Red Oak

Quick facts

Full sun or part sun · medium water · well-drained soil · 40 ft apart (25 to 70) · direct sow or transplant

Fall sowing is open for 48 more days. Next: spring, Mar 20 to May 22.

1. Direct sow Sep 20 – Nov 8 Open now · 48 days left
   Best timeFall
   About 5 weeks before to 2 weeks after your first frost (Oct 25 here)
   Plant sound acorns an inch or two deep in fall right where you want the tree, protected from squirrels by a screen or wire cage. Red-oak acorns need winter cold to break dormancy and germinate the following spring - do not let them dry out before you sow.
2. Transplant Aug 16 – Sep 27 Closes in 6 days
   Also worksFall
   About 10 weeks before to 4 weeks before your first frost (Oct 25 here)
   Fall planting works in zones 4 and warmer - roots keep growing after leaf drop. In the coldest zones stick to spring, and water any fall-planted oak until the ground freezes.
3. Transplant Mar 20 – May 22 Opens in 180 days
   Best timeSpring
   About 3 weeks before to 6 weeks after your last frost (Apr 10 here)
   Spring is the standard window. Red oak transplants far more readily than white oak thanks to its fibrous roots, which is why it is the usual nursery and street oak - but give it acidic, well-drained soil and plenty of room, and water it through its first summers.

Frost here: last around Apr 10 (Mar 27 to Apr 24 most years), first around Oct 25. Zone averages, your own yard may run a week or two either way.

One stage to settle in, then three that repeat each year. Windows are typical; your zone and weather move them.

1. In the garden, counted from transplant
2. 1

   Years 1-3 - young tree

   The first year after planting

   • WaterWater deeply while establishingweekly
     Water a young red oak deeply and regularly through its first two or three years, especially in drought. Unlike white oak it has a fibrous, spreading root system rather than a deep taproot, which is exactly why it transplants easily and why nurseries and cities plant it - but a newly moved tree still has far less root than canopy for the first few seasons.
   • MulchMulch wide, keep it off the trunk
     A broad mulch ring protects the shallow roots and the thin young bark from mowers and string trimmers and holds moisture. Keep it a few inches back from the bark rather than piling it against the trunk.
   • ProtectGive it room and acidic, well-drained soil
     Red oak becomes a 60-80 foot tree with a broad rounded crown, so site it well away from buildings, pavement, and power lines. It wants slightly acidic, well-drained ground; in high-pH or limestone soils it yellows with chlorosis, and a Shumard or chinkapin oak is the better choice there.
   • ProtectCage it against deer browse and buck rub
     A wire cage or trunk guard around a young oak, left on until the trunk thickens and the canopy is above browse height, prevents both browsing and the autumn antler rubbing that girdles and kills young trees. This is the highest-value thing you can do for a young oak.

   Watch for

   • Deer browsing and autumn buck rub on young trunks
   • Yellow leaves with green veins in alkaline soil (chlorosis)
   • String-trimmer damage to thin young bark
   • Dry soil in the first three summers
3. 2

   Spring & summer canopy

   Apr to Aug, every year

   • ProtectMake NO cuts or wounds from April through July
     This is the one rule that matters most on a red oak. Fresh wounds in spring and early summer attract the sap beetles that carry oak wilt, and the red-oak group is the group the disease kills - an infected red oak can go from healthy to dead in a single season. Do not prune, do not stake into the trunk, and keep mowers and trimmers away. If a storm breaks a limb in this window, paint the wound immediately.
   • InspectA caterpillar nursery - leave the leaves
     Oaks feed more kinds of native caterpillar than any other tree in North America - hundreds of species - and those caterpillars are what nesting songbirds feed their chicks. Expect and welcome some chewed leaves and the occasional gall; most damage is cosmetic and is the point of the tree. Never spray a keystone tree.
   • WaterWater in serious droughtevery 2 weeks
     An established red oak is fairly drought-tolerant, but drought is what turns a survivable problem into a fatal one on this species - a tree stressed by drought or defoliation is the one two-lined chestnut borer kills. Soak the root zone deeply in an extended dry spell, especially on a young tree.

   Watch for

   • ANY wound between April and July - the oak wilt window
   • Sudden wilting and bronzing from the top of the canopy down (oak wilt - act immediately)
   • Caterpillars and galls (mostly harmless and valuable wildlife food)
   • Spongy moth in an outbreak year - buff egg masses on the trunk and near-total defoliation by early July
4. 3

   Acorn drop (fall)

   Sep to Oct, every year

   • HarvestGather acorns (for wildlife, for planting, or leach for food)every 3 days
     A mature tree drops acorns in fall, heavily in periodic 'mast' years. Red-oak acorns take TWO growing seasons to ripen, so a heavy crop this year means the flowers were set the spring before last. Float-test them and discard the floaters. For food, red-oak acorns are far more tannic than white-oak acorns and need much longer leaching: cold-leach in repeated changes of cold water over days for flour, or hot-leach in several changes of boiling water for nutmeat.
   • InspectWatch the wildlife feast - and let some carry over
     Red-oak acorns are higher in fat and tannin than white-oak acorns, so wildlife eats them second - which is exactly their ecological value. They keep on the ground and stay edible into winter, feeding deer, turkeys, squirrels, jays, and woodpeckers through the hungry months after the sweeter white-oak crop is gone. Leaving them is a genuine wildlife harvest.

