"McGerm" wrote in message
ps.com...
Thank you...

I just sprayed 6 three foot circles with Roundup for the four red oaks
I put in my picture and two of the other 6 white oaks I got to sprout.
The white oaks are from Chestnut Oak acorns from the park across town.
I will see if anyone at work wants the other 4.

I don't quite understand about the Roundup unless you have something
invasive where you are going to plant them. I assume you mean you
sprayed in anticipation of planting? Good luck with finding homes for
the other ones.

I plan on doing no amending just digging down 18" or so to loosen
things. I plan on building up a ring of soil, using tree shelters and
putting down 2" of hardwood mulch.

Sound OK...

I'm by no means an expert, and can't do heavy planting any more (yours
aren't heavy planting), but when I did set out my trees from the
nursery, I mixed what came out of the hole with some kind of fertilizer
in a large container, can't remember what, and filled the hole with
that, wasn't into mulch like I am now, but that is a must. Two inches
is about right. Be sure to mound up the soil in a little circle a way
out (not too high) to channel the water. Water well before planting,
after planting, and frequently thereafter until the roots take hold and
deepen but not excessively. Some of these darn things have such a will
to live you don't have to do much of anything; other things you have to
pamper. A friend told me about cypress mulch which I like the looks of
(only I wish it weren't quite so chunky but that keeps it from degrading
I suppose), and arborday.org says in their planting instructions not to
let the mulch touch the bark at the base of the little trees. There,
I've told you all I know and there's more than one way of doing it, I'm
sure.

Still want to know if anyone thinks that hybrids may be possible.

That is an interesting question, you will need an expert for that.
Certain plants will only cross with certain plants within their own
species and that's the way it is. Still lots of things are possible.
They might need some gene splicing to cross, I have no clue. Be fun to
try, but then how would you know if you have gotten a true cross or a
mutation (probably rare in trees but I've seen a few strange things with
other plants)?

Good luck with your little trees. It is truly a labor of love. You
watched so long and waited. I did the same with a Linden tree I wanted,
asked permission from the city to try to root some suckers, had no clue
what I was doing, thought a growth bud started to swell on my kitchen
windowsill, then I got busy with other things and it died. So I bought
a Linden tree and had it planted on the farm to mark uh my cat's grave.

If I feel like driving, I can take mine to the farm and plant them, but
I did that before and couldn't get back to water them, only thing that
survived was a yellow lilac. Trees are not real welcome there because
of the extra work and they want every square inch of tillable ground
free of them.

I wish I had more room; my yard is rather small for my big plans and
schemes.




Jim

These oaks are just an aside for me, my true plant love is/are
orchids.
http://home.earthlink.net/~mkmolchan/Orchids/images/Mormodesdressleri.jpg
Mormodes dressleri