Small Cork Oak

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Mbpauley

Yamadori
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Rancho Cordova, California
I visited a bonsai nursery about 45 minutes away today and found this little guy. Immediately picked it up and knew I was taking it with me. I also picked up an azalea, but I'm a little more excited about the oak. It looks like the soil originally came up a bit higher and when they repotted it they noticed the gnarled tap root and left it exposed as a feature of the trunk. At least that's my theory. I didn't think to ask. The picture was taken in Dixon while visiting my girlfriend.
 

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gergwebber said:
cool, I think my good oak is having root issues, I hope it was a gopher and not just dieing cause I suck...

anyway I will be getting lots of acorns this year, as well as digging up a weird evergreen oak in my new backyard. Check out the following thread!

http://bonsainut.com/forums/showthread.php?8019-Valley-Oak-Q-Lobata-from-acorns
Click to expand...

You have a great setup and some really nice trees there. I'm particularly jealous of your valley oaks. In my area there are tons of cork oaks everywhere I turn, but the only valley oaks I can seem to find are very young and are planted in people's yards. Q. Lobata would definitely my first (i much prefer the leaf structure), but Q. Suber is a close second. Maybe at some point I'll ask around to see if I can take a few cuttings.
 
Mbpauley said:
*would definitely be my first choice
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Most of those trees in that thread are not mine.

I have not heard of anyone taking valley oaks from cuttings... it may be possible, but I doubt it. Take acorns. the only people who will care will be the squirrels and blue jays; this way, you will be able to nip the tap root off before it gets too long for bonsai, and they grow pretty quick. also, there are some nurseries that sell oaks of all sorts in cans.
 
If you want to see some amazing oak bonsai, mark your calendar for the Golden State Bonsai Federation Annual Convention October 35 - 29 at the Sacramento Doubletree hotel. The exhibit this year is exclusively bonsai of species indigenous to California and there will be a lot of oaks.
The exhibit is free to the public in Friday and Saturday as is the huge vendor area.
Paul
 
gergwebber said:
Most of those trees in that thread are not mine.
Click to expand...

Oh, haha. I see. I misread your original message. I'll get my hands on one eventually, probably after I've become familiar with the needs of this one.

PaulH said:
If you want to see some amazing oak bonsai, mark your calendar for the Golden State Bonsai Federation Annual Convention October 35 - 29 at the Sacramento Doubletree hotel. The exhibit this year is exclusively bonsai of species indigenous to California and there will be a lot of oaks.
The exhibit is free to the public in Friday and Saturday as is the huge vendor area.
Paul
Click to expand...

Wow, thanks for letting me know. Hopefully I'll have that Saturday off so I can make my way down there. That would be the first bonsai related event I will have attended.
 
Mbpauley said:
Oh, haha. I see. I misread your original message. I'll get my hands on one eventually, probably after I've become familiar with the needs of this one.



Wow, thanks for letting me know. Hopefully I'll have that Saturday off so I can make my way down there. That would be the first bonsai related event I will have attended.
Click to expand...

You'll be like a kid in a candy store- between the display and the vendors it'll be a real treat.
 
Mbpauley said:
Oh, haha. I see. I misread your original message. I'll get my hands on one eventually, probably after I've become familiar with the needs of this one.
Click to expand...


Really though, the best time to start is now, they will be ten years to a decent bonsai, and most of that is just keeping them happy, i.e. fattening them up! Plus acorns are everywhere and you might end up with a cool new hybrid only you have!
 
PaulH said:
Right. Program will be bonsai demonstration by John Thompson.
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Looking forward to it. What exactly is bonsai "demonstration"? If it were spring I would assume it was styling/pruning etc., but going into fall I'm not sure.

gergwebber said:
Really though, the best time to start is now, they will be ten years to a decent bonsai, and most of that is just keeping them happy, i.e. fattening them up! Plus acorns are everywhere and you might end up with a cool new hybrid only you have!
Click to expand...

If I get another, I will probably try to find something that already has a decent trunk. Growing an oak from seed would be cool, but... Currently I still have the beginner's urge to style or develop something sooner rather than later. Looking at what I have, I already wish that I would have been a bit more selective in my choice of material. I will need to plant in-ground for a few years before they really deserve to be in a container.

Which leads to my next question...

