oak whips

[corco2000]

Hello my first post. love the for um.

Last season i planted 3500 whips mostly oak.

Today i was replacing trees that didnt survive or

damaged for many reasons. not many to

replace really 100 maybe.

But the replacement whips are all straight as an arrow

compared to what was planted last season.

There isnt one true trunk so to say.

Is this a concern or do whips straighten as they grow

thicken?

I will try post picturles to easily explain.

[spandit]

I can't see the problem - are you saying the whips are too straight?

[corco2000]

No.im think in 80 years time you get more

money for straight trunk not branch wood...

So im asking...in the lower picture oak that is

planted has a sort stumpy trunk.

The whips in a bunch are on groind are nice

long straight trunk.will this mean they will

mature better. or do they both catch up

if managed correctly?

I hope i explain that correctly.

I just thaught whips on grond in bunch looks

a superior tree?

Thanks again

[spandit]

I would have thought that close spaced, well managed trees will grow straight whereas widely spaced ones are more likely to bend. I suspect the original shape of the whips doesn't make much difference

[woodyguy]

Many oak will lose their leader most years. The next bud down takes over and they eventually grow fairly straight. Non-native oaks like Red or Turkey have a very dominant leader and grow very straight. Native oaks are often less straight.

[corco2000]

Thank you for replies.anwsers my query.

[codlasher]

Pedunculate (Robur) oak are rather more wibbly when growing.

Sessile (Petraea) are straighter.

Both grow into big trees in the end!]

codlasher

[woodyguy]

And local provenance will make them vary hugely. That's why many tree nurseries offer special selected quality stock and that there are national programmes to produce straight growing oaks. I rather like my wobbly local oaks though.

[Crazy Cutter]

The multi stemmed oak has been headed back I guess in the nursery or has been eaten off then regrown. It makes no difference to straightness it's how close they are together and whether usually they have a nurse species growing with them. Also as said provenance and whether the oak you have bought like the soil two parents growing on sand will not produce children that like clay. That said the FC is now recommending planting trees from North France as those being planted now are not going to enjoy the warmth in 140 years time.

[wrsni]

I had roughly 2,500 oaks in my planting area, mostly pedunculate but several hundred sessile within that. Noticed at the time that the sessiles were a bit scraggly whereas the pedunculates were very straight but many of them nipped off with side shoots, like your second photo.

 

Run lots of things through in my mind about it at the time as to how it happened, how detrimental it would be to the development of everything both long and short term, should I be refusing them as sub-standard, how would you manage them in future, etc,etc. But now two years later, I'm not bothered in the slightest, as long as they live they'll be grand, and happily the vast majority of them have so far.

 

I imagine the only person it should annoy would be someone who wants perfectly straight lines of perfectly straight vertical trees for whatever reason.