Yes, such important points. One of my naturalist assignments helped me understand the necessity of Oregon White Oaks and a local subspecies of Nuthatches, the Slim billed White breasted Nuthatch. Thank you for doing such good work here! Btw, I'm down the homestretch with the naturalist program with one more assignment and the final exam over the next couple of weeks. Then it's onwards with field work. Take good care and have a safe and happy holiday this week.
I'm having a hard time thinking what activety would be more worthwhile at this exact moment than digging up all the volunteer young oaks and planting them in the northern edge of our orchard! I like the airprune beds too. I use them myself. What an amazing difference in root systems. Keep up all the great content!
One humble suggestion for you - keep the maps of where the plants grow, but use one of your great photos of your local trees as your cover photo. I think it might catch more eyes. And eyes lead to minds which lead to hands and trees in the ground. And we need a whole lot more of that!
Very informative. I live in Iowa and I have planted Pin Oak and Red Oak in my yard. In 24 years the Pin Oaks are 60 ft tall and the Red Oaks 40 ft or so. I also have 12 1/2 acres of mixed trees including White, Red and Burr Oak, planted in 2000 and 2001.
We have a lot of red oak on this farm that's being blighted by mycelium. Canopy looks good, but the trees are falling over because they're rotting from fhe roots up. Awesome firewood but also heartbreaking to see to much standing deadwood on the land.
This is why I make sure to harvest seed from trees that are disease free OR are surrounded by disease and were capable of fighting through it to produce a crop.
I must contend Quercus bicolor, Swamp White Oak, arguably more of a bio regional eco habitat anchor then a couple species you have included. It is the species of the oaks Savannah in the higher latitudes of its existence.
That said, this is an amazing collection of brilliant and thoughtful. Thank you so much !!!
Neighbor had a mature white oak on his property, cut it down to put in a swimming pol. Which is rarely used. Revenge of the murdered tree: it sent up a baby on our side of the boundary, very near where its parent had lived for decades? Centuries?(this land having been farmed from about 1700 to 1986).
Functionally extinct and full extinct are different things. There are still sites across the eastern US where old roots will send up stump sprouts but they eventually meet their demise with the blight.
I have seen a few people as of late claim to have blight free American chestnuts and I’m inclined to believe them but who knows.
Did you know they used to ship them by railcar?
People in Appalachia would go searching and sell them to a supplier so they could be shipped to the bigger cities (New York Philly etc)
I planted a bunch of red oak acorns last month. Hoping the upstate New York winter keeps em cold enough to sprout in spring. I also have a bunch in fridge which I’ll plant in spring. Is that a good plan? First year doing this!
Thanks for asking, I'm not one of those people who attach a important sounding name to something as common as 'Gardener'. But I 'm also someone that has learned from years of experience(45+) not to downplay or be to humble about what I do & love. Semi- Retired now but as gardening service I provide all the chores my customers who are also more than a little interested in gardening are unable to do because of jobs or 'bad backs'. Weeding,edging, pruning,planting,mulching when needed. You know the typical stuff. Have a extensive knowledge of ornamental plants for a home garden & proper care of them. I'm trying to be brief which is hard for me (ask my wife) since I like talking about things that excite and interest me. My most annoying quality is when I correct a customer who'll ask "Do I need more dirt for this part of the shade garden" & my answer is "Dirt is what you get under your finger nails,you mean soil". Just to suffice to say I know what I'm doing.
I wish I’d been hip enough 7+ years ago to harvest acorns from the enormous oak which graced my old yard, would love to raise up new generations from that old beauty.
Anyway 👍🏻 I’m happy with voting in either space really!
You have truly wrapped your head around ecology, inappropriate footprint for the privilege of stewarding land and the concept of allowing the environment to determine your projects and passion. Not you imposing your wishes on the environment. You are an old soul. I refuse to believe the first time Spirit and this time space continuous as that amount of understanding
! 😂😜
As a generational economic opportunity, I see the strategic and well thawed out planting of black walnut legitimate sustainable practice for various capital acquisition. Liquid capital, taking care of you only sell to the final end user of the product and functional capital of making gorgeous and long last Items that improve our lives. Both functionally can aesthetically.
If there are the correct environmental spaces to do so, bold Cypress is amazing product. Using it as capital gains device requires a specific environment and more than likely, far more land.
Excellent topic on the Oaks as keystone species. One oak is an entire habitat.
It truly is! Without oaks, I believe a lot of our already declining avian species would cease to exist.
