How much does an oak tree grow in 1 year?

How quickly can an oak tree grow to form a beautiful crown?

For placement near the home, oak is a reliable tree due to its hard wood, although its roots can rot if poisoned by any toxic substance. Therefore, in general, if any tree dries out near buildings, you should not wait long, but should be cut down immediately.

An oak tree grows from a sapling into a tall beauty faster than you might think. Biologists believe that in nature oak grows for only 18–25 days a year , this happens in May–June, after which everything that has managed to grow during this time (shoots approximately 10–25 cm long) slowly matures, preparing welcome winter. However, when applying nitrogen-containing fertilizers, such as slurry or grass fertilizer, the growth period of young oak trees is greatly extended, and over the summer they give growth of 70 cm or more (you just need to remember that oak easily gets powdery mildew, so there is a reasonable limit in adding easily digestible there should still be fertilizers).

The first couple of years after planting, the oak tree will “sway,” and then its growth rate will be comparable to the growth of the apple tree. Thus, a well-planted “nest” of oak trees will quickly acquire a lush shape. You just need to take into account that oak is a difficult-to-establish plant and does not tolerate transplantation well, so you need to plant a lot of seedlings at once, with the expectation that only a few of them will grow well.

The giant oak tree in France, in the hollow of which there is a room with a bench carved directly into the body of the oak tree, is more than two thousand years old. It is precisely because of their age and gigantic size that many oaks have become relics of cities and nations and are under protection. The Tsar Oak, the Kaiser's Oak, the 600-year-old Oak, the Chapel Oak, the Master's Oak have legends about each of them.

Oak is hardy and unpretentious, but despite these properties,
oaks do not grow in South America and Australia; in Africa they are found only along the Mediterranean coast.
In Russia, English oak grows with two varieties: summer oak and winter oak, differing in flowering time. Mongolian oak grows in the Far East and Amur region. Sessile oak grows on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was customary to decorate the clearings in front of the landowner's house with oaks; oaks were grown in palace and manor parks. Sometimes oak trees are planted to green cities; recently, gardeners have also begun to pay attention to this wonderful plant. Hence the logical question - how many years does an oak tree grow until the moment when it allows you to admire its beauty and grace?

How do oak trees grow?

Oak

(Quercus) is a genus of deciduous or evergreen trees of the beech family.
The leaves are alternate, simple, pinnately divided, lobed, toothed, sometimes entire. ... Oak grows
slowly, at first (up to 80 years) - stronger in height, later - in thickness. Typically forms a deep tap root system.

Interesting materials:

How long does ceramic last on a car? How long does the polar night last? How long can you keep lenses in the solution? How long can you take Dexalgin? How long can you take beet juice? How long should I wear compression garments after mammoplasty? How long does it take for a tree peony to grow? How long do peonies take to grow? How long does it take for the crust to go off after permanent eyebrow makeup? How long does smoothness last after sugaring?

Conditions for successful oak growing

Oak is distinguished by a huge variety (up to 600) species. They are common in the temperate and tropical zones of the northern hemisphere, even reaching the north of South America. Many species are forest-forming species, others occur as admixtures. Their requirements for growing conditions are very different from each other.

Among them there are both moisture-loving and drought-resistant, light-loving and shade-tolerant, tolerating fairly low temperatures and very heat-loving species. Oak trees can be evergreen and deciduous, and their leaves are entire, serrated, more or less lobed.

Occasionally oak grows as a bush, some species are low trees, most species are powerful giants with a spherical crown, powerful trunks and a root system that is highly developed both in depth and in width. Staminate or pistillate flowers are found in different inflorescences. The fruit is an acorn surrounded by a plus, covered with scales on the outside. Oak trees reproduce by acorns sown in the fall, as they quickly lose their germination capacity. For spring sowing, they must be stored at a temperature of 2-4 C. Oak can also be propagated by cuttings, but they have a low rooting percentage. In the first year of life, the tap root that forms makes replanting difficult, so to obtain a developed fibrous root system, it should be pruned. At first, the oak grows in height slowly; after the 5th year, the growth rate of the main shoot increases sharply.

