So I asked for some help from the tree people at the place I bought the tree (Fannin Tree Farms) to help me choose a good shumard red oak and they suggested 3 different options that they thought were good candidates to take home. I ended up liking this one as it seemed to be growing pretty straight and seemed more full than the others, and I THOUGHT it had a central leader, but I think the leaves were covering up the fact that the central leader seemed to have been cut off a long time ago to possibly encourage this branching I'm assuming?
Is this common practice for shumard oaks or did I get swindled? How should I proceed with "shaping" this tree for it to grow the best it can in the future? To top it off, looks like 2 of the main branches in the middle were damaged during transit so they were split in half at some of the joints. Should I remove the entire split branch or will it heal over this damage? I was hoping to keep the branch since removing it will create a large empty spot in the middle right (or left, depending on which side you're looking at) of the tree, but I'm pretty sure the way it's split, I'll have to cut the entire branch off. (I just cut off the bottom piece that was hanging down from the crack for now).
Please, any advice is welcome, I just feel like I screwed up big time in choosing this tree, but hopefully I'm wrong and it's salvageable .
by wikiwakawakawee
4 Comments
Forgot to mention that I bought this tree in the spring when it had all of it’s leaves and didn’t realize all these defects until the leaves fell off in the fall. I meant to post this since then, but am not just getting to it since I started pruning my other trees.
Beautiful tree. Stop over-thinking it. Don’t bother the tree farm anymore and just let it grow.
I would start by choosing 1 leader then reduce all the other competing leaders by 25-50%. You still want them as branches, just not growing upward as leaders.
The broken branch should be too big of a concern, though I would cut it off eventually.
Important for oaks: do not prune during the growing season. Oak wilt is a major issue, though I’m not sure how affected Shumard oaks are by it. I would recommend reading about oak wilt in your area and when to prune before doing anything.
Looks good, dude.
Just cut off dead/broken branches to avoid infection and wait 1 year before pruning