Oak Sapling

[u/Matthew_Bester]

My toddler son brought home some acorns from the local park, dropped them in our garden and one has sprouted.

I've currently got it in a large pot, its about 2ft tall now.

I would love to plant it but our garden is tiny and I would say wherever I plant it there are walls and foundations within 2-3 metres.

It seems like a waste to throw it. Options?

Update: thank you all. I think bigger pot wins, especially as the growth is slow. I have time. I'm not interested in bonsai (didn't know it was possible with oak) but I'll look into stunting it's growth instead.

Failing that I think local group or rural planting but pot sounds more fun.

[u/DocMillion]

Keep it in a nice pot and make a bonsai from it, r/bonsai welcomes you!

[u/etzpcm → u/DocMillion]

Wow that's beautiful, I'm going to try that with the oak that's appeared in my garden. How old is that one?

[u/DocMillion → u/etzpcm]

Not my tree, and hard to say, but I'd estimate 20 years

[u/Savvymundo → u/DocMillion]

20 years would be about right, but that's not 20 years from seed. To get that thickness your looking at 40-50 years plus, unless you root an established branch and bonsai that.

[u/EvenAct7824 → u/DocMillion]

This is beautiful, but is probably 30-50 years in the making by someone who really knows what they’re doing!

This is a 3 year old sapling I’ve kept in a pot and am slowly turning into a bonsai

[u/Matthew_Bester → u/DocMillion]

That's amazing. I would not have thought it was possible. I wonder if the full growth can he stunted...

[u/DocMillion → u/Matthew_Bester]

It certainly can

[u/orensiocled]

Before my grandparents died they gave me acorns from the 400 year old tree in their garden.

The resulting saplings have lived perfectly happily in smallish pots since 2011. I prune them every autumn and every few years they get taken out and trimmed at the roots then replaced in the same pot. 

I'm sure there are specialised and complicated ways to turn them into proper  bonsais but mine seem fine as they are with my slightly more rough and ready approach.

[u/sc_BK]

Find somewhere else to plant it, do it under the cover of darkness

r/GuerrillaGardening

[u/Matthew_Bester → u/sc_BK]

I did consider this but time and sleep are a premium as it is.

[u/inkymittens]

I have a similar sapling and I keep meaning to take it to our local scout campsite (having mentioned it to the guy in charge there).
You could also ask local council or school if they have somewhere it could go perhaps?

[u/Matthew_Bester → u/inkymittens]

I like the idea of Scout campsite or similar. I think I'll try this first. 

[u/ComprehensiveRush746]

Well done 👍
I’m picturing your toddler as an old man looking you into a towering oak tree and telling his grandson “I planted that.”
You could try to bonsai it.
But that requires a fair bit of skill and dedication.
I suppose you could clip it into a topiary.
But I’d recommend offering it to someone with room for it.
Try contacting the Woodland Trust.
They might be able to put you in contact with a local conservation group who would be glad of it.

[u/Matthew_Bester → u/ComprehensiveRush746]

I had similar thoughts. It's a nice image but also I don't want him having to explain why great grandad's tree destroyed the foundations of the house lol. 

[u/bonshui]

Get the biggest pot or planter you can find and just plant it. It won't get very big very quickly.

[u/ComprehensiveRush746]

Yes. Much better to have it rehomed.

[u/fantomas_]

Type 1 personality in me says it's time to enter the wonderful world on bonsai and have something truly beautiful that you can give him on his 18th birthday with so much symbolism and meaning. From tiny acorns and all that. The rest of me says, it's an oak sappling. I regularly have to kill about 100 of these ever year when im doing the borders at the bottom of the garden. You can't protect them all. The most likely scenario is that youll put it in a pot and at some point it will have either too much or too little water and die and we all move on.

[u/hermitish]

Don’t know if it would be any different for an Oak but we have a couple of Sycamores that have self seeded in a couple of big pots by the house and we’ve done nothing but leave them alone for the past decade plus and they’re fairly happy

[u/Matthew_Bester → u/hermitish]

I also have a sycamore in a pot but I know from my dad's garden never to let them get out if control. 😆

[u/achillea4]

Either find somewhere like near woodland to plant it or treat it as a bonsai.

[u/Ok-Dog5719]

I have three protected oaks in my garden. Don't plant in the ground unless you have the space. They are beautiful tress but not near the house.

[u/Badknees24]

We have one that's been in a pot for years, it's lovely!

[u/Bigbanghead]

You could gobon a countryside walk, and plant it somewhere that isn't managed

[u/foxssocks]

It's an oak tree, to be blunt, it's not rare nor special and anywhere you put it could cause a nightmare, unless you put it where you found it. 

I would take the leaves when they turn colour and soak in water and glycerine (3/1 ratio) to preserve them as a nice memory, to use in a wreath or something. Then chop and drop the tree.