Releasing bur oaks

[SD51555]

As I make my way across my property stem by stem, I’m saving every bur oak because there are not too many, and I’m losing 2-3 old ones each year. I might have 5-10 in a quarter acre. These are 6’-15’ tall.

I’ve been releasing these for ten years. They don’t seem to be growing much if at all. I don’t have a specific one I know hasn’t grown, but I also can’t say I’ve got any surging ahead after a perfect clean out and sky opening with the chainsaw.

Is it possible they were shaded out too long to ever do anything?


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[Telemark]

I wouldn't think they are permanently stunted. I've never heard of that being a problem, and it seems to go against the normal growth habit of trees.

If they are getting plenty of sun, I would guess the problem is water and/or nutrients. Water is easy enough, though it can be hard work. Nutrients is a different story.

If water is plentiful, then I'd focus in nutrients. Personally, I would throw out a bunch of triple 10 straight away to try to give them a boost. If I was watering, I would dissolve at least some of the fertilizer in the water to get it to the roots ASAP.

The next thing I would do would be to spread Azomite around the tree and try to get some mycorhizal fungi to the roots.

If you have any gut piles, varmints, roadkill, etc., bury them near the trees to add nutrients and biology to the soil under the canopy. If you can get cheap or free manure, I'd dump piles under the canopies to further boost the nutrients and biology in the soil.

 

[Turkey Creek]

I do not believe there has been any evidence to suggest fertilizing oaks is worth the time and money. Unless you are in a severe drought I don't think you are going to dump enough water on an oak to make a big impact. Sunlight is the name of the game. Burr Oaks are not fast growers in general.

 

[Teeder]

How much sun are they getting?
When we bought our hunting property, it had recently been selectively logged. I planted oaks in the openings, but soon realized what seems like enough sunlight for oaks probably isn't. They need a ton!

 

[SD51555]

How much sun are they getting?
When we bought our hunting property, it had recently been selectively logged. I planted oaks in the openings, but soon realized what seems like enough sunlight for oaks probably isn't. They need a ton!

Most are getting full sun except the low light periods. They're opened up to the south so they get everything in the middle 60-80% of the day or more.

 

[Teeder]

Honestly, that sounds like my scenario. My openings run north-south. Wide open during the middle of the day, but not enough total hours. The trees i planted in the openings are 1/4 the size of the same types i planted out in the field.

 

[SD51555]

Honestly, that sounds like my scenario. My openings run north-south. Wide open during the middle of the day, but not enough total hours. The trees i planted in the openings are 1/4 the size of the same types i planted out in the field.

Im pretty aggressive when I open up a spot. I will give up the first and last couple hours, but should be getting a solid mid day showing. I’ve seen one throw up new green. I really need to watch during leaf out this spring to see if there is any growth.


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[Swampwalker]

For the past ten or so years I have been on a very similar mission to release burr oaks on our property and have noticed slow response to crop tree releases.
I did read somewhere that if an oak tree has been suppressed by the over story for too long it can have a long term negative effects on future growth even after the tree is released. If I remember correctly the lack of sunlight which suppressed crown growth can also have a negative affect on root growth. The stunted roots can then lead to growth issues even after the tree is released.
Even so, I continue to release some each year even if the crown is small.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Just a FWIW from our camp's oaks. Our soil isn't very rich/nutrient dense. I took a chance with a couple white oaks and threw down a bag per tree of 10-10-10 around the drip lines a few years ago. (They weren't new, young saplings - but hadn't shown any new growth to speak of in a while). Those oaks pushed a lot of new growth in the canopy, and produced a bumper crop of acorns that year.

Our soils are different for sure, but adding fertilizer jumped-started our oaks. Might be worth a shot. Oaks in general are notoriously slow growers - red oaks being the fastest growers.

 

[Telemark]

Just a FWIW from our camp's oaks. Our soil isn't very rich/nutrient dense. I took a chance with a couple white oaks and threw down a bag per tree of 10-10-10 around the drip lines a few years ago. (They weren't new, young saplings - but hadn't shown any new growth to speak of in a while). Those oaks pushed a lot of new growth in the canopy, and produced a bumper crop of acorns that year.

