frequent strong winds are not an issue, and the root ball vs the canopy isn't an issue either... my dad was visiting yesterday and he insisted that newly planted trees must be staked... But to me, in my case, it doesn't seem that this little oak is "top heavy" if you will... I just don't want to see it shift and not realize it then have to correct it when it might be too late.

its an issue between your native soil ... whether the plant was bare rooted ... and how you planted it...

in my glacial sand... a bare rooted tree ... of your size.. NEVER needs staking.. the wet sand will hold it in place ... but i never bare rooted a 1.5 caliper tree .. in fact.. never bought one ...

when you start talking potted/BB ... and/or into bad clay.. the tree needs time.. to grab hold of the native soil ... and than can take years ...

i am not happy you planted a 1.5 inch caliper tree ... in august ... and i am surprised that a trunk that huge is on a 6 foot tree ... i am baffled by the dynamics here ...

pix would be wroth a thousand words of speculation ...

did you do this yourself????

ken

frequent strong winds are not an issue, and the root ball vs the canopy isn't an issue either...<<<<=== there is so much wrong in that comment i am speechless ...

Ken I think you misread what Splaker meant. He was indicating that in his situation, he does not get frequent strong winds and the root ball vs. canopy size are not out of proportion.

Me experiences mirrors that of rihzo_1, except I've had to stake about 20 in over 35 years of landscaping.

Mike

the calliper is not 1.5" - it's much less... less than an inch... was sloppy with my estimate. My soil is a decent balance between sand, loam, clay.

BTW, I live in a fairly cool climate.. we just had a bit of a "heat wave" (high 80s for a few days) but I planted it just at the end of the heat and we got drenched with rain and now temps are in the 70s and very pleasant.

I don't have much experience, but I did see that my crabapple tree only began to establish itself after I staked it. But I do get some fierce winds, and these winds are not all that rare. The Kwanzan ornamental cherry, planted in a sheltered spot, did fine without staking.

Will the little oak even begin to establish itself with the time remaining in the growing season and through the fall? Or will it do so starting next spring?

it will be growing roots in fall .. and spring ... one might say ..... two cool seasons for such.. before the next heat wave ... and perhaps all winter long .. if your soil doesnt freeze .... z5 is half the US .. a little more specificity would be nice ... even if i missed it ...

i dont think you answered how it arrived.. BB or pot.. nor how you planted it ...

compare what you did... with link below

ken

https://sites.google.com/site/tnarboretum/Home/planting-a-tree-or-shrub

Ken it cam potted. I am in Souther Ontario, Canada, just north of Toronto... We get cold winters! Similar to Michigan.

As far as how I planted it, all I can tell you is that I made a hole close to 3xs the width and a little deeper than the ball.. backfilled with a combo of triple mix and native soil. Added transplant formula and watered it with a 1.5 gallons of water.. then it rained heavily (2 inches+).. will water again today.. weather has cooled off significantly..

Hope the decision to not stake was the correct one!

thanks

i will add a pic as soon as I can

You probably will not need to stake it for wind resistance. I have staked oaks of a similar size before, but only for training a central leader. I would just keep an eye on it. You can always throw a stake in later if you see it start to tilt or bow. The roots should start to anchor themselves in the soil within 1-2 months. And new growth on oaks hardens/stiffens pretty quickly.

Agreed, hamburglar, I've trained new leaders on oaks, and if you start when the growth is soft and the leaves not fully expanded, it usually holds straight on its own within 5-6 weeks.

I have carefully pruned newly planted trees to reduce wind resistance so that staking is not necessary. Not often though. Properly planted, most trees don't need staking.

There are exceptions though, like exceptionally windy locations.

Mike

The emerging rule is that trees should not be staked unless needed. I put that in italics to stress that last bit, because in truth,it's a bit of a joke. We simply have no assured way to know which tree transplants will "need" staking and which won't. So, in the city where I happen to both live and work, "we"-the department which each year plants right around 1000 new streetside trees do indeed stake each and every one. But that's because we simply have no way of knowing what's going to happen there after the crew leaves. And studies exist too which show less "passive vandalism" to street trees with stakes around them. So there's that factor too.

All things considered, if you're a commercial installer, a municipality, or some other entity in which it can't be assured you will not need to stake any given tree, stake it but don't forget about it. We never leave stakes on past the first year. If a reasonable compromise like this is employed, you and your trees will be fine. Do something goofy, way out on the end of some tangent, like big, huge stakes, stakes left on for more than a year, or stakes and tying material used in such a way that the tree is held too tightly-all of these will fail. But a moderate plan, using proper, non-abrasive tying materials, not going too tightly, and getting all the junk off the tree in a timely fashion, should workout well.

+oM

I watched some youtube of a guy that basically pinned down the rootball instead of staking the tree up with rope/cables/etc. He just drove four 2x2 stakes outside the rootball... only leaving 6-8inches above ground. To get a good grip.. they were driven into the native soil which hadn't been disturbed by the planting of the tree. He then screwed two 2x2 braces between the sets of posts... they were tight to the ground. These ran across the rootball ... and therefore pinned it down like two giant stapes. It seems like a good idea to me.

Yeah, that makes sense. I only hope the tree wasn't planted too deeply beforehand! all that lumber and assorted hardware would be in the way of changing that. BTW, in the example I offered above, these are all bare-root trees. It really makes very little difference what type of tree one is planting-B&B, bare-root, containerized-in terms of the need to get things stabilized.

+oM

As far as how I planted it, all I can tell you is that I made a hole close to 3xs the width and a little deeper than the ball

==>>> did you look at the link i gave way above.. in regard to planting a tree

and did you tell us.. what your native soil is???

insert finger or use a hand trowel.. and water.. WHEN THE PLANT NEEDS WATER... it sounds like you are guessing ... when it dried an inch or two below ground.. then you water .. and in fall.. that might barely be once a month ...

most of us would not have amended the soil ...

and personally.. i would never fert such ... though i dont know what transplant formula is ???

please find and reed the link

ken

no let them get established they have to support themselves

My wife's old panty hose worked great for a tie the few times I've staked a tree. It's soft, tough, doesn't cut into the tree, and you can hardly see it. Oh, and it stretches!

Mike

Mike,

My mother did the exact same thing for a long time! She would ask church ladies or other people for their leftover pantyhose and that is what she tied her smaller trees with.

To the original poster, as long as you can observe the tree and see how it withstands the wind you will probably be fine- stake it if you see if bending or tilting significantly. We stake ours and one of the main reasons we stake nearly all of them is that we might not be back for 9-12 months. A lot can happen in Iowa wind during that time period.

Splaker, Select's excellent post above reminded me to re-read your original post. Seeing that you are planting an oak, in Z5, in an area of likely lesser wind overall than many other US places, I think I might plant with no stake if I were you. Those oaks I'm most familiar with and the ones that tend to get planted in Zone 5 are nearly always strongly structured and stout, even at so young an age. The worst thing that happens, aside from those peripheral effects noted above, is you end up straightening it out and then staking it. Might be worth a shot.

+om

"My wife's old panty hose worked great
for a tie the few times I've staked a tree. It's soft, tough, doesn't
cut into the tree, and you can hardly see it. Oh, and it stretches!

Mike"

I do something real similar. I tie the panty hose in a circle a few inches larger than the trunk then tie that circle to 3 metal stakes around the tree. Even the panty hose barely touches the trunk when it isn't blowing. My transplants are typically small though.