Oak

[MasonC]

Has anyone had some past experience with oak bonsai becuae there is one at a nursery near me that be PERFECT for bonsai. all tips would be great

[kvan64]

Experience - not much but I was working on an Oak stump a couple weeks ago. It is now developing very well. Here is my threat.
viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2193

[MasonC]

i think you mean 'thread'LOL

[kvan64]

haha, my bad. Didn't mean to scare you off. I mean go for it. Good specimen with very hard wood that can be great for jins. leaf size can be reduced and branches can be of good ramification with some training . Quite hardy and grows very vigorously. My stump has over 50 new buds every where since I finished carving the stump. I had to plug them out every 3 to 5 days and only keep the ones that sprout in the right place.

[kvan64]

I found some pics of oak bonsai on the net for your

[Jamie]

there are some nice trees there mate. man they can look good, yours could look as good as that in a few years kvan!

[kvan64]

there are some nice trees there mate. man they can look good, yours could look as good as that in a few years kvan!

Yeah Jamie. Da one in pic no.2 looks just like mine just has more branches

[kcpoole]

This is my English Oak - Quercus Robur

I collected it from where I used to work as just germinated seedling in 1988 from under a large tree outside the office.

I lived in a Unit at the time and kept it in a large pot on the balcony and forgot about it more than looked after it. How it has survived the many drying outs I cannont fathom, but every time i thought i was dead i watered it and it regrew.
This was the tree that first got me interested in Bonsai, adn a freind who was at the school at the time convinced me to join up so I can " do Something with the stump" .

After several years of actually caring for it, it is slowly developing the top part of the tree, and some ramification is starting to develop. Every year for the last 5 when I repotted, I have had an infestation of the blood Curl Grub, but this year I have repotted ito my Diatomite mix so hope the grubs will not get in there. At last I think I will actually be able to grow some decent roots onto it

It has just started to open up into new leaf, so maybe can get a new photo in the morning.
In the meantime here is a progression of it so far

the leaves reduce to quite tiny ones when you try to keep them small
Ken

[Jamie]

there are some nice trees there mate. man they can look good, yours could look as good as that in a few years kvan!

Yeah Jamie. Da one in pic no.2 looks just like mine just has more branches

lol, not far off mate, another ten years might do the trick

and kc, yours is starting to look good, have you thought about airlayering the trunk to get rid of the reverse taper????

[kcpoole]

Thought about doing lots of things, but still undecided. My preferred option would be to hide it with foliage and a bit of an angle change. but will know more in a few years. The reverse is caused by the original trunk dying off in one of its Faux death throes, so is actually in real life quite nice to look at which sorta makes it a hard decision to lose it.

[Jamie]

Thought about doing lots of things, but still undecided. My preferred option would be to hide it with foliage and a bit of an angle change. but will know more in a few years. The reverse is caused by the original trunk dying off in one of its Faux death throes, so is actually in real life quite nice to look at which sorta makes it a hard decision to lose it.

true. in real life trees can look completely different. what i am seeing is a flat image. but on that note a picture also brings out the flaws that the human eyes cant see or dont want to. IMO the trunk shows quite drastic reverse taper. could just be the angle of the shot, shadowing etc. though.
im not saying it needs air layering if thats how you like it then sweet as. just from the pics though i would do and air layer from where the reverse taper begins. ( does that make sense??LOL) that way it would remove that part of the trunk which draws attention to itself (in the picture) and it would give you a much more evenly spread nebari.

but like i said JMO.

regards jamie

[kcpoole]

I have another Oak, which is a Pin Oak - Quercus Palustris.
I collected it several years ago and have done some work to it over the years as well. the leaves are bigger and do not reduce as much, but colour up really well

[Jamie]

now that there KC is some nice progression!

[MelaQuin]

Depends on the oak!! I had a Quercus robur in Sydney and gave it away after two years because I could not keep mildew off the leaves. Mudgee should be fine, hot, cold, dry.... robur should like it there. Other oaks make good bonsai and I note one in Centennial Park in Sydney that has wonderfully textured bark, very small leaves and prodigious acorns but I don't start from scratch and I'm not collecting them. California's live oaks make fantastic bonsai and I often wonder if that is what is in Centennial Park. Leaves so much smaller than Pin, Turkey or Robur.

[anttal63]

miyagi man is who you want to talk to about oaks. an abundance of experience with them.