Saving little Trees

Hi, I am new to this site. I am also new to gardening, although it is in my blood, as my grandmother always said. This is wonderful site for learning. I hope you can help me with this question.

We just bought a house with an acre of land. This lot was a wooded area and good bit of the land was not cleared by the builder and it looked like a small jungle. We have been clearing brush and dead limbs. We want to keep the areas (back and 2 sides) kind of like a nature area between our neighbors.

There are many small pin oak trees of all different sizes. There are other trees,too, but I immediately recognized the pin oaks. There are so many and they are too close together. Can those trees be transplanted to pots and given away or even sold? I hate the idea of killing those tiny trees. There are new houses going up all over the place where we live. Plus, here in Central MS, we lost a ton of tree from hurricane Katrina. Call me a tree love but I sure hate to see those little trees purposely destroyed when so many trees were destroyed during the hurricane.

Donna

Donna, I know what you mean. I have small ceders, maples and mulberry trees sprouting up all the time. They can be easily potted up and wintered over until spring, then planted or given away. I started a living fence with 15 young ceders a few years back, now they are almost touching each other and provide privacy for my city lot.
Andy P

I wonder, are Pin Oaks native to Mississippi? Not sure but I think they might be?
Oaks are difficult to transplant, even as seedlings, but give it a try.

At age 12 thru 18, I pulled up little douglas fir seedlings growing on the railroad tracks, and transplanted them to a piece of land my parents owned. Most of them died because of my inexperience, but it was a great learning experience. So, a lot died in the process, but it isn't like these douglas firs would've had a great life on the railroad tracks, either. Many lived, and are now huge adult trees that would not be there if I hadn't planted them there. It's very rewarding to see them, and to know that I planted them when they were just 4 inches tall.

"Tree lover" that's not so bad...."tree hugger"...well.
People purposely destroy trees all the time, of course, but, I like your idea. If you start hugging them....well.

No, Owl is right -- pin oak is not native to Mississippi, so you probably have something else like Nuttall's oak or water oak. Here's a secret: you always can tell if you have pin oak by watching the wood -- it will lengthen under certain conditions, so it's what was used to make the puppet Pin-oak-io! Hee-hee-hee!

Consider trying a few of the seedlings and see what happens. Take them bare-root during the dormant season, and observe the root structure on hte first few so you will know how deep and wide to dig next time. Also, leave more than you eventually want, because that will give you the opportunity later to thin them and save the very best ones.

Guy S. (unabashed tree-hugger!)

Most water oaks will have leaves that are lobed like pin oak when they are young. Then when they get older they will start to have the more typical spatula shape. I have thousands of water oak seedlings on my property. However they could be southern red oaks(quercus falcata).