This is one of the most durable breeds. Its bark, wood, and acorns are used. The latter contain a large amount of starch, they are used to prepare a coffee substitute, alcohol, or to fatten pigs. Some oak species have sweet acorns that are edible fresh or roasted. The bark of the cork oak tree is used to make cork. Wood, bark, galls formed on leaves, as well as plush contain many tannins (tannids) used for tanning leather. Oak is indispensable in landscaping. It has long been, together with the linden, the main tree when creating landscape parks, and is often found in manor parks in the temperate zone. It is planted in clearings as single standing trees, created in groups, arrays, alleys, and used in forest belts in forest, forest-steppe and steppe zones.

Oak in the landscape design of a garden plot

When we think of an oak tree, we immediately imagine a thousand-year-old fairy-tale giant. It must be admitted that even young oak trees have a respectable growth... If you let them. So, before we settle an oak tree, let's think about what we want to see in 10-20 years. A slender oak can be a solitaire on a lawn, but it is also possible to use its bush form as a frame for a “edge” or a hedge. Keep in mind that oak blooms late, so in the spring you will see its openwork crown against the background of the young foliage of other plants.

Planting an oak

The easiest way to grow an oak tree is from a mature acorn. The acorn, like many large seeds, germinates very easily. This is the most reliable method, and if you entrust this task to a child, it is also exciting and useful. Just imagine how a child will run every day to check if the acorn has sprouted. And fantasize about telling his children and grandchildren that he himself once planted that huge oak tree...

You can transplant a small oak tree from the forest or from a country street where it grew on its own. But keep in mind that even a very young oak tree has a very long root, it is difficult to dig it up entirely, especially from dense forest soil intertwined with many roots, or from the compacted side of the street. The oak tree will not tolerate the slightest damage to the taproot.

Decorative forms can also be found on sale now. Among them there are species that are resistant to the main scourge - oak powdery mildew. There are also forms with unusual foliage colors. By the way, you shouldn’t get carried away with unusually colored species. Individual plants with red, golden or striped leaves look interesting against a green background. The garden, full of colorful foliage even in summer, looks at least unnatural. When laying out parks and estates, the old masters subtly played with different shades of green.

Care

Weeding and watering in the first years of life. Control and prevention of powdery mildew, especially in very young trees. This fungus does not affect the entire tree, but only affects the foliage. But the loss of foliage is dangerous for immature plants.

Trimming and shaping

It is important. Without pruning, an oak tree will not fit in a dacha. For many trees and shrubs, I recommend starting shaping as early as possible. Not so with oak. Heavy pruning of a young oak tree turns it into an oak bush. If a hedge is not part of your plans, cut it later and let the stem form. After that, you can try your hand at topiary art - using a haircut to form a ball on a leg, for example.

What's the subtlety? Trimming only the growth along the entire crown promotes branching and thickening. This is a technique of topiary art. To maintain the natural shape of the crown, branches must be cut from the trunk. We remove part of the growth and entire branches. In this case, the crown turns out to be openwork and even lets in some sunlight.

Red oak.

Red oak occupies one of the most popular places in Russia among other types of oak. This is not surprising: red oak is the most frost-resistant among its fellows. Its frost resistance is 40 degrees, and if the root system is solid and the tap root is not cut, then the degree of its frost resistance increases. Despite the fact that oak trees do not grow in the wild on the territory of the Tomsk region, there are concrete examples of oak growing here and successfully!

Red oak is a slender tree up to 25 m tall, with a dense tent-shaped crown. The trunk is covered with thin, smooth, gray bark, cracking in old trees. Young shoots are reddish-felt, annual shoots are reddish-brown, smooth. The leaves are deeply notched, thin, shiny, up to 15-20 cm, with 4-5 pointed lobes on each side of the leaf, reddish when blooming, dark green in summer, lighter below, scarlet-red in autumn, before falling, in young trees, in older ones they are brownish-brown.

The red oak blooms at the same time as the leaves bloom. Acorns are spherical in shape, up to 2 cm, red-brown, as if chopped off at the bottom, unlike pedunculate oak, and ripen in the fall of the second year. Fruits steadily and abundantly from 15-20 years. When young it grows faster than European oaks.

