Cherrybark Oak, Wye Island line

Size, growth and what to expect

Cherrybark oak plantings have reached 14 feet in 5 years and 16 feet in 9. Our growth estimator models it at nearly three feet a year in its youth, its rate for a fast tree. On good ground mature trees reach 100 to 120 feet, and some reach 130, with trunks 3 to 5 feet through. Trees begin to decline at 90 to 200 years, and very few live past 300.

The first acorns come at about 25 years, the heaviest crops between 50 and 75, and a good crop comes every year or two. Each acorn is about half an inch long under a thin cap that covers up to a third of it. Gray squirrels, wild turkeys and blue jays take them first, then wood ducks, woodpeckers, raccoons and deer. The name comes from the mature bark, which looks like a black cherry's. It flowers from February to May, depending on latitude, and the acorns ripen from September to November of their second year.

It grows wild from southeastern Virginia to northwest Florida, west to east Texas, and up the Mississippi valley to southeastern Missouri, southern Illinois and Indiana.

How to grow Cherrybark Oak

Cherrybark oak wants full sun and average to wet ground, and it grows fastest on deep bottomland soil that floods in winter and drains by summer. This is a tall tree with a wide crown, so allow 50 feet from the house, the drive and any power line. Set trees 30 feet apart.

Plant while dormant. Saplings ship bare-root or in deep pots. Dig wide and shallow, hold the root flare at grade, backfill with the soil you dug, and skip amendments, which only invite circling roots. Sow acorns in fall an inch deep under hardware cloth weighted with stones, since squirrels and jays hunt them. Red oak acorns need a winter before they come up in spring.

Water through the first two summers, because a fast grower drinks more than you expect. Guard the stem against voles and rabbits, cage against deer, and pull the guards once the bark roughens. Leave the lower limbs on a few years to build caliper.

Like other oaks, cherrybark oak is wind pollinated and needs pollen from another tree to set acorns, so plant two or more seedlings. Prune only in the dormant season. Fresh cuts from spring into midsummer draw the beetles that spread oak wilt among red oaks. Move trees young, because the taproot resents digging.