I bet it tries. Probably like a tree which has been topped in a bad way.

Hopefully you all have decent weather this year.

It might. Oaks will resprout from stumps (that's often how oak forests regenerate after logging) but the larger the stump, the less likely to sprout. There was a study done...I think on white oaks actually, but it showed that a 6" stump almost always sprouted but a 36" stump rarely did.

Regardless, if it does, I'd let all sprouts grow for a season then cut all but the most vigorous and well-formed one to see if you can get a new tree to grow from it.

The biggest problem is rotting of the stump & that rotting spreading to the interior of the new trunk.

Well, I really appreciated responses from Tornado3800 & HairMetal4ever, and was determined to post back. Unfortunately, it took me a while.

Oddly enough, but certainly per the responses, the old red oak did indeed begin to sprout by the middle of the summer!! The first one began about 3' down form the top of the "totem pole", and then a 2nd one followed very near the top. Now that the winter is finally fading away and spring is setting in, I can I can now see that the sprouts have set buds. Hopefully, those sprouts will mature into small "limbs" and other new sprouts will follow.

Technically they "set buds" last year, what you probably mean is that the buds are starting to swell. Which is, regardless, a good sign.

Hair, where I was in VA was a resprouted, previously cut forest (prb'ly around 1930). There were quite a few multiple-sprout oaks that apparently had trunks well over 36" in dia originally -- one chestnut oak by the house had 6 sprouts in a ring that was prb'ly 5 ft in dia. IIRC, one key to helping forest trees resprout (those that can) is to cut them as close to the ground as possible.

This post was edited by beng on Fri, Apr 18, 14 at 9:44