Chickadees need something like 500 caterpillars a day for over 2 weeks to raise a brood.
One of my favorite nature sounds are the birds singing their song so I’m doing what I can, where I can, how I can to help my friends.
Good to hear from you Heidi. I hope the naturalist program is going well.
Yes, such important points. One of my naturalist assignments helped me understand the necessity of Oregon White Oaks and a local subspecies of Nuthatches, the Slim billed White breasted Nuthatch. Thank you for doing such good work here! Btw, I'm down the homestretch with the naturalist program with one more assignment and the final exam over the next couple of weeks. Then it's onwards with field work. Take good care and have a safe and happy holiday this week.
Awesome. Thanks Heidi. Same to you.
I'm having a hard time thinking what activety would be more worthwhile at this exact moment than digging up all the volunteer young oaks and planting them in the northern edge of our orchard! I like the airprune beds too. I use them myself. What an amazing difference in root systems. Keep up all the great content!
One humble suggestion for you - keep the maps of where the plants grow, but use one of your great photos of your local trees as your cover photo. I think it might catch more eyes. And eyes lead to minds which lead to hands and trees in the ground. And we need a whole lot more of that!
What are air prune beds?
A raised garden built out of 2x8-2x12 with hardware cloth bottoms.
Here’s a useful video on the topic https://youtu.be/sO5ETzQqttg?si=xZFnI1jl3shj8KR_
There is nothing more rewarding, at least in my mind.
That’s a great suggestion Brett! I will remember that for next week because methinks you’re line of thinking makes sense!
Thank you! 🙏
Very informative. I live in Iowa and I have planted Pin Oak and Red Oak in my yard. In 24 years the Pin Oaks are 60 ft tall and the Red Oaks 40 ft or so. I also have 12 1/2 acres of mixed trees including White, Red and Burr Oak, planted in 2000 and 2001.
That’s awesome Elisabeth! I bet the wildlife love your place.
We have a lot of red oak on this farm that's being blighted by mycelium. Canopy looks good, but the trees are falling over because they're rotting from fhe roots up. Awesome firewood but also heartbreaking to see to much standing deadwood on the land.
Blighted by mycelium? This is a new issue that I’ll have to look into further.
That sounds like a tragedy. Hopefully the standing deadwood will make good hotels for the wildlife until they meet their final demise.
So sad to hear my friend. I feel for you.
Sorry I may have misspoken. It's a fungal issue.
https://forestpathology.org/wilts/oak-wilt/
Oh man, I’ve heard of oak wilt.
That’s tough to deal with.
This is why I make sure to harvest seed from trees that are disease free OR are surrounded by disease and were capable of fighting through it to produce a crop.
So sad.
I wish your article had discussed the numerous West-coast and Western montane Oaks.
I focus on things that I’ll be growing in my zone 6b nursery.
I predominantly focus on plants native to my region.
Great information! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks Anthem! I really appreciate it. Thanks for stopping by! 🙏
I must contend Quercus bicolor, Swamp White Oak, arguably more of a bio regional eco habitat anchor then a couple species you have included. It is the species of the oaks Savannah in the higher latitudes of its existence.
That said, this is an amazing collection of brilliant and thoughtful. Thank you so much !!!
You’re welcome Hudson. I appreciate the kind words my friend. 🙏
Kind of words? When I say you're awesome and inspiring, that is reality. I'm just an umpire. Call 'em as I see 'em.
(i'm trying to maintain plausible deniability of non-bias here)
Try to keep up ....😜🤣😆😂
Go be awesome today! In other words, go be yourself. 🫵💪✌️
My man! I appreciate that!
I love this!
Thanks Hudson. I appreciate it! 🙏
Me too ! 😉💪
Neighbor had a mature white oak on his property, cut it down to put in a swimming pol. Which is rarely used. Revenge of the murdered tree: it sent up a baby on our side of the boundary, very near where its parent had lived for decades? Centuries?(this land having been farmed from about 1700 to 1986).
This is really wonderful. I just heard about it last week here in Tennessee.
Thank you for the reply.. Did the chestnut tree here get blight from a Chinese beetle? I am enjoying you Substack and learning a lot.
Thanks for the kind words!
I do my best to compile useful information for folks. It does my heart good to know people are excited by the same things that excite me! 😌
The blight is thought to have been brought over in association with Chinese chestnut trees (Castanea Mollissima).
My apologies but what did you just hear about?
