I have seen white and burr oaks do this when they get a really good growth spurt. It looks completely stupid, but they grow out of it on their own after a year or two.

Would be interested in any opinions as to if something should be done, but doesn't SEEM necessary.

Should straighten up on its own next growing season. I agree with corkball.

Tnanks for the replies, and for including in them some possible time frames.

first... what kind of oak???

next ..... how old is the tree ...

when was it planted.. how many years ago ...

how did you plant it..

and what fertilizer are you giving it ... hopefully none ..

excessive top growth would be a sign of too much fert .. no 6 foot oak that i grow in MI [maybe in your zone they grow like this year around??? ... where are you???] .... should grow a 6 foot leader in any given year ... its just wrong.. lol ...

a pic would sure be better than the drawing ... and we can probably ID it with a pic of the leaves ...

ken

What Ken said about fert being a possible culprit is correct. The tree should still straighten out on it's own next year, though. If you did heavily fert it this year, it might be a good idea to cut back on the fert next year.

I have a q. texana that puts out tremendous leader growth every year (4-5') and flops a little (not as much as your picture). It straightens out mostly by the end of the growing season. The following season, it points straight up, while the new years growth starts extending.

Fertizer perhaps, but certainily not excessive with regard to dosage and frequency.
My trees seldom are given fertilizer. I think once in 2013; it would have been
sometime in Q3. Long-term lack of growth seemed to call for it.
10-12-10 beads on ground.
All trees grew much. This one more exuberantly.

Do we expect branches to grow someday anywhere along that leader?

Every leaf on that leader should have a bud under/over it on the stem. When the tree becomes active this spring, each bud will break and extend creating small branches. Do you know what type of oak you have?

This post was edited by j0nd03 on Fri, Jan 24, 14 at 21:55

Species could be Q. geminata, which I base on similarity to this photo.
I civilize the unruly habit by pruning.

Here comes the photo.

I imagined something worse than that.

I wouldn't worry about it much.

> Posted by famartin
> I imagined something worse than that.

What "that"? The drawing or the photo?
Photo is not of mine.

Ah, sorry, got confused.

My crabapple has done that since last spring.

I was told by folks who know a lot more about plants than I do that it will grow out of it as the truck grows and the tree ages. It appears to be perfectly healthy though it looks wierd.

This post was edited by jcalhoun on Sun, Jan 26, 14 at 15:58