Anyone fertilize oaks

[hunter Leo]

My oaks havent produced anything the past 2 years so i plan on fertilizing certain clumps of oaks. My friends father said to get lime and triple 15 and do it this winter so it has time to get in the ground then after winter do the trees again. Anyone have any experience with taking care of oaks and if so have had success please share. Thanks!

[Dan O.]

Leo; I would be cautious about using the lime. Oaks are acid loving trees and you could do more harm than good. The triple 15 should help if you inject it around the drip line. Oaks normally don't have good bearing years every year and you may have just been watching on the off years so the crop may increase next year whether you fertilize or not. Overall if you fertilize you'll increase the crop (off year or not) so I'd go for it.

Dan O.

[hunter Leo]

Thanks for the advice Dan. Its been 2 years now that my oaks havent produced. Last year i found some areas that had oaks and i saw deer everyday. This year no one around NY had acorns and niether did the spots my friends hunt in nieghboring VT. I guess its mothernatures way of thinning out animals. Anyone know the acorn cycle that oaks go threw?... i mean its been 2 years of no acorns... should i expect the same next year or even another year after that? I'm only 24 and dont have much experience on oaks production of acorns throughout the years. Either way im gonna fertilize cause if they do produce next year the oaks i do fertilize will have better taisting acorns then all the rest and the deer will know that. I'll talk to some tree nurseries to make sure i dont waiste my time and $$$ and end up killing these mature oaks by fertilizing them wrong.

[Russ otten]

There is one factor that may be causing this result. If you have a late frost, expecially when it occurs during the stage when the acorns should be fertilized. Am not sure how it works, I know some nut trees have catkins that can be killed from a frost at the time. I notice this with our Pecan trees, had a late frost that got two of our3 trees. They had a tendency to flower (if that's the correct word) and the frost got them. Have any other fruiting trees showed a loss of crop?

Russ

[Dan O.]

Page 7 shows some bearing graphs that might help. If you have white oaks you can expect a good crop 1 year in 5.

http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/rp/rp_srs020.pdf

Dan O.

[hunter Leo]

Russ the late frost could be a factor the more i think about it. The past 2 winters here where i live and probably most of the northeast has seen winter drag into the better part of April. In previous years winter shut off at the end of march like a light switch. Our crab-apple trees have not produced the past 2 years also. Our several year old apple trees havent been that great but the honey bees i purchased helped some but the wet ground has killed alot of the trees off. Will fertilizing help the trees withstand the late frost in the spring if it comes again in 2005?
-Dan thanks for the information page.

[Dan O.]

Leo; you can use fertilizer to help make the trees more winter hardy and delay them in the spring but not using the fertilizer that you want to use. You need to use fertilizer high in phosphorous and potash about a month before the first frost and then only use nitrogen sparingly in the spring until all chance of frost is past. Tha analysis would look something like 0-20-20.

If you can't find that type of mix you can buy triple phosphate 0-46-0 and potassium chloride 0-0-60 separately.

Dan O.

[Russ otten]

Dan's suggestion sounds the best. We have used a water hose to wash off any frost on our early garden and some of our small fruit trees before the sun burns them. But that won't work on a 75-100 foot Oak, unlesss you have a fire hose,. LOL