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Acorns to Oaks!

Loess Hills,

Nice job on those swamp whites. Great roots. The only thing I'd do if you didn't is make sure you remove those nuts from the seedlings at planting. Keeps the critters away.
 
The oaks in the 1gallon rootmaker pots are doing awesome. They've grown so much this year. I've got 6 larger white root trapper bags I'd like to move a few of these into in the next week or so.
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There is one Chinese Chesnut in the mix and it's growing like crazy
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Gobbler Sawtooth Oak
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Red Oak
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The Chinkapin oaks are a little slower growing but they're doing good as well
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The 4 oaks at the bottom of this picture I transplanted from the 18cell root makers to the 1gallon pots a week ago. These oaks were maxed out and almost appeared stressed in the 18cell trays and I wanted to see how they bounced back (or possibly they'll die) once being put into the rootmaker trays. Reason I'm doing this is I've planted a lot of oaks from the 18cell trays to their permanent homes and I'm concerned the ones I've planted lately are too stressed and damaged to bounce back and continue to grow once planted in their permanent homes. I feel like I needed to get them out and in the ground sooner. Time will tell I guess
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when I moved my trees to bigger post all of the leaves turned brown, and some fell off, think I only lost one tree out of around 20 the others r coming back around
 
This weekend I had 7 Root Trapper bags I wanted to put some of the oaks from 1gal pots into.
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Ended up transplanting 2 red oaks, 1 Chinese chestnut, and 4 gobbler sawtooth oaks
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Mixed some potting soil and regular soil together and added some Osmocote Fertilizer in as well
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All of these trees were started from seed this May. Here is what the root system looked like on the chestnut. Notice no root circling in these Root Maker pots
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Gobbler Sawtooth #1
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Gobbler Sawtooth #2
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All potted and done for the year. I'll let them in these bags for another couple years. We'll see how big I can get them before I put them in their permanent homes!
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From left to right - chestnut, gobbler sawtooth, red oak, gobbler sawtooth
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And next to the rest of the trees in 1gal pots.
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I believe three were 5 gal bags and four were 3 gal bags. I had them given to me by a friend from the forum, it just took me a while to put them to use :eek:

I'm not sure Danny. My main goal right now is to see how well I can winter these trees in our unheated shed. Keeping them cold but not too cold and keeping the root from drying out and mice from getting at them. So basically I'm winging it and have no idea how it will work out! :)
 
LHA - how do you plant to keep the roots from freezing too hard this winter?

In the past, I have "heeled" some potted trees in the garden so they had the surrounding ground to insulate them (and simulate actually being in the ground). Other people use wood chips or mulch to insulate the root ball from the cold winter air....but that can invite little critters with it.

I had more trouble with rabbits than mice, but some chicken wire protection solved that issue....are you going to put the window screen around the seedlings to protect from mice?
 
We've got a portion of our machine shed that is unheated, I'm going to keep them there. I'll have to watch the temps in it to make sure it doesn't get too cold or warm. If it gets too cold I guess I'll just loose the trees or I can put them up against the wall that has the heated portion of the shed on the other side. I'm just kinda winging it at this point and more so doing it for fun. If these trees die over the winter, then oh well. :) I'll just try it again next year and then likely heal them in the ground to winter them, that seems like a good way to do it!
 
LHA - sounds like a good plan. I hate losing any "good" tree.... so I do whatever I can to protect them! My buddy thinks I belong in the insane asylum....oh well.
 
LHA,

Do you have a dry spot of ground that you could dig a hole in the ground and plant your rootrapper bags at dirt level? I think your trees will survive better if they are in the ground with 3-4" of mulch and protected with a wire hardware cloth screen surrounding them.

If you keep them inside a garage/barn the roots could still either dry out or freeze. I've heard of far fewer casualties getting them in the ground vs inside. The roots either get frozen or dried out.

Your trees should be able to handle the cold. My winters here in New Hampshire are a lot colder than yours and my oaks have over wintered fine in the ground. Chestnut seedlings will sometimes have some tip dieback. That is because a chestnut will continue growing each year until It's leaves turn brown/yellow. They need to harden off before the cold sets in. In northern climates this can be an issue depending upon when the colder temps strike. In the south it isn't much of an issue.
 