Tennessee has successfully matured the Chestnut tree which went extinct in 1979 (I believe that was the date off the top of my head)
The Chestnut trees here were used for everything….
Functionally extinct and full extinct are different things. There are still sites across the eastern US where old roots will send up stump sprouts but they eventually meet their demise with the blight.
I have seen a few people as of late claim to have blight free American chestnuts and I’m inclined to believe them but who knows.
Did you know they used to ship them by railcar?
People in Appalachia would go searching and sell them to a supplier so they could be shipped to the bigger cities (New York Philly etc)
No love for the Southern Live oak? Quersus virginiana
No love in this newsletter as I don’t currently have any access to a mature producing specimen.
I try to forage my seed as much as possible so I discussed the 4 species I had access to in addition to chestnut oak that I bought in.
I’d love to cover every oak, just not sure how many people would thumb through that lengthy of a newsletter. 😅
Thanks for the reply. I can send you all the acorns you want next fall. I might have to fight the fox squirrels for some of them, however.
I have red oaks and collected a lot of acorns this year. I need to learn how to propagate them. I am so excited I found this. omg.
Red oaks need a period of cold treatment before they sprout.
White oaks will sprout the same spring they fall.
Glad you’re here! 🎉
I planted a bunch of red oak acorns last month. Hoping the upstate New York winter keeps em cold enough to sprout in spring. I also have a bunch in fridge which I’ll plant in spring. Is that a good plan? First year doing this!
Sounds like just as good of a plan as any!! 👍🏼
lol I meant same autumn that they fall. Acorns don’t drop in the spring. 😆🤦🏻♂️
The mighty oak forces us to stand back and look!
Thanks for this information being a professional gardener I have always appreciated Oaks and much more after tray this post.
Why thank you TJ!
They are truly awe-inspiring as a species, especially when you stumble upon a big’n.
A professional gardener you say? That’s an interesting job title!
What all do you do as a professional gardener? That sounds like my dream job! 😅
Thanks for asking, I'm not one of those people who attach a important sounding name to something as common as 'Gardener'. But I 'm also someone that has learned from years of experience(45+) not to downplay or be to humble about what I do & love. Semi- Retired now but as gardening service I provide all the chores my customers who are also more than a little interested in gardening are unable to do because of jobs or 'bad backs'. Weeding,edging, pruning,planting,mulching when needed. You know the typical stuff. Have a extensive knowledge of ornamental plants for a home garden & proper care of them. I'm trying to be brief which is hard for me (ask my wife) since I like talking about things that excite and interest me. My most annoying quality is when I correct a customer who'll ask "Do I need more dirt for this part of the shade garden" & my answer is "Dirt is what you get under your finger nails,you mean soil". Just to suffice to say I know what I'm doing.
You don’t have to be brief with me TJ! You may have met your match. 😆
Thanks for the explanation. It sounds like you stay pretty busy!
I’m sure your customers are blessed to have you.
Thanks & I've been blessed to have them, especially the picky ones they keep me on my toes. Look forward reading your post. Happy Thanksgiving 🦃
Thanks for reading.
Happy Thanksgiving to you as well.
Just remember calories don’t count on the holidays! 😆
We love you oaks! 🤎
I wish I’d been hip enough 7+ years ago to harvest acorns from the enormous oak which graced my old yard, would love to raise up new generations from that old beauty.
Anyway 👍🏻 I’m happy with voting in either space really!
That would’ve been real cool to raise the babies of that ol oak in your backyard.
This is a brilliant article !
You have truly wrapped your head around ecology, inappropriate footprint for the privilege of stewarding land and the concept of allowing the environment to determine your projects and passion. Not you imposing your wishes on the environment. You are an old soul. I refuse to believe the first time Spirit and this time space continuous as that amount of understanding
! 😂😜
As a generational economic opportunity, I see the strategic and well thawed out planting of black walnut legitimate sustainable practice for various capital acquisition. Liquid capital, taking care of you only sell to the final end user of the product and functional capital of making gorgeous and long last Items that improve our lives. Both functionally can aesthetically.
If there are the correct environmental spaces to do so, bold Cypress is amazing product. Using it as capital gains device requires a specific environment and more than likely, far more land.
Quercus, Man! The genus that built so-called civilization.
There were 13,000 oak trees used in the construction of the original Cathedral of Notre Dame.
Self-righteous jerk wads can't justify an entire forest into there place of worship.
Ohhhh! Different conversation.....🙈😬