Length of tap root on an oak tree?
 

I've got some acorns soaking in water and I'm starting to see some
action. Now I'm trying to figure out how big of a pot to put them in.
In the spring they will be planted in the ground.

How long of a tap root do these babies make? Or how deep should the pot
be?

Thanks for your help.

Length of tap root on an oak tree?
 

"Bruce W.1" wrote in message
...
I've got some acorns soaking in water and I'm starting to see
some
action. Now I'm trying to figure out how big of a pot to put
them in.
In the spring they will be planted in the ground.

How long of a tap root do these babies make? Or how deep
should the pot
be?

Thanks for your help.

Any standard nursery pot will be fine. Use a soil that drains
well. Dunno where you live, but unless you live in an arid (or
very windy) clime, trees don't "need" a taproot, and many trees
will lose theirs after the seedling stage. Most of the useful
roots of a tree are within the first few inches of the soil
surface.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Nature
encourages no looseness, pardons no errors. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Length of tap root on an oak tree?
 

they got really long tap roots. I would try packing some 12" pieces of PVC with dirt
and plant in that. then the dirt can just slip out without disturbing the tap root.
Ingrid

"Bruce W.1" wrote:

I've got some acorns soaking in water and I'm starting to see some
action. Now I'm trying to figure out how big of a pot to put them in.
In the spring they will be planted in the ground.

How long of a tap root do these babies make? Or how deep should the pot
be?

Thanks for your help.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

Length of tap root on an oak tree?
 

"Bruce W.1" wrote:

I've got some acorns soaking in water and I'm starting to see some
action. Now I'm trying to figure out how big of a pot to put them in.
In the spring they will be planted in the ground.

How long of a tap root do these babies make? Or how deep should the pot
be?

Thanks for your help.

It depends on the variety of oak and the environment where you
will plant it.

In 1976, I sprouted acorns from valley white oak (Quercus lobata),
potted them, and then finally moved one of them into the ground.
This tree has a very deep taproot when mature. Also, it cannot
survive where the soil is wet in the summer (e.g., in a garden).
So I pruned the taproot when I moved it from a small pot into a
larger one. The resulting growth of spreading roots made the tree
more adaptive to being watered in a garden.

The tree is now taller than my 2-story house and has dropped
acorns of its own. Two saplings from my oak are now in 5 gallon
cans awaiting planting at a new community center.

For details, see my
http://www.rossde.com/garden/garden_oak_acorn.html.

--

David E. Ross
http://www.rossde.com/

I use Mozilla as my Web browser because I want a browser that
complies with Web standards. See http://www.mozilla.org/.

Length of tap root on an oak tree?
 

I would suggest that you prune the tap root of your seedlings. Seedlings
with tap roots are difficult to manage in pots because the tap root is
forced to grow horizontally rather than vertically. Seedlings with an
intact tap root have a high mortality when transplanted because the tap root
is all they have and if that is damaged they are essentially rootless.
Curled tap roots from potted plants usually have to be pruned to prevent
root strangulation of the seedling so you can't win there either.

When I grow oak seedlings to use as grafting stock I grow them in tall
narrow pots with no bottom. The tap root grows out of the bottom of the pot
and is 'air pruned', i.e. the portion of the root that is exposed to the
atmosphere is killed.

When the tap root is pruned the seedling will develop a fiberous root system
and transplantation is trouble free.

You can also manually prune the tap root and get the same results.

--beeky

Bruce W.1 wrote:

I've got some acorns soaking in water and I'm starting to see some
action. Now I'm trying to figure out how big of a pot to put them in.
In the spring they will be planted in the ground.

How long of a tap root do these babies make? Or how deep should the pot
be?

Thanks for your help.

Length of tap root on an oak tree?
 

"Bruce W.1" wrote:

I've got some acorns soaking in water and I'm starting to see some
action. Now I'm trying to figure out how big of a pot to put them in.
In the spring they will be planted in the ground.

How long of a tap root do these babies make? Or how deep should the pot
be?

Thanks for your help.

It depends on the variety of oak and the environment where you
will plant it.

In 1976, I sprouted acorns from valley white oak (Quercus lobata),
potted them, and then finally moved one of them into the ground.
This tree has a very deep taproot when mature. Also, it cannot
survive where the soil is wet in the summer (e.g., in a garden).
So I pruned the taproot when I moved it from a small pot into a
larger one. The resulting growth of spreading roots made the tree
more adaptive to being watered in a garden.

The tree is now taller than my 2-story house and has dropped
acorns of its own. Two saplings from my oak are now in 5 gallon
cans awaiting planting at a new community center.

For details, see my
http://www.rossde.com/garden/garden_oak_acorn.html.

--

David E. Ross
http://www.rossde.com/

I use Mozilla as my Web browser because I want a browser that
complies with Web standards. See http://www.mozilla.org/.

Length of tap root on an oak tree?
 

I would suggest that you prune the tap root of your seedlings. Seedlings
with tap roots are difficult to manage in pots because the tap root is
forced to grow horizontally rather than vertically. Seedlings with an
intact tap root have a high mortality when transplanted because the tap root
is all they have and if that is damaged they are essentially rootless.
Curled tap roots from potted plants usually have to be pruned to prevent
root strangulation of the seedling so you can't win there either.

When I grow oak seedlings to use as grafting stock I grow them in tall
narrow pots with no bottom. The tap root grows out of the bottom of the pot
and is 'air pruned', i.e. the portion of the root that is exposed to the
atmosphere is killed.

When the tap root is pruned the seedling will develop a fiberous root system
and transplantation is trouble free.

You can also manually prune the tap root and get the same results.

--beeky

Bruce W.1 wrote:

I've got some acorns soaking in water and I'm starting to see some
action. Now I'm trying to figure out how big of a pot to put them in.
In the spring they will be planted in the ground.

How long of a tap root do these babies make? Or how deep should the pot
be?

Thanks for your help.