Texas Red Oak

Size, growth and what to expect

Texas red oak grows at a medium pace, about a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator. A seven-year-old tree in Melbourne, Australia, had reached 13 feet. Expect 20 to 50 feet.

It flowers from March to June. The acorns take two seasons to ripen, as in every red oak, and are ready in the fall of the second year. They are half an inch to three quarters of an inch long, a third to half hidden in the cup. It bears acorns in large numbers, a valuable food for wildlife. Its leaves turn around late November and then hang on longer than most.

Its wild range reaches north into Kansas, and it grows at 150 to 500 meters. The largest known Texas red oak grows in Travis County, Texas.

How to grow Texas Red Oak

Texas red oak wants full sun or part shade and a well-drained loam or clay over limestone, dry to average in moisture. It tolerates drought and alkaline soil. Set trees 30 feet apart, and keep each one 20 feet from a wall and more than 50 feet from overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the trunk. Red oak acorns need a winter before they sprout. Sow them in fall an inch deep under hardware cloth. For spring, hold them damp in the refrigerator for four to twelve weeks first. In a mild southern winter the chill may fall short, and fall-sown acorns then come up slowly and unevenly.

Water every week or two through the first summer, then only in a long drought. It is not deer resistant, so guard each sapling with a tube or cage for its first three years. It often grows several stems, so choose one leader early if you want a single trunk.

The flowers are wind pollinated, and an acorn crop wants another oak nearby. Oak wilt is a serious disease of this tree, and it is killing oaks across central and west Texas. Red oaks spread it, because the fungus forms mats on them, and sap-feeding beetles carry spores from the mats to fresh wounds on other oaks. Prune only in the dormant season, never from February through June, and paint each cut at once.