I've decided that this oak (as well as several other plants) will go in the ground for maybe two or three years. My main concern is with timing. I understand that the best time to do so is late winter or early spring. Also, all of the plants to which I am referring are already being grown in containers. When I plant them in the ground, would it be better to plant them in a plastic training pot in the ground, maybe with some extra holes in the sides for drainage and free root growth? In this way it might be easier to sever the newer roots around the outside when the time comes to pull them from the ground, and I wouldn't have as much work set out for me as far as reducing the rootball back to container size again.

And if I do keep them in the ground with their pots would it be safe then to go ahead and plant them now, since there wouldnt need to be any serious root work? I don't have any problem waiting until spring, in any case.
 
Growing your bonsai from seed is very rewarding but takes many years. I'v been growing this cork oak for over 30 years, many of those with it in the ground getting bigger.
GCBC Fair Exhibit 007.jpg
 
There are a lot of things to be done with bonsai in the fall. Come and see.
 
[SUP][/SUP]
PaulH said:
Growing your bonsai from seed is very rewarding but takes many years. I'v been growing this cork oak for over 30 years, many of those with it in the ground getting bigger.
View attachment 27021
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That tree is impressive, nice work. I wouldn't have guessed it was grown from seed.

I slip potted mine into a 15 gallon training pot today, made sure not to disturb the root system. I used regular potting soil heavily amended with volcanic pumice for good drainage, as I've read that oaks don't like wet roots. Originally I was going to put it in the ground but there is a possibility that I will be moving within the next couple years, and I figure that such a large container (while nothing compared to growing in-ground) will be much better than the tiny pot, and portable as well. Hopefully I'll see the trunk thicken a bit once it gets going.
 
Mbpauley said:
If I get another, I will probably try to find something that already has a decent trunk.

I've decided that this oak (as well as several other plants) will go in the ground for maybe two or three years. My main concern is with timing. I understand that the best time to do so is late winter or early spring. Also, all of the plants to which I am referring are already being grown in containers. When I plant them in the ground, would it be better to plant them in a plastic training pot in the ground, maybe with some extra holes in the sides for drainage and free root growth? In this way it might be easier to sever the newer roots around the outside when the time comes to pull them from the ground, and I wouldn't have as much work set out for me as far as reducing the rootball back to container size again.
them now, since there wouldnt need to be any serious root work? I don't have any problem waiting until spring, in any case.
Click to expand...

yeah I know. As a beginer, I believe that there is a strong urge to get a few older looking trees asap. I mentioned acorns because if the bonsai bug sticks, its a hobby for life. Start 3 oaks from acorns this fall, and in ten years you will thank yourself. Also, get something like a zelkova or elm or trident, so you have something that commands your attention through out the season so you have something to do while the others are just growing.


about the pots in the ground. That will work, but it is not ideal. One of the best aspects to ground growing is that the roots have no barriers to growth, and you can shovel prune the roots periodically to induce a finer more compact root pad. Plus, when you set them out into a bed, you will really want to rake the roots out in order to set up a decent nebari. You may find that the majority of a potted oaks roots will be sinker tap roots that just snake around the bottom of the pot. This is classic oak behavior and a major reason why taking an acorn is so great, as you have the ability to set up a branching root habit initially. I can't say how many dead trees I have dug out of a hole only to find a root system that looks like a mutant cork screw.

The move issue is probaly more important than anything else. I think it would be fine in a 15 gallon pot, but you will want to bare root it and rake out the roots initially.


one thing I know for sure is bonsai is best approached as an experiment, and more trials with more subjects will always make for a better collection. not that you have to rip up the whole yard, but hedge your specimens.
 
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I bare rooted it and tried to rake the roots out a bit. There were no long roots at all, just a ton of fine roots extending about 1"-1 1/2" from the taproot. Speaking of which, I can see what you meant about a mutant corkscrew taproot. Fortunately when this tree was collected or repotted or whatever exactly happened, the majority of the taproot was removed. There is still a coil close to 1" thick just below the surface, but it is covered in finer roots. The rootball was probably about 4" across.

In the future, how can encourage some of these finer roots to thicken? Would they fuse together if I were to wire several together? Or would I just selectively trim the roots until they develop?

Also, I was thinking about your tree last night, Paul... And I decided I might as well take a shot at growing a few from seed. I suppose it will just be kind of a side project for a few years, semi-unrelated to bonsai. Just as an experiment. So I should be getting some white oak acorns in the mail soon, as well as some other types of seed I wanted to try. Japanese maple, yellow hawthorn, and a black flowering type of pittosporum were the others. I've read that seed isn't true to the parent plant... But I don't know if that's the same for all seeds. I'll just have to wait and see.
 
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