Quercus Rober

[Potawatomi13]

English Oak


Hi folks, thought i'd share my latest addition, I had initially planned to try a Literati style with this tree as it has the characteristics, tall, slender and elegant trunk, good movement with majority of growth at the top, i was going to remove or reduce and strip the wood off the first branch like this, then proceed to do a little thinning in the canopy...
bonsai-stieleiche-quercus-231071-0-19863 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
I decided to scrap that idea and style the tree with what was present, im glad i did

IMG_2227 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
IMG_2239 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr



After a little wire and tidy up, i removed a thick, crossing branch and have stripped it for a dead branch feature, common in Oak
IMG_2247 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
IMG_2248 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
IMG_2250 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
IMG_2255 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
IMG_2257 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
IMG_2259 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

Its quite a tall tree for me, stands approx 20in, ive gotten some gnarly bends in a few of the branches, common feature with Oak in the wild, im looking forward to the winter image...
IMG_2292 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
IMG_2294 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

inspirational photos and kind of winter image im working towards
IMG_8412 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
IMG_8414 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

More to do with mimicking the gnarly bends in these two rather than following the branch structure to the letter.

Very nice tree. Will be even better before long.

 

[BobbyLane]

Hi folks, here's an update on the Oak today after wiring

Autumn
IMG_2961 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

Today
I was able to fill in more of the negative areas
2016-11-29_07-45-02 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

2016-11-29_07-46-35 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

 

[JudyB]

Looks well on the way. Very nice images.

 

[BobbyLane]

Hi folks, wasnt entirely happy with the weight in the crown, so during the dormant spell i went about removing bits of trunk/heavy branches, cut back in areas for better taper and movement and added a dead branch feature to tie in with the carving done to separate two branches in the crown. dead branches are a common feature of Oaks in the wild, i think it works...
a few weeks ago it went into a shallow oval for a landscape feel
IMG_4546 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
IMG_4552 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
IMG_4565 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
IMG_4577 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
IMG_4586 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
IMG_4572 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

Not done any pruning of the new growth yet apart from removing a couple un wanted shoots. once hardened off, the shoots in the crown will all be cut back to a node, want to keep the top light...
will update later in season

 

[just.wing.it]

Just plain nice!

 

[GGB]

Looks even better, I think of your tree everytime I water my little toothpick oaks. Do you notice myco fungi in the roots when you repot? i know it's a pine thing typically..

 

[Waltron]

love this tree, great nebari for such a sinuous little trunk. Oaks are difficult. I have one these I got last spring as a bareroot mail order, its growing nicely in my yard. Think ill pot it up next year maybe. I have finally found success collecting a native red oak trunk so im pretty excited about that. Just collected an awesome white oak the other day, real awesome, literati, if it lives. pulled it out of a sand bank on a hill. got some fine feeders. none of the buds had popped yet when i dug it, and after getting it home and planting in a grow bag, they are moving again and about to pop, but its still very likely it will fizzle out.

 

[BobbyLane]

Looks even better, I think of your tree everytime I water my little toothpick oaks. Do you notice myco fungi in the roots when you repot? i know it's a pine thing typically..

Hi thanks folks,
I know Oak can sometimes rely on Myco fungi in the roots, but didnt notice much in the roots mass, i didnt bare root it just to be on the safe side, i remove soil by hand not with washing..
Some images of the root ball after it was reduced to go into the shallow
20170401_155441 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
20170401_161854 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

fwiw i use this stuff on all my trees at re potting, just sprinkle a little on the roots
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Empathy-36...=UTF8&qid=1494436423&sr=1-1&keywords=rootgrow

success rate is extremely high since ive began using this, even with trees where ive left hardly any root on, or root pruned and sized down aggressively. including beech and hawthorn.

 

[BobbyLane]

love this tree, great nebari for such a sinuous little trunk. Oaks are difficult. I have one these I got last spring as a bareroot mail order, its growing nicely in my yard. Think ill pot it up next year maybe. I have finally found success collecting a native red oak trunk so im pretty excited about that. Just collected an awesome white oak the other day, real awesome, literati, if it lives. pulled it out of a sand bank on a hill. got some fine feeders. none of the buds had popped yet when i dug it, and after getting it home and planting in a grow bag, they are moving again and about to pop, but its still very likely it will fizzle out.

i posted a link above, a combo of root grow, rhizotonic, sea weed and chopped spag moss works extremely well for me. a little chopped spag moss will go in the soil mix of trees that ive aggressively root hacked.

 

[Waltron]

thanks for the info Bobby, I went with a special soil mixture I think is conducive to delicate recovery, the grow bag, along with super thrive and sea weed therapy. I immediately regretted forgetting to wrap the fine roots in sphag moss. I really would like to get some of that rhizotonic sometime. I did inoculate with 2 type of myco granules, endo and echo. mixed in some morel mushroom scraps just for shits because I had just found a bunch. really hoping it pulls through.

the red oak I just chopped it, trenched it, and severed the tap and took a very heavy large root ball, taking care not to disturb the fine roots it may have, and plunked it in my garden bed back in late feb. the branches it had died back( didnt want or need them anywho) but now I have 2 buds growing from opposite sides of the chop.

 

[GGB]

I started using powdered fungi in all my pots and on my growing bed pines. time will tell what it does or doesn't do for me. You guys are lucky to have access to Q. rober and P. sylvestris in the wild over there

 

[BobbyLane]

this one has had some hard cut backs in a bid to achieve tighter ramification, just needs to fill back out, its always sending buds out on the trunk, i quite like them so the key will be to leave the lower shoots short and highly ramified, they remind me of when you see the suckers at the base of wild trees
2018-07-20_02-27-17 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

its a very simple tree, less is more so to speak

 

[BobbyLane]

This one was chopped low, i got bored of it. today i dug it up...
Its for sale.

its going to be a nice example of an old Oak with time in the right hands...
obviuosly needs a proper cutback next season, but there are many buds closer to the trunk on all of the branches, so wont take long to compact the image properly.
Leaves are a decent size. could make a nice shohin in time..

 

[BobbyLane]

images not loading properly

 

[BobbyLane]

funny enough i was walking in the park today and snapped an old oak

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I liked the 2017 images, I would have made a slight adjustment in the angle of the trunk to the ground, but thought the 2017 image had potential. The 2020 images, leave me flat. But I can see the 2020 version could be developed into a nice shohin oak, maybe a little larger than shohin. Too bad you gave up on, or over-worked the 2017 image. Though I do see the future potential in the 2020 image, I liked 2017 better.

 

[BobbyLane]

Thanks for your thoughts Leo!
I enjoyed both images, but got bored of the taller version after a period.
The tree has now been sold.

 

[leatherback]

Such a shame. You had a nice elegant oak on your hands.
guess each to their own vision

 

[BobbyLane]

Yes was quite nice, here with some autumn colour right before the chop

 

[leatherback]

pretty