mademesomepie
ArboristSite Lurker
I asked this on Yahoo Answers a couple of days ago, but haven't received any definite answers yet:
"I have two oak seedlings that I removed from my backyard (not enough room for a large tree, much less two) and potted them indoors. The problem is that I find oak species very hard to tell apart while they're seedlings, so I'd like someone here to help me out : ) I also have no oak trees immediately nearby (the nearest ones I know of are at least 150 feet away, and there are both red and pin types. I'm guessing the acorns were buried and luckily forgotten by the many squirrels that live around here in Brooklyn, NY).
Here's the first one:
It just popped up this past spring, and hasn't grown more than an inch in the past two months. I plucked a damaged leaf off a couple of days ago, and the day after, a second set of leaves started budding in the center. Not sure if it's coincidence or consequence.
Here are pictures of the second set of leaves spreading out two days after that first picture was taken:
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And this is what it looked like the first time I saw it back in early May, moments before I plucked it up out of the backyard. It had a very long taproot that extended into this crack, and as I wrestled this tiny thing out of the cement, I heard the root break with a loud snap (I was putting so much force into it that I almost fell backwards on my ass!) :
I found this larger one yesterday growing from just under my neighbour's side of the fence and poking diagonally into mine, hence the stake, which I hope will straighten the plant out as it grows.
It's about a foot tall, so I'm guessing it's in its second year. I've always read about oaks developing really long taproots early on, but this one came up surprisingly easily with a small, round, and fuzzy root ball and what looked like the acorn still attached.
I'm really hoping that at least one of them is a red oak, as I've seen a lot of pin oaks around here with that infamously unfortunate chlorosis."
I also don't want pin oaks because I think they're overly common and somewhat unattractive and weak-looking, at least in comparison to the few reds I see around here. I'm also new to tree identification, so please try not to give me a hard time!
"I have two oak seedlings that I removed from my backyard (not enough room for a large tree, much less two) and potted them indoors. The problem is that I find oak species very hard to tell apart while they're seedlings, so I'd like someone here to help me out : ) I also have no oak trees immediately nearby (the nearest ones I know of are at least 150 feet away, and there are both red and pin types. I'm guessing the acorns were buried and luckily forgotten by the many squirrels that live around here in Brooklyn, NY).
Here's the first one:
It just popped up this past spring, and hasn't grown more than an inch in the past two months. I plucked a damaged leaf off a couple of days ago, and the day after, a second set of leaves started budding in the center. Not sure if it's coincidence or consequence.
Here are pictures of the second set of leaves spreading out two days after that first picture was taken:
And this is what it looked like the first time I saw it back in early May, moments before I plucked it up out of the backyard. It had a very long taproot that extended into this crack, and as I wrestled this tiny thing out of the cement, I heard the root break with a loud snap (I was putting so much force into it that I almost fell backwards on my ass!) :
I found this larger one yesterday growing from just under my neighbour's side of the fence and poking diagonally into mine, hence the stake, which I hope will straighten the plant out as it grows.
It's about a foot tall, so I'm guessing it's in its second year. I've always read about oaks developing really long taproots early on, but this one came up surprisingly easily with a small, round, and fuzzy root ball and what looked like the acorn still attached.
I'm really hoping that at least one of them is a red oak, as I've seen a lot of pin oaks around here with that infamously unfortunate chlorosis."
I also don't want pin oaks because I think they're overly common and somewhat unattractive and weak-looking, at least in comparison to the few reds I see around here. I'm also new to tree identification, so please try not to give me a hard time!