I Collected an Interior Live Oak...

[Kitvin713]

Hi, I've been the arboricultural world for a few years now and I am studying to take my ISA certification. I figured I probably should try to keep a tree or two alive before doing so. So I bought a juniper, an azalea, and dug up this little live oak. When I collected the live oak it was buried in forest duff up to the branch split. So I dug it up carefully maintaining the feeder roots and cut off the tap root. Its now in this little box i drilled some holes in and filled with some cactus mix I had laying around. What I'm wondering is should I be concerned with the split where the branches are? I was planning on leaving it alone for a good long time in that box. But now I'm wondering should I cut the top off right at the split to get it to focus on budding out and putting out more roots?

 

[NOZZLE HEAD]

Good on ya.

I would leave that live oak alone until it recovers from the transplant, mid summer at least.

It is all about balancing root mass to leaf mass, if you don’t have enough roots pulling in water to support the evapotranspiration from the leaves you could have some issues. There is a hormone balance between the roots and shoots as well, but after a transplanting water balance is more relevant.

Looks like those trees are on a balcony, which direction is it facing?

 

[Kitvin713]

Good on ya.

I would leave that live oak alone until it recovers from the transplant, mid summer at least.

It is all about balancing root mass to leaf mass, if you don’t have enough roots pulling in water to support the evapotranspiration from the leaves you could have some issues. There is a hormone balance between the roots and shoots as well, but after a transplanting water balance is more relevant.

Looks like those trees are on a balcony, which direction is it facing?

My plan was to leave it alone and let it recover, it doesn't have a ton of roots but I did the best I could. I thought about defoliating, and about cutting off all the foliage and just leaving the trunk to better balance the water intake. But my gut tells me the less I mess with it the better.

The tree is facing North currently, Unfortunately I'm in a north east corner apartment I'm planning on putting it on the corner ledge to get it most of the morning sun. Fortunately in a few weeks the sun will have moved far enough north to get it more sun throughout the day.

 

[Mikecheck123]

My plan was to leave it alone and let it recover, it doesn't have a ton of roots but I did the best I could. I thought about defoliating, and about cutting off all the foliage and just leaving the trunk to better balance the water intake. But my gut tells me the less I mess with it the better.

The tree is facing North currently, Unfortunately I'm in a north east corner apartment I'm planning on putting it on the corner ledge to get it most of the morning sun. Fortunately in a few weeks the sun will have moved far enough north to get it more sun throughout the day.

I agree that you should probably leave it alone. My experiences that ca live oaks oaks aren't very resilient to root disturbances.

 

[Kitvin713]

I agree that you should probably leave it alone. My experiences that ca live oaks oaks aren't very resilient to root disturbances.

Hopefully I left enough of the roots for it to live.

 

[NOZZLE HEAD]

I was worried you were south facing.

If I sat on a south facing balcony in Fresno for about 15 minutes I would probably need to go to the burn unit.

For those new trees your NE exposure is nice.

 

[Kitvin713]

I was worried you were south facing.

If I sat on a south facing balcony in Fresno for about 15 minutes I would probably need to go to the burn unit.

For those new trees your NE exposure is nice.

I think the sun fried my brain, I've been worried they won't get enough sun.