The conditions for successfully growing oak are as follows:

- a good place to land. Red oak loves dry and bright places with acidic soil (pH 5.5-7.5), so there is no need to pour ash into the planting hole. It cannot be planted where the soil is flooded in the spring, or where there is constant stagnation of water. Oak does not like stagnant water, so when planting it at the bottom of the hole, be sure to add drainage. And so that in a few years, when the soil in the planting hole settles, the root collar does not end up in a depression where water can accumulate in the spring, you need to plant the oak tree so that after the hole is finally filled with earth, the root collar of the seedling is on a small mound (the root collar is what the place where the roots go into the trunk). Over time, the mound will settle, and the root collar will be flush with the soil level. Oak is light-loving and susceptible to a disease called powdery mildew, so it must be planted in a bright, well-ventilated place;

- seedling health. To prevent the oak from getting powdery mildew, it should be sprayed from time to time with an infusion of kombucha (1-2 glasses of a month’s infusion per bucket of water) or shungite water, or a mixture of these solutions. But we must remember that this is a means of prevention, not control. When this fungal disease appears, it is already too late. In general, it makes no sense to fight fungal diseases with the help of “chemistry,” but prevention using the above means gives excellent results;

— Under no circumstances should plants be fertilized with fresh manure! Excess free nitrogen contained in manure forms loose tissue in all parts of the plant; the wood of such branches and trunks with loose tissue does not ripen by autumn, and in winter a plant fed with manure can become severely frozen or even die. Plants fed with manure are also susceptible to attack by pests and diseases, especially fungal diseases.

In red oak, unlike pedunculate oak, acorns ripen not in one season, but in two. And one more significant addition that needs to be mentioned for successful oak growing. Many plants (especially forest plants) grow very slowly without the presence of mycorrhiza on their roots. What is mycorrhiza? You probably know the different cap mushrooms that grow in the forest. So, these same mushrooms are already fruits, and the body of the mycelium itself is located in the upper layer of soil, its hyphae (thin threads of the fungal body) spread horizontally over many meters, plant roots and forming mycorrhiza on their surface, mycorrhiza is a community of roots of different plants and mycelium. Without this mutually beneficial partnership, some plants do not grow at all or grow very poorly, especially if they find themselves in unusual conditions. There are myceliums that specialize in certain plants, and there are universal ones. For example, porcini mushroom grows under pine and oak, boletus under aspen, boletus under birch, fly agaric under different plants, common fungus is a very versatile mycorrhizal mushroom, if you manage to have it in your garden, then any plants will be happy with it, and will grow and bear fruit very productively. How to infect oak roots with mycorrhiza? Find an old, overgrown porcini mushroom or common mushroom in the forest, bring them home, soak them for a day in a bucket of water (preferably rain or from some clean reservoir). After a day, pour this water into the holes made around the oak trunk, mulch the soil around the trunk with leaves from the forest, sow forest grasses or green manure in this place, and under no circumstances ever loosen or dig the soil around the trees. In this case, the growth of the mycelium is disrupted and it may die. This is the main secret of growing mycorrhizal fungi: they do not grow where the soil is loosened or dug up. When the mycelium grows (in about three years), the first mushrooms will appear. This will be a sign that you did everything right.

Red oak does not need shelter for the winter. It is prone to dampening of the root collar, so you need to make sure that the root collar is ventilated and does not get wet from weeds (especially woodlice). To avoid root collar rot, flooding by spring meltwater and groundwater should not be allowed. If you have close-lying groundwater on your site, then you need to plant it on a mound and arrange drainage in the hole (pour broken brick or expanded clay, pebbles in a layer of 15-20 cm).

English oak (Q. robur)

One of the most important forest-forming species in Russia, widespread in nature from Western Europe to the Urals. In the north of the forest zone it grows in valleys, to the south - in mixed forests with spruce, and even further south it forms pure oak forests. In the forest-steppe and steppe zones it grows along ravines and ravines, not reaching such powerful development as in the forest zone. In urban plantings, oak can be found throughout its natural distribution area, with the possible exception of particularly dry places. Not a single forest park, city park, or ancient estate can do without it. The planting of oak forests began with Peter I. The importance of oak in the national economy is great. It produces construction timber of very high quality. Beautiful and durable, it is used in carpentry, furniture, cooperage, shipbuilding and carriage building, is used to make parquet, and is also widely used for firewood.

