Fast growing shade tree to replace our 70' White Oak

We lost our gorgeous and very large shade tree during Hurricane Ike last fall.
It broke our hearts, and now we're left with this nice stump.
We'd like to plant another tree in its place, but wonder if there's something that might grow quickly to provide shade before we retire in 15 years!!

Someone sent me seeds for Acer saccharinum (Silverleaf Maple), but after reading the comments about it I'm apprehensive to start it.
I dearly LOVE the A. palmatum but a) they're not tall enough for shade, and b) take longer to grow anyway.

We have many native oaks on our 5-1/2 acres, but not sure which grows the fastest - assuming we replace the White Oak with another oak.
We have only seen one other White Oak on the property anyway, and no saplings/seedlings.

Open to suggestions.

LOL ok wait... What I meant to say was '70 year old white oak'
Good grief! Maybe about 30-40'

Sorry about the typo - no way to correct that part!

Shumard Oak and Bur Oak are both quite fast, and very nice trees; both TX natives.

Resin

Oh cool! Thank you! Will go right now and add them to my wants list!!

And/or post a request for a trade!

Another quick growing Oak native to East Texas is Cherry Bark Oak (Quercus pagoda). It grows fast and will get very large with time also. I also 2nd Bur Oak and Shumard Oak as possibilities for you too.

I'm glad you guys mentioned the Red Oaks... that's the name of our street ;-)

another one added to my wants list!

When young live oaks, Quercus virginiana, are fast growing. I also love Bur oaks. If you buy a Shumard, be sure you actually get a Quercus shumardii. Some nurseries sell Q. rubra, the northern red oak, as Shumard oaks. The northern red oak will not grow in soils with a pH over 7.0. If your soil is alkaline, make your your Shumard was grown in similar soil.

Good info! Thank you!!

Yes, good advice from bettydee. I don't know why, but a lot of nurseries in Texas, especially Northern Texas, will often lump Shumard, Northern Red, and Texas Red Oaks all together and simply call them Red Oak. A quick relatively easy way to tell if it's a Shumard Oak and not Northern Red Oak is the upper leaf surface. On Northern Red Oak it will be dull and not shiny at all, while on Shumard Oak it will be shiny and not at all dull. Also if you look at the lobes on the leaf on Northern Red Oak they won't get wider the farther out from the middle of the leaf you go, but they do on Shumard Oak. A good quick way to tell Shumard Oak from Texas Red Oak is to look at the leaf underside along the main leaf vein and if you can see little tufts of hairs where a smaller vein branches off, then it's Shumard Oak, if you don't see those tufts of hair, or if you have to really strain to see them then it's Texas Red Oak. That's assuming you already eliminated Northern Red Oak. Also, Northern Red Oak will have relatively shallow sinuses between the lobes, not extending more than 1/2 way towards the leaf middle, while Shumard Oak will have deeper sinuses and Texas Red Oak often will have the deepest and widest lobes, so it's leaves will look more "airy" than Shumard or Northern Red Oak.

I thought of another excellent relatively quick growing Oak you could try also, which is Chinquapin Oak(Quercus muehlenbergii). It will grow in just about any kind of soil and when young grows quite fast. It won't get quite as large as the other suggestions, but can still get as tall as 80', although often only around 50' or 60' tall.

This message was edited Apr 29, 2009 10:10 PM

Wow Kman! That's a lotta info there! I'm going to print that when we go shopping for trees!
We have 5-1/2 acres here, most of it wooded. My husband bought this place 10 yrs. ago and I moved in 4 years ago. He seemed to think this huge one that fell was the only one on the property. Not that I'm saying he doesn't know what he's talking about, but with 5-1/2 acres I just find that hard to believe.

The oak on the ground is still trying to grow, I have to assume because the roots are still intact and can still provide water and other nutrients to the limbs and leaves. I compared the leaf structure to that of a 3' sapling I found on another part of the property and transplanted it.

Do you think my little sapling could be the same? Or just possibly similar? Maybe I should post pictures of both for comparison if I want someone to answer that intelligently.

It's quite possible, but yes photos would be best for a definitive answer. In my little experience in East Texas and the Piney Woods is that White Oak (Q. alba) is found mostly in the richest moister soils near streams or on the edge of flood plains. Nowhere does it seem over abundant, or growing in mostly pure stands. It seems to be more dispersed into small groups or individuals. It grows in a similar distribution here in Kansas also, except here most of our soils are clay based and White Oak only grows on the richest and moister sandstone based soil areas. But this might not be how it is found over the entire East Texas Piney Woods area, since I've mostly only observed them North of Houston and over towards Lufkin and Nacogdoches.

Hmmmm you know a lot about our area then. This property was once a lake bed. There is a LOT of sandy soil here, and some of it loamy (due to the decomposition of some nice oak leaves). We have at least 1/2 dozen varieties of oaks and I'm by no means an expert on tree ID. It's not rocket science to see the leaves are entirely different and I do know an oak when I see one.

We also have a creek that creates our property line to the west and then south of us. We have some nice maples here, many pines, the oaks and then the odd tree that may have been the product of bird droppings (who knows?) I found a sassafras along a trail a couple of years ago and have protected it with a tomato cage (and it's not much taller).

All that to say it would stand to reason that the white oaks might be few and far between in here, and that perhaps similar looking trees may just be 'cousins'. I think I will invest in a Texas tree ID book. My old boss had one I admired. He was a nature lover and it came in handy when trying to thin out the less desirable trees and keep the ones he felt were more beneficial native trees.

I sure do appreciate you sharing your knowledge with me, kman.

The most likely members of the White Oak group (aka "cousins") you'd find in the Piney Woods of East Texas are Overcop Oak (Quercus lyrata), Bastard Oak(Durand Oak) (Q. sinuata), Post Oak (Q. stellata) and Swamp Chestnut Oak (Q. michauxii). Bastard Oak may have some leaves resembling White Oak in leaf form, although it's leaves tend to be more wedge shaped with a few teeth or 3 lobed at the end. On vigorous shoots is when you can have leaves resembling White Oak. Sometimes at first glance Overcup Oak leaves can look similar to White Oak, but it's leaves tend to be more irregularly lobes and the lobes tend to be somewhat sharply lobed, compared to the rounded lobes of White Oak. It's leaves also tend to have a deep sinus on each side of the leaf just above the base, kind of like Bur Oak and of course Overcup Oak gets its name from it's acorn which is almost entirely enclosed in the cap which is unique amongst all American Oaks. Otherwise, White Oak leaves aren't all that similar to the other White Oak group Oaks you'll commonly find in East Texas. All of these other Oaks like wet conditions, wetter than White Oak typically likes, except Post Oak which is the one which prefers dry areas, drier than White Oak typically likes. White Oak will intermingle with all of these on the edges of the areas they prefer though.