Style/pruning advice for Quercus toumeyi

[CLC]

Last year I picked up this Toumey Oak from a local nursery and have been wondering what to do with it ever since. Q. toumeyi is in the white oak section of Quercus and usually grows as a large shrub/small tree in the mountains in Arizona and Mexico near where I live. It's got very craggy bark and very small leaves which drew me to it as bonsai material. The trouble I'm having is that it's very leggy and finding buds to cut back to has been challenging. I think now I've found a few low enough on the main trunk (two circled in red), that I could reduce to that would still leave 1/3 of the foliage remaining on the smaller stem. If that induces growth then next year I'd cut back the smaller branch as well. Wondering if that sounds like a good idea or if others would have a better plan.

 

[BrianBay9]

I would check out the root to see if you have a massive, ugly tap root that needs cutting. I don't know if this oak will tolerate top work and cutting a major tap root.

 

[CLC]

I would check out the root to see if you have a massive, ugly tap root that needs cutting. I don't know if this oak will tolerate top work and cutting a major tap root.

Thanks, I definitely have my suspicions that will be the case. Would roots be something to address before top work/at all? I had been thinking this tree might be better appreciated as a landscape tree somewhere. Cheers.

 

[Gabler]

Thanks, I definitely have my suspicions that will be the case. Would roots be something to address before top work/at all? I had been thinking this tree might be better appreciated as a landscape tree somewhere. Cheers.

Other species of oak respond well to root pruning when they are young, so I would hazard a guess that this tree would likewise respond well.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

One trick I used to reduce tap roots on oak is to girdle them with thick wire. Three rows thick.
They will break zip ties.
Girdle, put back in a pot for three years. They'll produce new roots above the girdle and they don't have to deal with the sudden loss of a major root. Instead they can ease into it.