Oak
Quercus
A tree measured in decades rather than seasons — twenty meters of canopy, and it needs every bit of the room.
Spacing & sowing
- Plant spacing
- 39 ft 4 in
- In-row spacing
- 39 ft 4 in
- Between rows
- 49 ft 3 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
Growing
- Type
- Tree · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Sunlight
- Full sun, with enough open ground for a broad canopy.
- Watering
- Water while young; a settled oak finds its own water in dry years.
- Feeding
- All-purpose balanced
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Pruning
- Light winter cuts only, and never top a mature tree.
Through the year
- Mar–Nov Bud Break
- Nov–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Mar Leaf Fall
Pests & problems
- Leafrollers Oak tortrix moth caterpillars stripping foliage in late spring
- Powdery mildew Oak powdery mildew on the young leaves
- Oak processionary moth — a notifiable pest, and one to report rather than handle
- Gall wasps, whose galls are cosmetic and need no treatment
- Acute oak decline, showing as dark weeping bark — get professional advice
Garden allies
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Bats ChiropteraHunts Leafrollers
A single bat takes hundreds of moths and mosquitoes in a night, and the moths are the parents of your cutworms, corn earworms and hornworms. Put up a bat box on a warm south wall, leave a night-scented corner unlit, and never spray after dark.
- Parasitic wasps Braconidae & TrichogrammaHunts Leafrollers
Tiny, stingless wasps that lay eggs in or on caterpillars, aphids, and moth eggs — the white cocoons riding a hornworm are their calling card, so leave that caterpillar be. Umbel flowers with shallow nectar keep the adults fuelled.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com