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| I'm in Myrtle Beach, SC - zone 8a. About 4 miles from the ocean and with nicely enriched sandy soil.
We have three live oaks in the front. The back garden has a bunch of mature loblolly pines that are probably the same age as the house - approx 30 years, so I'm not expecting them to last too much longer. I want to start interplanting some trees so when the pines start declining I've got a good head start on new trees. They'll obviously be competing with the pines, but there doesn't seem to be a shortage of water - we have a drainage ditch that runs right next to the house and even during the mini-dry run in June/July this year (it sprinkled once in a 5 week period) the ditch didn't dry up. Are there any oaks that would be suitable? I'd rather not put in more live oaks, but rather some other oaks. |
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| Pin oak, also known as Spanish Swamp oak is very tolerant of wet soils. It is deciduous. |
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| Make sure your soil isn't alkaline though. They are beautiful trees, I have 2 myself. You may have salt issues too. I am guessing that occasional hurricanes push salt water in that far. Nuttals oak,Willow oak, Swamp white oak. Ehow says Eastern pin oak is salt sensitive, but do some websearches on your own because they are not always right. The Nuttals oak, Willow oak and Swamp white oak were listed as salt tolerant, do some checks yourself because there are conflicting search results. Those 3 are wet soil tolerant, I have them in a soggy area in my yard, so I can say I know THAT from experience anyway. |
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- Posted by widdringtonia 8a (My Page) on Sun, Oct 14, 12 at 10:37
| I've never had a soil test done, but I'm reasonably confident that the soil is on the acid side as there are 7 mature and healthy gardenias in the garden. I have no idea if we're far enough inland that salt shouldn't be a problem. |
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| How about Quercus Pagodifolia, Cherrybark Oak. Fast growing, fall color, the strongest and best shaped of all red oaks, a native of the south and tolerant of wet soils |
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| There are two sources of salt contamination from a hurricane. The first and most obvious is water that is forced up ditches and such. The second and less obvious is that from salt spray carried inland by the winds. In Fran we had several transformers blow because the salt collected on them and shorted them out. Also as I remember the Christmas tree suffered significantly that fall. So even if there are no major water sources near you, you could have a salt problem. |
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| Salt spray carried inland from hurricanes rarely does anything worse than defoliate an intolerant deciduous tree, and they'll grow back the following season. It's the saltwater flooding that really damages the trees that are not tolerant. My Nuttal oak, red oak, and swamp white oaks leaves all died and fell off a day or two after the salt spray from Isaac, but I know they will come back in the spring just fine. Water oak and Live Oak wont lose their leaves, but you said you wouldn't want Live oak, and honestly, Water oaks are weak wooded, short lived, and uproot easily. Willow oaks also probably wont defoliate, but they perform just like Water oaks around here, so I don't recommend them. You should do fine with a Nuttal, a type of red oak, or Swamp White oak. If you have a hurricane, they might lose all their leaves a day or two after the storm (the ones that don't get blasted off), but in the spring they will bounce back.
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| Loblolly Pines should live to 70-100 yrs. Unless they look unhealthy or they are getting too big, they don't necessarily need to be removed after 30 yrs. Your soil is probably acidic as Loblolly has to have neutral or acidic soil too thrive. |
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- Posted by alabamatreehugger 8a/8b south Alabama (My Page) on Tue, Oct 16, 12 at 22:44
| Swamp White Oak is typically a northern tree, Swamp Chesnut Oak is more suited to SC. |
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- Posted by alabamatreehugger 8a/8b south Alabama (My Page) on Tue, Oct 16, 12 at 22:47
| I would actually plant some Longleaf Pines beneath the Loblolly pines. When the day comes and the Loblollys need to come down, you'll have some good strong Longleaf pines as replacements. |
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| ^The Longleaf Pine idea sounds like a terrific! |
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- Posted by widdringtonia 8a (My Page) on Fri, Oct 19, 12 at 21:12
| Longleaf pines, hmm? I'll have to think about that. I'm not much of a pine lover. Do longleafs (longleaves?) have the same spiky pinecones that loblollies do? Those spiky cones are the reason I really, really don't like the loblollies. It's impossible to walk outside without shoes. The pines we had in South Africa, where I grew up, had nice smooth cones - we used to collect them for making Christmas decorations. (Sorry, got sidetracked there.) Anyway, I adore oaks, but I suppose I could add in a longleaf pine or two without too much trouble. Thank you for your suggestions. |
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- Posted by alabamatreehugger 8a/8b south Alabama (My Page) on Fri, Oct 19, 12 at 21:35
| Longleaf pine cones are really big, so I doubt you'd be walking on any of them. I've seen some about 5" diameter. Other advantages to Longleaf is that the pine beetles tend to leave them alone, also the wood is stronger (than Loblolly) which makes them less likely to snap in storms. I've probably planted 30 Longleafs on my property, but I cut down every Loblolly sapling I find. |
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