   Watch for

   • Boom-and-bust mast years (heavy crops every 2-5 years, light between)
   • Weevil-infested acorns (a float test discards them)
   • Acorns on paths and drives - they roll underfoot and are slippery when crushed
   • Dogs eating fallen acorns (a common autumn poisoning)
5. 4

   Fall color & winter dormancy

   Oct to Feb, every year

   • PrunePrune ONLY in winter dormancy
     Prune red oaks only in the dormant season, roughly November through February. Pruning wounds in spring and summer attract the sap beetles that spread oak wilt, and the red-oak group has almost no resistance to it. Save all pruning for the cold months, take out dead and crossing wood then, and paint over any wound you are forced to make in the growing season.
   • InspectDo not move or accept oak firewood
     Oak wilt travels in firewood: fungal mats form under the bark of wood cut from an infected red oak, and beetles carry spores from a stacked pile to a healthy tree. Burn oak firewood where it was cut, and if you have wood from a tree that died suddenly, cover the pile with plastic sealed at the ground until it is fully dry.
   • InspectEnjoy the fall color, then rake the leaves off the lawn
     Red oak turns russet to brilliant scarlet in fall, often better than white oak. The leaves are tough and slow to break down, so rake heavy drifts off lawn - but leave a soft layer of leaf litter in beds and under the canopy, where the caterpillars the tree feeds complete their life cycle in it.

   Watch for

   • Storm damage needing repair - do it now, not in spring
   • Oak firewood arriving from elsewhere (an oak wilt route)
   • Vole and rabbit gnawing at the base of young trunks under snow

Harvest

• Mature tree (20-30+ years) - young oaks do not bear acorns
• Acorns fully brown and dropping in fall, heaviest in periodic 'mast' years
• For food: acorns leached of tannins until no bitterness at all remains - which takes far longer than it does for white oak

• Gather acorns (for wildlife, for planting, or leach for food) · every 3 days
• Watch the wildlife feast - and let some carry over

Picking pick as they ripen

Watch out for

6 to know. 2 are high-risk: Oak Wilt, Spongy Moth. 2 are active in September.

Good & bad neighbors

Varieties · 4

You pick one when you add Red Oak to your garden. Its days to maturity set your harvest window.

• Northern Red Oak (Quercus rubra)

  Zones 3a to 8b

  Broad rounded crown of pointed bristle-tipped lobed leaves turning russet to scarlet; smooth grey striped bark on young trunks.

  speciesnativekeystonefast-growing

  The wild species and the standard planted oak of the Northeast and Midwest: a 60-80 foot rounded shade tree with pointed, bristle-tipped lobed leaves turning russet to brilliant scarlet in fall, smooth grey bark with pale 'ski trail' stripes when young, and large flat-capped acorns that take two seasons to ripen. Fast for an oak, easy to transplant, and tolerant of city soil and road salt - the practical keystone tree for most gardens.

• Shumard Oak (Quercus shumardii)

  Zones 5a to 9b

  Large tree with deeply cut, bristle-tipped leaves turning rich red, and a broad open crown.

  speciesnativesouthernheat-tolerant

  The southern member of the red-oak group and the right substitute wherever northern red oak struggles - the Deep South, hot summers, and above all alkaline or limestone soils where red oak goes chlorotic. It is fast, large, long-lived, tolerant of both heat and periodic wet ground, and carries the same wildlife value with excellent red fall color. A superb street and park tree from Texas to the mid-Atlantic.

• Scarlet Oak (Quercus coccinea)

  Zones 4a to 9a

  Open irregular crown of deeply cut, sharply bristled leaves igniting to brilliant scarlet in late fall.

  speciesnativedry-soilbrilliant-fall-color

  The red-oak-group species for dry, poor, sandy, acidic ground, where it outperforms northern red oak, and the one grown for fall color above all - a genuinely brilliant scarlet that holds late. Its crown is more open and irregular and it is harder to transplant than red oak, so buy a small tree. Excellent on a thin dry upland site; poor on wet or alkaline soil.

• Pin Oak (Quercus palustris)

  Zones 4a to 8b

  Pyramidal tree with fine drooping lower branches and small deeply cut leaves turning bronze-red.

  speciesnativewet-tolerantfast-growing

  The fast, cheap, widely planted red-oak-group species for heavy, wet, poorly drained ground, with a distinctive pyramidal shape and lower branches that sweep down toward the ground. It is worth knowing its two flaws before planting one: it becomes badly chlorotic in any soil above about pH 7, and it is the species most affected by bacterial leaf scorch in the mid-Atlantic. The drooping lower limbs also need clearing over a walk or drive. Good on acidic wet clay, a mistake almost anywhere else.