Ok...so I may be long gone from this world by the time they are ready to be firewood, but I'm hoping someone can still give me some guidance. I planted 4 oak saplings a couple years ago. So far they have survived and each have some new growth on them this year. I have a couple questions. I have open bottom 5 gal buckets protecting each of them. They are just now getting as tall as the buckets. When should I take the buckets away? It is nice knowing no one will mow them over but is it better at some point to take away the bucket? Also when should (or even should I) prune some of the lower branches? Three of them have good single main "trunks" but one does not. Should I (and when should I) prune one of the leaders back so I have only one dominant one on this guy? Thanks in advance.
Yes, prune the leaders off that one. Lower branches will take care of themselves. As for the bucket, the only time we use something like that is on fruit trees and we also planted walnuts several years ago and protected those for a while. In time, the buckets will begin breaking apart all by themselves. That is a great time to remove them.
The wabbits and/or deer absolutely tore up any little saplings the last 2 winters. I had a little Oak in the driveway turnaround last year that was just starting to do well and was about 18". Almost couldn't find it this spring, and when I did, it had been "pruned" by the wildlife. It came back and is doing well so far. I may put a cage around it before winter. All of our apple trees were also "pruned" by wildlife the last couple winters so badly, they didn't recover this year.
If they were my trees, I'd leave those buckets on them as long as possible. A buck could destroy those things with a few scrapes of the antlers and they'll all try to eat the new buds off them when they get hungry enough in the winter. It seems that foreign objects around the trees freak the deer out and they usually don't touch them, that is if your deer are skittish anyway. I wouldn't trim any branches off of it until it goes dormant for the year. My experience with oaks that small is the less leaves they have, the harder the hot summer sun is on them. I'd say the leaves inside the bucket will die off anyway. Looks to me like the reason they're so big is because they're starved for light, not that that's a bad thing. I think the bucket will help to keep lower branches from forming too. I could be wrong, just my opinion from observing my own trees.
