Sandhill Oak

Size, growth and what to expect

Sandhill oak grows at a medium pace, about a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator. It can reach 16 feet but is more often a shrub of about 5 feet. Rare tree forms reach about 20 feet. After a fire, the new sprouts bear acorns again in about 3 years.

It flowers from March to May, one to two weeks after myrtle oak. The acorns take two seasons and ripen in the fall of the second year. The nut is up to five eighths of an inch long, a third to half in the cup. Florida scrub-jays eat the acorns, whose tannin keeps them sound into winter. Its leaves feed the caterpillars of Horace's duskywing and of red-banded and white-M hairstreaks.

It grows wild from St. Johns and Putnam counties south through the central ridges to Martin County.

How to grow Sandhill Oak

Sandhill oak wants full sun or light shade and a deep, well-drained sand, acid and poor. Once established it needs no watering. It will not stand flooding by salt or brackish water. Set plants 10 feet apart for a thicket, and keep each one 10 feet from a wall. It may stand within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them in the cool months, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the sand back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stems. Red oak acorns need a winter's chill before they sprout. Sow them in fall, half an inch deep, under hardware cloth. For spring, hold them damp in the refrigerator for four to twelve weeks first. After a mild Florida winter, fall-sown acorns may come up slowly and unevenly.

Water every week or two through the first summer, then only in a long drought. Deer browse young oaks, so guard each sapling with a tube or cage for its first two years. Let the suckers fill in for a screen, or cut them back to keep one clump.

The flowers are wind pollinated, and an acorn crop wants another oak nearby. As a red oak it can catch oak wilt where that disease occurs, so prune only in the dormant season, to avoid the beetles that spread it. Hybrids with myrtle, turkey and laurel oaks have been reported. Tiny black dots on the leaves are the fruiting bodies of a fungus, Asterina.