Taking cuttings from Oak

[Luna]

There's a Victorian park close to my home full of big Oak trees, many of them evergreen (which will be usefull if I intend to keep Phylliums one day) but I was wondering how readily do species of Oak grow from cuttings? I've tried to take cuttings of Eucalyptus ignoring advice that it simply wouldn't work (and yeah, unsuprisingally it didn't :p) but I was wondering if Oak fares any better?

[Ian]

I have never tried myself Luna. I can't really make a lot of sense of what they are saying, but there's a bit of info here: rooting Oak cuttings - Plant Propagation Forum - GardenWeb (http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/propa/msg0319142623588.html)

[Krendoshazin]

Basically what they're saying is you wouldn't use rooting powder on an oak cutting, so don't bother. A graft is where you take a root stock and the piece to be rooted and cut them in such a way that they slot together, that way the root stock immediately supplies the scion with what it needs. As someone on the forum said it's rather hard to even graft them on to their own seedlings, and probably has quite a low success rate at the best of times.

So the answer would be: not very readily at all.

[TheGreenMan]

Do they produce seed? seed might be an easier option if they are mature and producing seed.

Yes Eucalyptus are best grown from seed. You just sprinkle the very fine seed over the surface of potting mix and keep moist and humid until germination with regular fine misting. They do not grow when burried. Oak however will need to have the seeds burried a couple of centimetres below the soil/potting mix.

[Luna]

Yeah, Oak make Acorns - there are thousands of the things near where I live in the autumn, the place where I live is pretty much the epitome of a victorian English village, very foliate and full of very large old trees. Unfortunately species such as Eucalyptus don't really figure much apart from smaller trees in peoples gardens.

The only problem with collecting and planting acorns is that I'm not sure what conditions they require to germinate. If I simply planted them it's unlikely they would germinate until next spring, and that is supposing that the acorn itself is good and the winter conditions don't affect it. I think maybe stratification could help speed things up?

[Krendoshazin]

Stratification doesn't speed things up, it's merely a process used to make the seed go through a period of 'winter' in the refrigerator and bring it out of deep dormancy. It's used during the warmer days to germinate the seed, but during the winter months you can just leave it outside to go through it's natural germination period.
I guess you could say it speeds things up in terms of not having to wait for winter, but the process is no quicker because of it.

[TheGreenMan]

i don't think they need stratification. I planted some seed of an american Quercus species here and i didn't have any problems germinating them. They were not stratified. Its a deciduous oak but seems to do ok here in the subtropics. I want to try and find some "live" or evergreen oak species that would do well here such as Quercus virginiana.