Southern Live Oak

Southern Live Oak Care

Quercus Virginiana

What is the plant

Quercus virginiana, also known as the southern live oak, is an evergreen oak tree endemic to the Southeastern United States. The bark is dark, thick, and furrowed longitudinally. The leaves are stiff and leathery, with the tops shiny dark green and the bottoms pale gray and very tightly tomentose, simple and typically flattish with bony-opaque margins, with a length of .75 - 6 inches (2 – 15 cm) and a width of .4 - 2 inches (1 – 5 cm), borne alternately.

Live oaks derive their name from the fact that they are evergreen and because lumbered or injured trees send up many sprouts, which also produce sprouts if cut themselves.

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Humidity

Normal

Lighting

Part Sun

Temperature

min 2°C

Hardiness zone

9 - 11

Difficulty

Medium

Hibernation

Cold Period

How to Care for the Plant

Water
Young oak trees need regular watering.
Pruning
To avoid the Nitidulid beetle and tree wilt in general, it is best to trim live oak trees during the late fall or winter months when the cold makes the insect least active during the year.
Fertilizer
In natural conditions, live oaks may not require fertilization, but in a managed landscape live oaks benefit from an appropriate fertilizer containing nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium.

Disease diagnosis

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Temperature
The average summer temperature is 27° C (80° F). The average winter temperature ranges from 2° C (35° F) in the east and west to 16° C (60° F) in the south. The frost-free period is 240 days in the east and west and more than 300 days in southern Florida (5).
Container
Young trees have a good growth rate, although we do recommend sizing up to the largest container or tree size in stock.
Additional
Young live oak leaves are also poisonous. Both the leaves and the acorns are safe to touch, and must be ingested to be harmful. Once ingested, the toxin in the plant can cause symptoms that include stomach pain, constipation, bloody diarrhea, excessive thirst, and urination. Southern live oaks are fast-growing trees, but their growth rate slows with age. They may reach close to their maximum trunk diameter within 70 years. The oldest live oaks in the country are estimated to be between several hundred to more than a thousand years old.