Oak wood is light, with a beautiful pattern; after lying under water for a long time, it acquires a dark color (bog oak) and is especially valued in furniture production. Oak bark contains up to 20% tannins, wood - 6%. They are widely used for tanning leather. In a zone favorable for its growth, the oak reaches a height of 40 m, the trunk diameter exceeds 1 m. The largest old specimens live up to 1000-1500 years, with a trunk diameter of 4 m. Free-standing oaks form a dense, round, spreading crown, supported by powerful strong branches. Mature trees have thick, deeply longitudinally fissured, gray-brown bark. Young shoots are olive-brown, then red-brown. Leaves are up to 15 cm long and 7 cm wide, oblong-obovate, with ears at the base, with 6-7 blunt, long lobes, the depressions between them reach a third of the width of the blade.

The leaves are shiny, bare, green above, lighter below. In spring, in May, when the leaves begin to bloom, staminate catkins become noticeable at the base of the shoots. Pistillate flowers sit in the axils of the leaves on long peduncles of 2-5 pieces. Acorns are oval, 3.5 cm long and 2 cm in diameter with a spine at the top, brown-yellow, shiny, on a stalk, which is why this species is called petiolate. The plus is shallow, cup-shaped, 1 cm high, the scales covering it are gray-pubescent. Acorns ripen in October. Oak grows best on degraded chernozems and gray forest loams, with sufficient moisture. It is demanding of mineral and organic nutrition, protection from wind and direct sunlight, especially at an early age, but is drought- and salt-tolerant.

The majestic, stocky giant of the forest, the oak tree, is beautiful at any time of the year. In spring it pleases with its light yellowish-green foliage and long graceful yellow catkins; in summer it appears as a mighty giant with a thick dark crown, so dense that it can protect both from the scorching sun and from pouring rain. In autumn, the oak tree appears in a new guise. Its foliage turns yellow and then acquires a dark brown color. It falls off much later than other trees. In winter, an oak tree, even in a leafless state, is able to enchant with its power, when its deeply furrowed thick trunks emerge against the background of fallen snow, and the twigs and branches intertwined in a bizarre graphic design are reminiscent of the fabulous Berendey kingdom.

In our nursery you can buy oak seedlings wholesale and retail.

Tree height growth rate

Typically, living things, including us, have a period of active growth when they are young, but as they age, growth slows down or stops altogether. The growth rate of trees in height has the same character. After a period of active growth in height, the growth rate of the tree decreases, and it begins to gain weight due to the trunk and side shoots. The figure shows the general nature of the relationship between the height of most trees and its age. The schedule is divided into three phases. 1 is the initial phase of slow growth, followed by a phase of rapid growth - 2. When the tree approaches a certain height, the growth rate drops - phase 3. Of course, time and height values will vary for each individual tree depending on the species and environmental conditions.

The general nature of the dependence of the height of most trees on age

Different types of trees grow at different rates. Depending on the growth rate, trees are usually divided into groups. In tables 1 and 2, trees are divided into groups depending on the tree's growth rate per year. Trees gain such growth rates during the active phase (between the ages of 10 and 30 years).

Table 1: Fast and Moderate Growing Trees

Very fast growing

Fast growing

Moderately growing

Table 2: Slow-growing trees

Slow growing

Is it possible from an oak branch?

Oak can be propagated by rooting green cuttings, the result of which depends on the age of the mother plants. Cuttings from mature plants practically do not root, while cuttings from young plants take root quite successfully. For example, cuttings taken from annual plants rooted by 70-90%, while from biennial plants - by 30-70%.

Interesting materials:

How many orbitals are there in the third energy level? How many bison are there in Belovezhskaya Pushcha? In which basin is the Yangtze River located? What time zone is Russia in? What time zone is Udmurtia in? In which Hermitage building is the Peacock clock located? In which federal district is the Kemerovo region located? In which federal district is the Orenburg region located? In which federal district is Surgut located? What geographical location is Australia in?

Ship pine

Several types of ship pine were most often used in the construction of ships. These include yellow pine, which mostly grows in central Russia. It is elastic, durable and was used for the construction of above-deck structural elements, including masts, topmasts and yards.

Red pine, characteristic of the northern regions, with its dry wood, was used for paneling and also used for decking. White pine usually grows in swampy areas. It was of poorer quality, and therefore was used for those parts that did not require exceptional strength and did not carry a serious load.

