virtually all of my acorn-bearing EO's had very active scrapes under 'em. One tree showed 13 different antlered animals (and a few does) visit the scrape in one 24 hour period.
Lastly, and yeah.....if your primary reason to plant EO's is for fall color......well, don't.
They are great "habitat" trees; not very good specimen trees to plant in the front yard .... unless you have a nice woods - that you can hunt - conveniently located next to your front yard. Teeder and Paliopoint appear to have some great EOs that drop pretty late in the fall ... great characteristic. Every EO I have ever seen had very unattractive leaves; it appears to be a trait of straight English Oaks. However, EOs readily hybridize with swamp white oaks (e. g., Regal Prince, Kindred Spirit, and Ingram Oaks are 3 that come to mind). I have seen examples of KS and RP hybrids that have the rustic, dirty brown leaf color - usually looks like powdery mildew. Most of the Kindred Spirit and Regal Prince hybrids display the shiny dark green leaf topside that is characteristic of swo parentage. I don't have a lot of EOs in my area; however, every one I monitor spits out a lot of acorns in late Sept. and early Oct. If I had acorns from late droppers like Treeder and PP, I'd be slapping some of them in the ground ... with protection of course.
sites.psu.edu
https://kindredspiritoak.com/ ................... "The Kindred Spirit® Hybrid Oak is highly resistant to powdery mildew, which plagues the Q. robur parentage."
The Oak Species | The Arboretum at Penn State Mont Alto
sites.psu.edu
paleopoint
5 year old buck +
Quote: "If I had acorns from late droppers like Treeder and PP, I'd be slapping some of them in the ground ... with protection of course."
Well, perhaps my later droppers are from my own selectivity. At least I hope it is.
Here's the story: My first trees, my oldest.....all came from acorns that I collected on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing. Years before as a student I had noticed the huge crops those trees were putting out. Later in life I went back to the campus to gather some. But I did so after identifying particular trees over at least a 10yr period. I looked for trees that were annually productive AND held their acorns longer than others. I eventually selected 5 such 'source' trees. MSU must have 200+ EO's all over south campus....so I collected from them. (4 of the 5 have now been removed for construction projects).
And so the oldest trees I now have on my farm came from acorns from those 5 trees. I haven't collected from MSU for years as my trees give me all the 'seed' I need.
Also, in going back to earlier posts in this thread...which jogged my memory.....my EO's have a year-to-year variability in timing of the drop. Some years it is 3 or 4 weeks earlier than in other years. I have had nuts on trees late in the 2nd week of November....probably the latest.
I am quite please with my EO's. Clearly their acorns are highly favored by the critters. Very rarely can I find nuts on the ground. Despite a huge but diminishing crop up in the foliage. As the crop reduces it goes somewhere but few of them seemingly stay on the ground very long. Case in point, we had high winds one day in October. I was under a couple of EO's and noticed quite a few nuts on the ground. Next morning there were none.
One last comment...on the foliage. My EO's on my deer-dirt...hold their leaves longer than any of my native oaks...red or whites.
Earlier this past week I was noting than though my woodlots are mostly bare now....the beacons of green I can see (tho faded) were the tall EO's with many leaves still hanging on.
Well, perhaps my later droppers are from my own selectivity. At least I hope it is.
Here's the story: My first trees, my oldest.....all came from acorns that I collected on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing. Years before as a student I had noticed the huge crops those trees were putting out. Later in life I went back to the campus to gather some. But I did so after identifying particular trees over at least a 10yr period. I looked for trees that were annually productive AND held their acorns longer than others. I eventually selected 5 such 'source' trees. MSU must have 200+ EO's all over south campus....so I collected from them. (4 of the 5 have now been removed for construction projects).
And so the oldest trees I now have on my farm came from acorns from those 5 trees. I haven't collected from MSU for years as my trees give me all the 'seed' I need.
Also, in going back to earlier posts in this thread...which jogged my memory.....my EO's have a year-to-year variability in timing of the drop. Some years it is 3 or 4 weeks earlier than in other years. I have had nuts on trees late in the 2nd week of November....probably the latest.
I am quite please with my EO's. Clearly their acorns are highly favored by the critters. Very rarely can I find nuts on the ground. Despite a huge but diminishing crop up in the foliage. As the crop reduces it goes somewhere but few of them seemingly stay on the ground very long. Case in point, we had high winds one day in October. I was under a couple of EO's and noticed quite a few nuts on the ground. Next morning there were none.
One last comment...on the foliage. My EO's on my deer-dirt...hold their leaves longer than any of my native oaks...red or whites.
Earlier this past week I was noting than though my woodlots are mostly bare now....the beacons of green I can see (tho faded) were the tall EO's with many leaves still hanging on.
Paleopoint said ...
"Well, perhaps my later droppers are from my own selectivity. At least I hope it is.
Here's the story: My first trees, my oldest.....all came from acorns that I collected on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing. Years before as a student I had noticed the huge crops those trees were putting out. Later in life I went back to the campus to gather some. But I did so after identifying particular trees over at least a 10yr period. I looked for trees that were annually productive AND held their acorns longer than others. I eventually selected 5 such 'source' trees. MSU must have 200+ EO's all over south campus....so I collected from them. (4 of the 5 have now been removed for construction projects)."
Exactly what all of us should do ... to the extent possible. I salute you; job well done. What would I do next? Check as many of those 200+ trees as I can; looking for one located wiuthin 30-50 feet of another white oak species ... especially a bur oak or straight white oak. Both will hybridize with English oaks; since they are wind pollinated, acorns off an English oak pollinated by one of the other 2 might produxce acorns of a hybrid. Not an f1 offspring, but a true hybrid. I believe it's worth the effort. If you find such a circumstance, I'd gatther acorns from both of the suspected parent trees and plant a couple of acorns from each to see what results. Some folks won't have the patience to do this; however, I believe habitat development is a long game.
"Well, perhaps my later droppers are from my own selectivity. At least I hope it is.
Here's the story: My first trees, my oldest.....all came from acorns that I collected on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing. Years before as a student I had noticed the huge crops those trees were putting out. Later in life I went back to the campus to gather some. But I did so after identifying particular trees over at least a 10yr period. I looked for trees that were annually productive AND held their acorns longer than others. I eventually selected 5 such 'source' trees. MSU must have 200+ EO's all over south campus....so I collected from them. (4 of the 5 have now been removed for construction projects)."
Exactly what all of us should do ... to the extent possible. I salute you; job well done. What would I do next? Check as many of those 200+ trees as I can; looking for one located wiuthin 30-50 feet of another white oak species ... especially a bur oak or straight white oak. Both will hybridize with English oaks; since they are wind pollinated, acorns off an English oak pollinated by one of the other 2 might produxce acorns of a hybrid. Not an f1 offspring, but a true hybrid. I believe it's worth the effort. If you find such a circumstance, I'd gatther acorns from both of the suspected parent trees and plant a couple of acorns from each to see what results. Some folks won't have the patience to do this; however, I believe habitat development is a long game.
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