NH Mountains said:
LHA,

Do you have a dry spot of ground that you could dig a hole in the ground and plant your rootrapper bags at dirt level? I think your trees will survive better if they are in the ground with 3-4" of mulch and protected with a wire hardware cloth screen surrounding them.

If you keep them inside a garage/barn the roots could still either dry out or freeze. I've heard of far fewer casualties getting them in the ground vs inside. The roots either get frozen or dried out.

Your trees should be able to handle the cold. My winters here in New Hampshire are a lot colder than yours and my oaks have over wintered fine in the ground. Chestnut seedlings will sometimes have some tip dieback. That is because a chestnut will continue growing each year until It's leaves turn brown/yellow. They need to harden off before the cold sets in. In northern climates this can be an issue depending upon when the colder temps strike. In the south it isn't much of an issue.
Click to expand...

We definitely do... you guys are going to talk me into wintering these things in the ground. Which is more work than I wanted to do but may have to give it a shot! I'll at least keep some of the 1gal pots in the cold part of the shed to see how they do.
 
Here at the nursery we cover all our potted trees with straw and leave them set outside all winter. Never had any problems with rodents or freezing. In the spring when they are ready to wake up, we take the straw away from around the pots. Been doing this for many years.

trev
 
What is the problem if the roots freeze anyway? Educate me. I would have to imagine the majority of the roots freeze out in the "wild" on young trees?

I ran 100 or so potted red maples for a few years. I never protected them and they always woke up fine in the spring. Maybe oaks are more fragile?
 
There's a threshold of temps on roots & moisture issues. If u have "above ground" - your trees are just not going to survive -10 or -20 degrees like we will get sometimes. They get dried out and freeze out. Kinda hard to water above ground trees in winter.
U have many solutions. Not one way to solve this for sure!! I kept mine inside (some may remember pic of filling up 2 garage stalls & even carefully stacking) to pack in around 1,000 or 1,500 trees. What this did..... I was able both: A) keep the temp from getting below about 10-15 degrees. I wanted good freeze but not -20 being above ground in pots. B) Then, at points in winter where we had warm up to say 35-40 degrees or if I took water from house- I could water them so moist. I kept a moisture gauge in garage as well. Zero die off. None.
Outside- u can put them below ground or do a crazy good job of insulating them. With insulating with anything (straw or synthetic means) - u gotta watch for critters as above stated. I have had rabbits eat trees to nothing. Protect in any case some how. Both ways are viable and for sure ups and downs to both and a lot depends on ur space, critter situation, how much work u wanna do, etc. the only times I had die offs was one year I had trees outside above ground in smaller cells.... I was at farms bow hunting & it was -10 for a couple days. Almost every tree died. Lot of ways to get this solved though.
 
That makes sense. Never saw that type of cold in MI. Way more snow but not the extreme cold. Lake Michigan was a huge insulator.... and snow maker. I asked because I have a few hundred pots sitting around and I was thinking about getting something going in.

Thanks.



.
 
Skip gad very good points. The key if you don't bury them is keeping them from getting below 0 and keeping their roots moist but, not too moist. You also need to protect from mice and voles as well as rabbits.

The voles will go along the soil surface under the snow until they hit something. If they hit a tree that is it protected they will stay on that tree eating the bark and eventually girdle it. I'm not sure how you'd protect them in your barn from this? I took 3' high hardware cloth and made a circle around mine that were buried in the ground. That kept them out. I had a maple limb that had broke off that was 10' away. All of the bark was stripped like a beaver would do.

If you're going to keep some above and plant sone I the ground I'd be apt to bury the 1 gallons and keep the larger ones above. The bigger bag may provide more moisture but, also more insulation protection from the cold.

Your trees look good and I'd hate to see you lose them. I've seen more people lose them from keeping them above ground than below.

If you had a backhoe probably 2-3 scoops and you'd be ready. I had to dig mine. I made them in groups of 10 or so. I figure if a critter got in the cage then I would lose the whole lot.
 
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