The ideal ship's pine has a straight, tall, thick and very strong trunk, on which there are practically no flaws. The height of the tree may vary, but the tallest trees were used to make the masts, the trunks of which rose several tens of meters into the air.

Ship pine wood is usually moderately resinous, with a hard core. To achieve this state, the tree must grow for several decades in favorable conditions. The best specimens of ship pine reached the age of one hundred years, were up to 40 m in height and up to half a meter in diameter.

Incremental Pressler drill (age-specific)

Our ancestors became concerned about how to determine the age of a tree by looking at its trunk without causing any significant damage to it back in the 19th century. If cutting down a plant is not necessary or impossible, you should use a special tool and take a sample of the wood with it.

The drill consists of a conical, hollow cylinder with a thread at one end. The other edge has four edges. It is on this side that the handle is fixed, simultaneously serving as a case. The tool also contains a plate with grooves.

A piece of wood taken for sampling is called a core. To extract such a fragment from a tree, the drill is placed at a right angle to the trunk, then screwed into it.

As the tool is immersed in the wood, the latter fills the cavity of the tube. After inserting the drill to the required depth, a grooved plate is inserted into the tool through the hole in the handle. By turning the drill in the opposite direction, it is removed from the trunk.

On the core, you can easily count the number of annual layers. However, you should always take into account the distance from the roots where the sample was taken. You can determine the age of a tree more accurately only by adding to the figure obtained by counting the rings, the number of years required to reach the height at which the core was taken. It depends on the breed of the plant and the conditions of its development.

The age drill allows you to extract a core up to 35 cm long, which means that in this way you can determine the age of a tree by a trunk diameter not exceeding 70 cm.

In representatives of breeds that grow very slowly, as well as in inhabitants of shaded zones densely populated with plants, the annual layers are thin and difficult to distinguish. In such cases, an optical taxation device (OTD) is used.

This device is equipped with an eyepiece and a lens. A core is placed in it and, focusing, the wood structure magnified by optics is examined.

There are also several ways to determine the age of trees without using any tools.

Ship pine

Several types of ship pine were most often used in the construction of ships. These include yellow pine, which mostly grows in central Russia. Its elastic, durable and strong wood was used for the construction of above-deck structural elements, including masts, topmasts and yards.

Diseases and pests of oak

The most dangerous diseases are plant wood. Infectious diseases affecting wood are divided into two groups. Non-rot diseases include cancerous ulcers and tumors, vascular diseases of trunks and branches, necrosis of bark and sapwood. Diseases of this group affect the most important tissues of trunks and branches and, when severely developed, lead to drying out of trees. Cancerous ulcers and tumors develop and spread slowly and are usually caused by fungi and bacteria. Vascular diseases develop and spread quickly and can lead to drying out of trees in a few years or months. Necrosis of trunks and branches can also form extensive areas of drying out. Their spread is ensured by the ability of pathogens to accumulate huge amounts of infection in the dead tissues of affected trees. The causative agents of necrosis are also semi-parasitic imperfect and marsupial fungi, and sometimes bacteria. Rot diseases include wood rot of branches and trunks, root and butt rot.

Gallica

By autumn, oak leaves often develop yellowish or yellow-pink balls - galls - the size of a small cherry. They look like tiny apples with a regular spherical shape.

Galls are painful growths of leaf tissue. The gall midge insect, which looks like a very small fly, is to blame for their appearance. The gall midge pierces the skin of the leaf with a thin, sharp ovipositor and lays an egg there. Some time after this, a “ball” grows on the leaf. If you break such a ball in late autumn, in the middle you can find a small white worm - a gall midge larva - or an adult insect. In some years, oak leaves are literally covered with galls - there are several of them on each leaf.

Gall on an oak leaf. © Fritz Geller-Grimm

Gall on an oak tree. © Rasbak

Gall on an oak tree. ©Saharadesertfox

Galls are sometimes called ink nuts. This name is not accidental. Our ancestors in the time of Pushkin used them to prepare black ink. How do you get ink this way? You need to prepare a decoction of nuts and add a solution of iron sulfate to it. By merging two weakly colored liquids, we obtain a completely black liquid. This chemical “trick” is explained simply. Gall contains a lot of tannins, and they have the ability, when combined with iron salts, to give a thick black color. The same can be done with tea infusion (it also contains a lot of tannins). If you add a few drops of a yellowish solution of ferric chloride to a glass of weak tea, the liquid becomes completely black.

