My wife and I planted a bare root bur oak in spring 2023. (We live in southeast PA). Don’t know how old it was then, but couldn’t be too old. It was about 12 feet tall. It’s nearly double in height now, and I’m even spotting acorns! After reading this, I’m wondering, how much can the rain of the past few years, along with steady watering I did during the one drought we had, explain this anomaly in early maturation?
I’m sure it contributed. Bur oaks can be astonishingly fast growing when young. Size, rather than age, is often a determinant of maturation. Take good care of it but don’t baby it, and you may have it for hundreds of years.
thanks. I had never seen the soil moisture maps before, just never knew to look for them, so thanks for the link. The excess moisture is very obvious this year in terms of vegetation growth, we are seeing new plants that we've never really noticed before. The cliff behind our house which is shaded most of the day, getting sunlight only in the mid to late afternoon and then generally only in the summer months, have always had a lot of jewel weed on them (and shade and moisture loving plant), but this year another herbaceous plant with much larger leaves and fewer smaller flowers has taken over and crowding out a lot of the jewel weed. It's probably been there before, just not in this abundance. I worry about the jewel weed being over taken, because it is an important food source for migrating hummingbirds who show up just about the time the jewel weed blooms in late August and September.
Great post! curious about how to show variations over time. A rapid change of Short-Term Composite Drought Indicator.over time means a change in the conditions - what's the best way to show that information? a time series of maps?
My wife and I planted a bare root bur oak in spring 2023. (We live in southeast PA). Don’t know how old it was then, but couldn’t be too old. It was about 12 feet tall. It’s nearly double in height now, and I’m even spotting acorns! After reading this, I’m wondering, how much can the rain of the past few years, along with steady watering I did during the one drought we had, explain this anomaly in early maturation?
I’m sure it contributed. Bur oaks can be astonishingly fast growing when young. Size, rather than age, is often a determinant of maturation. Take good care of it but don’t baby it, and you may have it for hundreds of years.
thanks. I had never seen the soil moisture maps before, just never knew to look for them, so thanks for the link. The excess moisture is very obvious this year in terms of vegetation growth, we are seeing new plants that we've never really noticed before. The cliff behind our house which is shaded most of the day, getting sunlight only in the mid to late afternoon and then generally only in the summer months, have always had a lot of jewel weed on them (and shade and moisture loving plant), but this year another herbaceous plant with much larger leaves and fewer smaller flowers has taken over and crowding out a lot of the jewel weed. It's probably been there before, just not in this abundance. I worry about the jewel weed being over taken, because it is an important food source for migrating hummingbirds who show up just about the time the jewel weed blooms in late August and September.
These are good observations. I will have a story on rain and tree growth this week.
Great post! curious about how to show variations over time. A rapid change of Short-Term Composite Drought Indicator.over time means a change in the conditions - what's the best way to show that information? a time series of maps?
Along with many of my author colleagues, I do not participate in any activity that uses AI, which has not place in our society.