So, are there any Tree Farmers here? I've been searching and have yet to find anything on planting more than one Oak. I know how to start them from the seed, how to germinate them, how to plant them and all, but this is all for a single tree for residential use. What I want to know is how far apart they should be planted for farming. I'm mainly interested in Live Oaks.

Thanks in advance for any info.

PS - I have contacted the Fla. Dept. of Forestry but have yet to hear back from anyone - that's why I'm asking here.

 

Madam Vice President - You might try contacting Weyerhauser I'm not sure about oaks but I know they have developed hybrids (pines) that go from seedlings to cut, in less than ten years.
I also am planning on a tree farm. I am going to plant sequoias and in a few hundred years have the market cornered. Good luck.
Dono

 

Thinking of turning your property in Ocala into a tree farm Carlene? Why live oaks?

 

Hey, I'm from Live Oak. Will that help?

 

Oaks take an extremely long time to mature to harvest. The best, and quickest way to tree farm is to raise pines.

 

We have a tree farm here Carlene, but it was already established when we bought the place. Mostly spruce, pine, maple and locust. But we do have about 150 oaks planted in 3 rows about 4 feet apart , their anywhere from 12 to 18 feet tall now. I guess it's time to replant what I want to keep and find a buyer for the rest. I'm just starting to learn a little about forestry. Deb and I are going to take a few night courses over the winter at a local college. You might want to look around for the same type of courses.

 

I planted 200 eucalyptus in my back yard. I spaced them 4' apart. The ones that I didn't shorten are 50' tall after 9 years. I is a tree farmer.

 

We basically just need to get our AG classification back on the property cause otherwise the R.E. taxes are gonna kill us.

The AG classification doesn't carry over anymore from one owner to the next so we have to come up with a reasonable AG purpose.

There's tons of info online about farming pines, the pines are real cheap to get and to get going, are low to no maintenance and all - but I like oaks and want sloooooow growing trees.

 

Hmmmn, I wonder if I could get a AG classification? Probably not in the People's Republic of Kalifornia.

 

When I had questions about chainsaws and cutting up a big oak (36 inches wide turned to 44 ... ) someone pointed me to this site and it is pretty good:

http://www.forestryforum.com

As for planting, you start I think 10 feet apart and then cull the less promising ones, leaving eventually 30-40 feet between trees. Considering oaks do not develop acorns for 50 years and do not start to grow big until year 30+, oak might not be the tree to wait on.

There is someone there giving away free red oak acorns.


:-)

 

Trees grow very fast here because of our Texas soil. I had an uncle who spilled a small sack of roofing nails just before a rain and two weeks later he harvested six acres of crowbars.
Dono

 

 

It's tales like that give us Texans a bad name. EVERYBODY knows it takes at least a mpnth to get a good crop of crowbars.

 

Depends on the location - some soil is better than others. There are some places in West Texas you can't raise an umbrella on.
Dono

 

Carlene, what an interesting way to lower ones taxes. I wish we had a similar option in Michigan. How many acres are we talking about here ? What is the commercial usages of live oak ? I can see the tax folks argueing with you if they feel your crop has no marketability. My guess would be at least 20-25 feet apart. A live oak gets very big, doesn't it ? ( albeit slowly ). Would the AG classifacation be for your whole place, or just where your house is not covering up the ground ? DF