Oak pests

Leaf-gnawing and stem pests, and fungal diseases are the most important factor increasing the drying out of oak stands. Violation of the ecological balance of oak phytocenoses, especially in oak forest monocultures, leads to disturbances in the water regime of territories, changes in light and temperature conditions in the plantation, and all together to the formation of conditions more favorable for the development of pests and diseases.

Oak is damaged by a huge number of pests and diseases. Different authors give different figures on the number of pests and diseases that damage oak. In the Tellerman forest, 184 species of foliage pests have been identified (Molchanov, 1975). Among the most common pests that damage foliage are: 5 species of silkworms, 5 species of cutworms, 6 species of moths, 8 species of moths, 8 species of sawflies, 2 species of leaf rollers, 11 species of gall moths, 2 species of psyllids, 5 species of weevils, 2 species hermes, 2 types of aphids and 3 types of plant mites. Buds and flowers are damaged by 12 species of gallworms. Acorns are damaged by 2 species of codling moths, 3 species of weevils and 1 species of gall moth. The trunk and branches are damaged by 8 species of bark beetles, 7 species of longhorned beetles, 3 species of horntails, 2 species of woodworms, 1 species of flat-footed beetles, 3 species of borers, 1 species of the borer family, 1 species of wood borers (Napalkov, 1953).

In Europe, 542 species of harmful insects that damage oak have been identified (Hrast Luznjak..., 1996). A total of 206 species of fungi were discovered, including zygomycetes - 3 species, mastigomycetes - 2 species, ascomycetes - 50 species, basidiomycetes - 43 species, deuteromycetes - 108 species. 1 virus was detected - tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), 14 species of bacteria (Erwinia quercicola Geprges et Bad., Erwinia valachika Geprges et Bad., Pseudomonas quercus Schem, etc.). However, the influence of viruses and bacteria as causes of oak decline has not been clearly established (Ragazzi et al., 1995).

Coniferous trees - counting the number of years lived by whorls and bark

The peculiarities of calculating the life time of some coniferous trees allow this to be done quite accurately and easily, without using mechanisms. For pine, spruce, cedar, and fir, it is enough to count the whorls located on the trunk.

How to determine the age of a tree in this way? Very simple! First of all, you need to know what a whorl is.

A whorl is a fan-like divergence of branches. They are on the trunk. Count them. Now you should add 3 to the existing value if the object of your attention is pine, 4 - for spruce, in the case of fir and cedar - 5 and 10, respectively.

These indicators indicate the age at which the first whorl is formed in a particular tree species. The number obtained as a result of summation should be considered the age of the tree.

An important sign of plant maturity is their bark. The structure and color matter. Young trees tend to have lighter and smoother bark. For pines and spruces, such a trunk surface is relevant for six to seven decades of life; it will be rough only in the lower part - to about a meter from the roots.

After another similar period of time - at the age of 130-150 years, the smooth bark will remain only on the upper half of the tree trunk, and in the lower half it will be covered with cracks. The bark of older plants is usually covered with lichens and moss.

Sawed or felled

Many people have probably heard how to determine the age of a tree by its rings, called annual rings. It is enough to count their number, which is usually quite clearly visible at the place where the trunk was cut.

For a more accurate determination, it is better to cut twice, as close to the roots as possible, then sand. It should be viewed through a magnifying glass or microscope. Sometimes the rings are not clearly pronounced enough, then you can use a chemical “developer”. An alcohol solution of aniline, a liquid of ferrous chloride, bluing, even ordinary ink diluted with water, and potassium permanganate are suitable.

There are some subtleties for different breeds. In this case, how to determine the age of a tree by its growth rings depends on whether the plant is a deciduous or coniferous species. If the tree is a broad-leaved tree, it is better to cut it diagonally, this will increase the width of the usually thin and hard-to-see rings.

Oak in landscaping

Olga Nikitina

Oak trees of mighty beauty are associated with giants and heroes. These forest patriarchs impress with their monumentality and stature. Powerful trunks and large skeletal branches create a spreading tent-shaped crown covered with a thick cap of leaves.

