Six feet is a little close.

I have experience. The previous owners had some beautiful white ash fifteen to twenty feet off three corners of what is now my house. If they were further away I would not have had to cut two of them down already. The third I climb up into every year and look for signs of rot in the crotches of them tree sized branches.

My kid's room is under that tree. I love the tree. If I ever notice a weakness forming I will hate cutting it down.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:486846}}

>they don't get over 35 ftExcept for the 4 examples of the species on this list ranging from 41' to 62' in height when measured.

Here is a link that might be useful: PA Big Trees - Quercus - Oak

Hi Poaky,

You should really find a new spot for both. Give the blackjack a chance, you can always remove it.

Dax

4 foot tree ...

as soon as the ground thaws .. move it ... 6 to 8 weeks before the heat of summer hits ..

mulch properly.. and you are responsible for proper water all next year.. and in drought year two ...

if i understand.. you want to plant another in the same hole 6 feet away???? can you clarify that????

there are a bunch of robur which grow much slower and smaller ....

shape is up to you.. as far as i am concerned... with a little knowledge.. and a good saw.. you can make it as nice as you want it ..

finally ... size estimates are usually at a given period.. trees really never stop growing .... so dont think you are going to find anything that magically stops at some predetermined height ... plan ahead ... find annual growth rate info.. and extrapolate out from there ....

ken

I would remove that white oak if i were you. They get really massive and eventually the trunk would touch the side of your house. The owner after you would most likely cut it down. When you dig it up make sure you are careful with the tap root. If you want a small oak next to your house i would look at the trees offered at Oikos Tree Crops. They have a couple of dwarf varieties that get 15-20 feet tall.

Thanks for the replies, I will move the q alba tommorrow, the ground is far from frozen here it's raining buckets now, I just moved an Acer palmatum today. The Q alba would be too big. I have a Q Rubor 20 ft from the house across from the Q Alba already, so I really don't need to add anything, eventually it will shade the whole south side of the house. I planted the Q Rubor from seed and don't want to move that one.I planted 4 Q Rubor from seed and one of them is 3 ft tall and the others a ft tall all from the same tree. I just thought that was interesting. All my searches on Q Marilandica said max 40 ft. I guess trees are individuals to some degree. I should've checked the Pa big tree site but I didn't think about it.I am going to put the Blackjack where the Q Alba is The seeds of blackjack that is.If I move the seeds to about 8-10 ft out even if it gets tall the branches won't be large and heavy and the trunk in my Petersons field guide maxes out at 4 ft.I am glad toranado showed the pic of ginormous alba. The champion alba from McClellandtown Fayette county is about 7-8 miles from me but I've never gone to see it.If the blackjack gets too crowded I'll have to move it, the Oikos northern live oak was too small looking. I'll look at the site again and pay more attention, but I will probably give the Blackjack a chance 8-10 ft from the house.The alba has the fiberous roots from those grow bags air pruned so it should fare well.Thanks for the opinions even though I didn't completely take the advice. If I screw up it's my fault but shouldn't be too big to undo.

When planning for a tree planting, are you thinking in terms of the long-term future? If so, you (and all of us) should consider the canopy spread as a dimension that might be more important than the height.

6 feet is simply too close to the house. The larger it becomes, the more expensive it will be to remove. And because the arborists will have to take extra care to remove a tree that close to the house, the dollar signs will be spinning like crazy.

By the way, planting trees for the short-term is often done. That's when designers or L.architects think more in terms of tree TRUNKS as a design feature. They may, for example, employ twice as many trees in the original design just to get some vertical structure going...then have 1/2 of them removed ten years down the road.

I moved the quercus alba today and planted the blackjack acorns 2 ft further out from the house. I want to plant the trees for permenance not to remove later, and as far as the height the blackjack may reach 60 ft but the overhanging limbs won't be massive and heavy enough to kill someone in the room below in the house.I am going by the pictures I've seen online.Does anyone have a blackjack oak (gardener365)that is fairly mature and if so how big are the upper limbs?Ken I'll clarify what I meant. I wanted to plant a more size suitable tree in the same place I had the Q Alba in. I went out 2 ft more so it's 8 ft away from the house. I went for a ride to a neighborhood where I knew people had lots of trees and I saw people with silver maples 6-8 ft from the house with no noticeable foundation cracks so the height is the only worry and if these linbs will not be too heavy I may be okay with the blackjack 8 ft from the house. The only reason I would move the tree is if it posed a problem.

Hi Poaky, sorry I have no photos of the tree the corns came from, and Blackjack oak I haven't seen or found any specimens around here. About all I can tell you is that the acorns were collected at Iroquois Park, Louisville, KY, by a friend that's "more-than" extremely knowledgeable. The tree is located near or next to, the basketball court there. I'll ask him if he photographed it.

Regards Poaky,

Dax

Of the pics I've seen the trunk can get big but the top branches aren't massive. If you get a pic that would be great, if not that's fine.

Hey Poaky,

I didn't have my thinking cap on yesterday. There's a difference in form of trees/oaks in the open than those that are in the wild and are surrounded by other trees.

They're Blackjack seeds so expect a beautiful oak if given adequate room/sunlight.

Dax

I am sure it will be beautiful, I saw some pix online and most of them showed a nice shape tree, there were some that were not , but that's where the pruning saw comes in. I heard bad things about shingle oak but after seeing a mature tree in person I wanted to plant some of those. What the plant nurseries say is a good or bad plant is their opinion,but anyway I,ve decided to not put either of the 2 oaks there I might get a super dwarf 15-20 ft so the acorns are going down where most of unplanted yard is, I could only find 2 of the 3 seed though. Oikos has a northern live oak 20ft max.poaky1

Q. marilandica is a vastly underutilized and underappreciated species. Typically, it grows slowly to a max of about 30 feet. However, I've seen a specimen that was about 60 feet, and, IIRC, the national champion (in Kentucky) is over 100'.