Trunk chop?

[Kane_]

Hello

I purchased the pictured oak last summer.
My intention is to chop it quite short as the trunk seems reasonable.
As you can see there is no foliage toward the base: will the tree just die if I leave no foliage on the tree, or will it ‘back-bud’? And shoot out some new branches.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated

 

[19Mateo83]

if you chop it hard now chances are it will not make it. For drastic chops it is best to wait for spring before it leafs out. You can however chop out the apex (red cut line) above a few branches and see if that causes it to back bud lower down the trunk. Just make sure you seal your cuts with a pruning sealer.

 

[Paradox]

If you want a bigger trunk, let it grow. Chopping now will greatly slow down trunk thickening.

Also as Mateo says, timing is wrong

 

[Kane_]

Thanks for you’re speedy replies. Timing was going to be my next question. *puts branch cutters down*
this thing looks to a big ol’ ugly tap root too, would you advise not trunk chopping and hard pruning of the tap root at the same time, and if not, which operation do you think would be wise to perform first?

thanks again

 

[19Mateo83]

With oaks a hard prune of the tap root can kill it, i would do it over the course of several repottings. Take a little bit off each time and allow the rest of the roots to pick up the slack. It’s going to take a while to get this guy into a shallow pot. As mentioned before, if you want to thicken the trunk fast any trunk cutting will really slow it down.

 

[Kane_]

With oaks a hard prune of the tap root can kill it, i would do it over the course of several repottings. Take a little bit off each time and allow the rest of the roots to pick up the slack. It’s going to take a while to get this guy into a shallow pot. As mentioned before, if you want to thicken the trunk fast any trunk cutting will really slow it down.

Awesome. Thank you for your advice, much appreciated.

 

[Cajunrider]

With oaks a hard prune of the tap root can kill it, i would do it over the course of several repottings. Take a little bit off each time and allow the rest of the roots to pick up the slack. It’s going to take a while to get this guy into a shallow pot. As mentioned before, if you want to thicken the trunk fast any trunk cutting will really slow it down.

My two live oaks I did the tap root chop in two stages. I left 5" of tap root as measure from the bottom of the root ball after collection. The next repot I cut the rest off after the trees developed smaller side roots.

 

[yashu]

Just curious if anyone has tried the “washer” method with the tap root on oaks? Drop the tap root down through the hole of an appropriately sized washer and replant. Let the tree prune the tap root off as it grows.

 

[Cajunrider]

Just curious if anyone has tried the “washer” method with the tap root on oaks? Drop the tap root down through the hole of an appropriately sized washer and replant. Let the tree prune the tap root off as it grows.

I never tried. The oaks I dug up has tap roots that are 2" thick. I know I can find 2" washer but I never bothered to do that.

 

[yashu]

iIRC it was a precursor technique to applying the Ebihara method to enhance the nebari. I would assume to create a flatter surface to affix the bottom of the trunk to the board without the trauma of just chopping the tap root.