Usage

This rock has long been the main material in green construction. Oak trees are used quite widely in landscaping: to create large green areas in parks and forest parks; groups, both pure and mixed; magnificent alleys. Evergreen species are ideal for living walls, which adorn many botanical gardens in the southern regions. And oak trees in a solitary planting are so spectacular and expressive that they are worthy of an artist’s brush.

In ancient parks and estate ensembles, oak trees play a leading role. In private gardens, decorative forms are most often used, which, although their sizes are more modest than those of the original species, have a variety of crown shapes and spectacular leaves.

Oak trees are planted in well-lit places, and in alley plantings the distance between plants should be at least 5–6 m.

In compositions, oaks go well with conifers, especially pine trees, which are also light-loving and undemanding to soil. With larches you get spectacular groups, permeated with sunlight. From coniferous shrubs, junipers can be planted next to oak trees, the species and varietal diversity of which is presented in sufficient quantities in Russian garden centers.

Of the deciduous species, oak coexists well with large trees such as beech, hornbeam, elm, ash, linden, maple, and rowan. The peak of decorativeness in such compositions occurs in spring, when the crowns of trees are covered with a delicate veil of blossoming inflorescences, and autumn, when their leaves and fruits acquire colors of different intensity and color.

Beautifully flowering deciduous shrubs will bring an additional decorative effect to such compositions: rose hips, spirea, honeysuckle, and herbaceous perennials include peonies, astilbes, ferns, poppies and many others. But in order for the ensembles to look decent, fairly large areas are needed in which the oak tree and its companions could quietly grow and develop.

Types and varieties

The most common type in green building is pedunculate oak , it has a number of decorative forms, most often used in landscaping is the pyramidal form 'Fastigiata' , which is very similar to Italian poplar or cypress. At 25 years of age, this tree has a height of 8.5 m, and the diameter of the crown is no more than 3.0 m. The branches begin their growth from the grafting site and grow upward at an acute angle, forming a thick, dense crown. This decorative form makes excellent dense living walls, alley, group and single plantings.

'Concordia' differs from the original species in its much smaller size and yellowish leaves, which retain their color throughout the growing season. These two varieties are quite suitable for urban conditions: they are not only decorative, but also quite resistant to polluted air.

In the design of a small garden, low-growing varieties of d. petiolate with various crown shapes would be more appropriate:

'Compacta' – very slowly growing dwarf form with a rounded crown;

'Pendula' – with long, drooping branches, giving the plant a “weeping” appearance;

'Skyrocket' - with a narrow pyramidal crown and leaves with white tomentose pubescence below.

Outwardly, it is very similar to the previous type of rock garden, which looks good in small groups, alleys and solitary plantings. In terms of growth rate, it is similar to d. petiolate, but is more light- and heat-loving, less demanding on soil, drought-resistant and durable.

Along with D. petiolate, the North American species is often used in city parks and squares - D. red , which in the fall, in an outfit of bright red carved leaves, is the center of attention. Against the background of conifers and other deciduous trees, it looks like a clear soloist in the autumn garden, and fallen leaves on the ground look like the pattern of an expensive Persian carpet. This species reproduces well by self-seeding, and young oak trees also add bright colors to the autumn palette of the garden.

Somewhat similar to the previous type of d. scarlakovy, 'Splendens' is more often used , which is quite frost-resistant, reaches a height of 20 m and loves acidic soils. Its green, glossy, sharp-lobed leaves turn purple in autumn. This beautiful, slender tree will be a bright accent in any composition both in summer and autumn.

Looks great in groups and single plantings of D. Mongolian. Its relatively short stature and very large leaves make it possible to combine it with many tree species, among which it stands out for its unusual, catchy appearance. Beautifully flowering shrubs will make an excellent company for him: spirea, weigela, mock orange.

How to determine age?

It is not determined out of curiosity. Often this is a necessary procedure in cases where a decision is made to cut down or carry out vaccination procedures.

There are various ways:

in coniferous trees, whorls (fan-shaped shoots on the trunk) are counted. Years are added to the resulting value: for spruce 7mdash; 3, for fir - 5, for cedar - 10;
Knowing the average annual growth of a certain type of green space in your area, you need to measure the circumference of the trunk at 1.3 meters from the ground, calculate the diameter and divide it by the growth factor.

A more accurate way is to count the annual rings inside the trunk.