Rocket Red Oak Acorns

Currently not available "Rocket" red oak is a seedling selected from my oak planting beds collected from seed found in rural Kalamazoo County, Michigan. I was growing numerous red oaks for the conservation trade and found one tree in particular that had grown to 4-5 ft. in two years in an untended unirrigated planting bed. Its size dwarfed the other trees which had mostly fallen into the 12-18 inch category. As a result, I moved this tree a few feet away at the base of a hill in a soil that is almost pure sand. In a short period of 30 years the tree had grown incredibly fast reaching 60 ft. very quickly with a strong upright open crown. It started fruiting in 2018. 

The actual parent trees of  "Rocket" came from an amazing amount of acorns blanketing the roadside and a nearby cornfield. The owner of the land let me collect several hundred pounds of acorns under these trees which I thought were some sort of weird hybrid with their unusual elongated acorns.  I planted the acorns and produced over 4000 seedlings for a New York conservation nursery. One of the seedlings grew to 5 ft. in two years in this unirrigated planting bed. The remaining seedlings were barely 12-18" tall.  "Rocket" was tagged and moved to its permanent location the next year where it continued its fast growth rate.

Rocket red oak is a good selection to develop for fast growth and strong upright growth with lack of narrow crotch angles. The acorns are produced in great abundance but would likely need two plants to prevent blanks or another red oak of any type. If this seed strain was continued someone could make a small orchard of these trees and create even faster growing oak trees with great lumber potential. Although there are a few red oak cultivars, often these are not available due to graft failures and low vigor on grafted trees due to incompatible rootstocks. So growing from seed is a good way a diverse genetically different seed population. This selection is not a hybrid.

Scion wood is currently not available and will require a tree climber to obtain it. If interested let me know, but keep in mind, the cost of this additional service by hiring a professional tree service to do this. The upper part of the tree is the only place to get good scionwood.