"OAK BARE ROOT SEEDLINGS"????

[Jamusu]

Water oak makes a great bonsai; it features small leaves that are reminiscent of Live oak, and takes readily to container culture. I have also grown Southern red oak. I wouldn't rule out any oak without trying it first. FWIW.

Zach.

Water oaks do produce small leaves. In fact, I collected one off of the lot that I own next to my home a few days ago which led to my starting this thread.

I've eyed it since starting bonsai 2 years ago and finally decided to remove it from beneath the rock wall that divides my two properties.

It's one of those that I mentioned previously whereby owners and renters chopped back for decades and inadvertently created taper. I hope it survives.

 

[John P.]

Weren't they burned out in this summers fires?

I don’t think so. I ordered from them after the fires and received the order. They’re still on eBay.

 

[Jamusu]

I will check them out.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

@Jamusu
Brent has certainly given you good advice. And you definitely should buy a few of his oak seedlings, as he raises his seedlings with bonsai in mind. Where as the tree nursery you keep citing raises the seedlings with forestry and landscaping in mind, NOT bonsai. There is a huge quality for bonsai difference in the way seedlings are raised. The higher cost of Evergreen Gardenwork (Brent's) seedlings is due to the effort Brent puts into pruning roots, and encouraging low branches on his seedlings. Where a forestry, or landscape orientated nursery would encourage long tap roots and zero low branching.

Most oaks have some bonsai potential, Brent's list is a list of "proven" species. The species he lists grow quickly from seed, and will develop in a "mere mortal's" lifespan. Many oaks take quite a bit of time to develop larger trunks. If you can, you will save yourself decades by collecting older oaks, that have been growing for some years and already have trunks over a couple inches in diameter.

Seedlings from Landscape or Forestry orientated nurseries, for example Coldstream Farms in Michigan, they produce just that, straight trunks with long tap roots. Not ideal start for bonsai. Not impossible, but not ideal.

 

[Jamusu]

@Jamusu
Brent has certainly given you good advice. And you definitely should buy a few of his oak seedlings, as he raises his seedlings with bonsai in mind. Where as the tree nursery you keep citing raises the seedlings with forestry and landscaping in mind, NOT bonsai. There is a huge quality for bonsai difference in the way seedlings are raised. The higher cost of Evergreen Gardenwork (Brent's) seedlings is due to the effort Brent puts into pruning roots, and encouraging low branches on his seedlings. Where a forestry, or landscape orientated nursery would encourage long tap roots and zero low branching.

Most oaks have some bonsai potential, Brent's list is a list of "proven" species. The species he lists grow quickly from seed, and will develop in a "mere mortal's" lifespan. Many oaks take quite a bit of time to develop larger trunks. If you can, you will save yourself decades by collecting older oaks, that hYEARSave been growing for some years and already have trunks over a couple inches in diameter.

Seedlings from Landscape or Forestry orientated nurseries, for example Coldstream Farms in Michigan, they produce just that, straight trunks with long tap roots. Not ideal start for bonsai. Not impossible, but not ideal.

Leo:

Points well taken! Mr. Brent has provided me with great knowledge over these past two years as it relates to growing oak bonsai trees over the next 10-50 years, as well as other tree species. As I stated earlier, I began bonsai in January—2019 and contacted him around that time. His advice has saved me from making bonsai out of the trees listed and a slew of others that I bought that will never make suitable bonsai trees. Also, he forced me to slow down as I was moving much too fast and told me: "Sounds like you are doing everything way too fast. Bonsai is a very slow process. You learn by watching plants grow and seeing the results of your efforts. Intervals are measured in YEARS. You speed things up by buying mature pretrained plants while letting smaller stuff grow. We have a saying in bonsai: 'It is better to buy ONE $100 pretrained tree than ONE HUNDRED $1 sticks in a pot'. So, I will purchase a few pretrained oak trees from him while I watch and train the others from seedlings or seeds.

 

[19Mateo83]

Please ignore the double posts. I realized that I forgot to list the names of the bare root oak tree seedlings that Baucum sells in my original post that Mr. Brent said were not suitable and attempted to add them. Here is the list.

1.) Cherrybark Oak: Quercus pagoda

2.) Nuttall Oak: Quercus texana

3.) Chinkapin Oak: Quercus Muehlenbergii

4.) Cow Oak: Quercus: michauxxi

5.) Northern Red Oak: Quercus rubra

6.) Overcup Oak: Quercus lyrata

7.) Pin Oak: Quercus palustris

8.) Sawtooth Oak: Quercus acutisima

9.) Shummard Oak: Quercus shumardii

10.) Southern Red Oak: Quercus falcata

12.) Water Oak: Quercus nigra

13.) White Oak: Quercus alba

I have overcup and sawtooth acorns in stratification right now in the fridge and 1 year old northern red oak and white oak seedlings that are about 4-6 inches tall. Id be happy to hook you up with a sweet deal. Send me a message and we can work something out.

 

[leatherback]

I'll never understand the whole "small leaf size" thing. Are maples inherently inferior to Chinese elm? Is pine inferior to spruce? Grow the species you like. If it has a woody stem and you can grow it in a pot, it's suitable for bonsai.

I think many people like their bonsai to look nice when covered in foliage, and not just look like a knot of big-ass leaves. The illusion of a miniature tree just works better when the leaves are not overly big.

 

[Potawatomi13]

I have overcup and sawtooth acorns in stratification right now in the fridge and 1 year old northern red oak and white oak seedlings that are about 4-6 inches tall. Id be happy to hook you up with a sweet deal. Send me a message and we can work something out.

Why stratify? An unneeeded waste of time. Plant in pot, place outside, protect from acorn eaters, keep damp and watch sprout in Spring when weather suits(Mar-Apr). Root grows below ground until that happens. Only 77 days until Spring.

 

[sevan]

In my very limited experience, Water oak seem to air layer well. They are everywhere in the landscape in my area, so even larger trees are a potential source of material.

Scott

 

[19Mateo83]

Why stratify? An unneeeded waste of time. Plant in pot, place outside, protect from acorn eaters, keep damp and watch sprout in Spring when weather suits(Mar-Apr). Root grows below ground until that happens. Only 77 days until Spring.

Acorn eaters are ferocious around here.

 

[sevan]

Acorn eaters are ferocious around here.

My acorns and seeds are hiding out on my garage floor under large plastic totes. I started out stratifying everything, but the ones in warm stratification kept getting moldy. So, I'm trying this as a more natural winter process with better protection from mice and squirrels.

I was thinking the garage would also help even out the temperature over time, but we've just had a week of 70 degree weather, so I'm hoping they don't all wake up early. I hadn't planned on starting the seeds indoors and would prefer not to come up with a plan to protect them until spring.

 

[19Mateo83]

W

My acorns and seeds are hiding out on my garage floor under large plastic totes. I started out stratifying everything, but the ones in warm stratification kept getting moldy. So, I'm trying this as a more natural winter process with better protection from mice and squirrels.

I was thinking the garage would also help even out the temperature over time, but we've just had a week of 70 degree weather, so I'm hoping they don't all wake up early. I hadn't planned on starting the seeds indoors and would prefer not to come up with a plan to protect them until spring.

We just had that same warm weather (Charlotte NC) here, that’s what I like them in the crisper drawer