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All,
It is a live Oak... the slowest of slow :-). I have three of them, about 12 feet tall. It is a very dry climate with poor soil (san antonio)... I will obviously water... but these trees will be the first plant that I will ever try to care for... :-(
Several factors to make grow plants faster are soil condition/preparation, watering and Superthrive.
Caveat; faster than normal growing plants mean weaker structured plants that will die pre-maturely. When you speed up mother nature, you shorten the life span, whereby fooling mother nature, the plants reach maturity at an advanced state.
I disagree. If you take an oak which is normally slow growing in the wild give it additional plant food and water very regularly it can add substantial growth over the years.
Nope , disagree here. Do Not give an Oak any plant food. It's totally unecssary. Innoculate it with Mycorrhizae and make sure the base of the tree has plenty of mulch around it to shade the roots and the beneficial fungus will even help break down the mulch and give back the neutrients back to the Oak.
All,
It is a live Oak... the slowest of slow :-). I have three of them, about 12 feet tall. It is a very dry climate with poor soil (san antonio)... I will obviously water... but these trees will be the first plant that I will ever try to care for... :-(
Thanks for all the help... I'm clueless!
Actually , San Antonio would be the perfect place to grow an Oak. It does'nt matter that the soil is considered poor by a gardener's standards. Just observe nature and the growing conditions there. Nobody goes out into an Oak or Pine tree forest and dumps miracle grow on everything to make it grow. Yet some of the biggest and most beautiful trees to be found are out there on their own in the wild.
Most of the city soils everywhere around the country are devoid of any natural mycorrhizal and beneficial bacteria which are present in healthy forest soils. So for an Oak , just find a source for the mycorrhizae , possible in a powder form and drill a several small 3 or 4 inch holes around the drip line of the tree where the small feeder roots would be and pour a little of the powder into it and cover it with soil. You won't notice a real difference until the next seasons growth. The fungal spores will germinate when one of the feeder root tips touch the spore and they themselves will remain there for the life of the tree. They act as an extension of the trees feeder root system. One of the huge benefits will be the preventing of Heat and drought stress. You'll never see it. They'll also mine the soil for beneficial neutrients not readily available otherwise. You'll never need to fertilize , just water.
I had a Black Oak (Quercus Kellogii) when I lived in the mountains above Palm Springs California. The area I lived in was Anza , California. Elevation was a little lower, hotter and dryer than the forest conditions where I got the seedling from a friend in Idyllwild, CA. The first few years were ok as far as growth , but it hit a plateau around 6 feet and stopped dramatically. After that , for about a decade , each bud on the tree grew only 2 inches of growth in the spring with the leaves only a couple of inches long and basically survived through the heat for the rest of the season. After ten years of being stuck in neutral , I did purchase some of the mycorrhizal innoculant from a company called Plant Health Care , which is based back east , but not sure if they sell to the general public any more. I believe they still have a website and good education on the website as well. Take a look at this page on their website and see the picture illustrations of a pine seedling with and without mycorrhizae colonization. This will give you a good picture of what I'm talking about.
Well that first summer I did'nt see any change , but when the monsoon rains came that summer, I did see that the fungus had colonized my black Oak because the fungus mushrooms or truffles appeared around the areas I innoculated. The fungus itself cannot create the spore carrying mushrooms (This is their version of fruit and propagation) without drawing from the carbon from the host plant. The Oak/Pine have a symbiotic relationship with the fungus. It gives trees like Oak/Pines water and neutrients and the trees give the fungus sugars from which the fungus uses as food. The next season in late spring , every bud grew 12-14 and up to 20 inches in growth. The leaves were all dark green and 6+ inches long , they were huge. I was sold. A tree innoculated with what nature intended , out performs those in city conditions don't have.
Keep a mulch layer around the Oaks root area. Don't plant them in lawn areas. They like to be a bit on the dry side anyway. If you must plant plants in or near a lawn , choose species of plants that thrive in or around water. It's just that most lawns have an excess of water requirements in order to look good. Young Oaks will do fine the first several years , but will deteriorate as they get older because of underground rot from the wet conditions. Saving good water is considered the norm anyway these days.
As a side experience , there is a property owner up in 29 Palms , California that has several huge Virginia Live Oaks on his property next to the Community College up there. He does water them , but they are colonized with mycorrhizae. They never would have grown that big with just fertilizer and water along in the 120+ heat they have there at summers peak.
Also keep in mind that there are as many types of fungal organisms as there are plants. The specific Fungus for oaks , pines , junipers, cedars, etc is called Ectomycorrhizae. Shrubs are colonized by endo-mycorrhizal fungus , although many species of oak will be colonized by both. The difference is that you can see the ecto and the endo you need magnification. The product I used had PT ecto-mycorrhizae. You can educate yourself from any of those websites. For years since I have collected the dried mycorrhizal mushrooms which are usually the size of a solfball and chocolate brown in color. They contain millions of spores and I've supervized a landscape company in San Diego for years before moving to Europe here. Miss the landscape biz though. Hope to move back and get back into it again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nitram
Faster than normal growing plants mean weaker structured plants that will die pre-maturely. When you speed up mother nature, you shorten the life span, where by fooling mother nature, the plants reach maturity at an advanced state.
Yep, I agree with this. Too much sapling growth creates a weak tree and also a bad wind storm good blow it down as well. You need strong growth for strength.
We saw a significant difference in the water oak planted in a corner of our yard, the spring and summer seasons that we used tree fertilizer stakes. I have put some out around my Little Gem magnolias this Spring -- they just look like they are struggling.
generally speaking the faster growing trees are also the shorter lived trees. it's genetics. now you can make a tree or any plant more healthy but if it's genetically programmed to be 20 feet pouring alot of "stuff' on it will not make it taller. It might help it reach maturity a bit faster by promoting optimum health but you can't change DNA...well not withou a lab...
I've wondered this before also....I have an 'Autumn Moon' Japanese maple. I bought it really small (about a foot tall or a little less, if I remember correctly) because it was the only way I could afford one! So anyway, I sited it carefully (morning/early afternoon sun only, this is the deep South!), prepared the soil a season ahead of time by digging deeply and adding lots of compost, watering well, and keeping plenty of mulch around it (not touching the trunk). Japanese maples naturally grow slowly, and I knew that, so I wondered if there was a way to speed it up. Guess I'm doing all I can. I also pull the mulch back every year and topdress with more compost (I make it myself). It's beautiful.....but little.
I'm too old for small trees....but too poor to buy big ones. Japanese maples, anyway, and I love 'em, want every one of 'em.
most things you can buy won't really help that much, and some fertilizer can burn tree roots at least that's what arborists will tell ya'.
when i read that someone had a strugglling tree, then saw growth or vigor after application of some treatment, it leads me to think they chose the wrong tree for the site or the soil. unless you're producing fruit or nuts, pick the right tree for your soil and conditions and just know those slow growers will be a treat for decades. (for me, fruit trees and nut trees are the exception since they often need attention to really produce)
in my experience the least expensive method is proper planting of saplings (and I prefer the bare-root kind).
some fast growing trees may be tempting but remember to check your county listings for invasives. certain trees marketed for fast growth can be invasive. others tend to be weak-wooded or have roots too agressive for suburban yards.
for example, hybrid poplars can grow 8' a season in ideal conditions, but they may need to be taken down by a pro in 15-20 years less they cause damage.
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