Our soils are different for sure, but adding fertilizer jumped-started our oaks. Might be worth a shot. Oaks in general are notoriously slow growers - red oaks being the fastest growers.

I have a similar experience with red oaks. I'm using them as a Winter/Spring survival food, so I want a good crop on the ground every year. I'm trying to release one per year, and then a year or two later give the released tree about 5 lbs of fertilizer. They dump a ton of acorns and fill in the space they were given. I ended up taking down a few that grew out over the food plot they border.

Where the red oaks grow, the soil is mostly decent, but quite thin, with bare bedrock showing in places. The elevation is relatively high, and the terrain is flat, with adjacent arborvitae cover. My food plot is overgrown, so it's getting a makeover this summer. I'm also putting in a few apple trees, white oaks, and a water hole. I already put in a mineral stump from a big maple I took down to release red oaks. I'm trying to make it a one-stop shop for deer needs, and cover nutrition as much of the year as possible. Access to that spot is excellent.

 

[Foggy47]

I had my property logged off eight years ago. It was mostly Norway pines, with some mature aspen. The loggers released 1000's of small Burr Oak trees that were stunted by the pines. Some as small as a few feet high. They have all grown to an extent and appear quite healthy today. They have been putting out lots more acorns each year recently. They are slow growing tho....as compared to other trees.....far slower. I got poor soil too (sandy).....and have not fertilized or made amendments.

 

[rocksnstumps]

I have an area where I have reds, whites, and burr oaks planted. Maybe 50 trees total with totally open canopy when first planted about 20 yrs ago. The soil site index in that spot for red oak is excellent to support growth and the other oaks in general grew fine. The reds tend to grow best in a bit lighter soil.

Results for the burrs after all this time are they are roughly 1/2 to 2/3 as tall as the reds. Trunk size is no comparison. Trunk size at DBH is over 2X to almost 3X as big for the reds over the burrs. Burr oaks are just slow growers even when compared to other oaks. They grow a long time however and can be a massive tree in size. Just give them 100-200 yrs lol.

But interestingly burrs tend to produce acorns at a much younger age out of all of them even with the smaller canopy. Some as young as 5-6 yrs. But now that the reds have started with acorns they produce more at this stage in their life but again they are double the size of the burrs. The burrs are like yeah come back in like 75 yrs and let's compare.

 

[Foggy47]

I had a number of 150 year old Burr Oaks in my yard at the lake. Those trees had withstood lots of heavy duty storms and still put out lots of acorns. They were getting pretty beat up and gnarly the last few years......especially after two tornadoes came through. We lost some 150 year old white pines at that time....those were so majestic. One Burr Oak was dead and standing when I sold the place. Others had been trimmed on a few times. Tough trees.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

When I said I put down a bag of 10-10-10 per tree in post #9 above, I should have mentioned that those white oaks are very old and HUGE! They're at field edges and are about 5 ft. diameter + at the bases. 40 lbs. of fertilizer spread around a 30 to 40 ft. diameter drip line served those trees well.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

As I make my way across my property stem by stem, I’m saving every bur oak because there are not too many, and I’m losing 2-3 old ones each year. I might have 5-10 in a quarter acre. These are 6’-15’ tall.

I’ve been releasing these for ten years. They don’t seem to be growing much if at all. I don’t have a specific one I know hasn’t grown, but I also can’t say I’ve got any surging ahead after a perfect clean out and sky opening with the chainsaw.

Is it possible they were shaded out too long to ever do anything?


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I see the same thing at my place, and I release every bur oak I can. My released bur oaks probably average 6" in growth per year. It seems slow compared to other tree species, but these trees live for centuries, so they are just on a different timeline than other trees (and us). I think the young bur oaks on my food plot edges could be great acorn producers eventually, but for the short term I think I'll plant some crabapple trees next to them to give me some production while I wait for the oaks to provide some calories.