My special Oak Tree

This Oak tree was transplanted about 20 years ago, it was set between two conifers which had been planted a few years before. I have kept it pruned to remove side branches and encourage it to grow upwards. Oak trees grown in the open are usually very bushy, to get straight trunks you have to grow them in a forest. The trunk of this one is straight for about 5 metres.

The tools I used are leaning against the conifer. A Wolf Grecian Saw and a Wolf Tree Lopper. The longest handle that wolf make is 3 metres, so I made my own (total length over 4 metres). I also use it for picking apples with a Wolf fruit picker.

www.erowell.co.uk/Amphot/Peters_Oak.JPG

 

Very unusual, but sorry Larkshall, I prefer the more natural shape.

 

When you cut off the side branches did you cut it flush with the trunk or did you leave a stub? Forestry practise now is to leave a stub. This is then dead wood but if you cut flush with the trunk there is more risk that you get rot into the main trunk.
Personally I would have left more side branches on. The more leaves then the faster it will grow. If you have one main shoot upwards that will be OK. But you can then gradually raise the crown.

 

I think there is also an idea that the trunk thickens quicker with some lower branches left on.
Your in danger of the top getting snapped off in a gale, if it was in a forest growing up to the light it would have wind protection from the other trees.

 

I am not really perturbed about the top getting snapped off. Our garden is in a hollow with a 20 foot high hedge on the west side. The only tree which has been damaged by the wind was an apple tree with a partly rotten branch (got damaged when loaded with apples, so it might not have been the wind). It has grown on average, over a foot per year. It is now about 30 feet high. I can't make up my mind whether to fell the two nearest conifers or not.

 

What are the conifers?

 

The conifers are cupressus, probably macrocarpa varieties. Now that the Oak is way above them I don't think they are any threat. There shouldn't be any competition for water either, as the Oak is deep rooted and the conifers shallow rooted.