any help is welcome - 6' white/red oak

I had to move a 6' oak today (Sept. 18)

The date was unavoidable. The fact is I had to move it or lose it. Since I would rather take that 10% chance, I would like to try to increase my chances as much as possible.

Info: oak tree; not sure white or red - leaves show signs of soft point lobes but rounded overall; 1.5" base measured at inches above ground level; separates into 3 trunks; great green leaf color; I live in Zone 10 - California; Temp is ave. 76deg and winter rarely gets below 40deg at night; tree is very strong looking leaves and trunk very nice, no sign of fatigue or damage; estimate 6 years old

Here is the scenario - Tree was growing within a HUGE cedar (35'w x 30't with 3 MAIN trunks). I could not dig an adequate root ball and after diligent attempts I was only able to pull out mostly bare root.

Again - I know the chances are anywhere from 1%-10%. Therefore, even 1% increase is a great help.

So I was wondering, would my chances increase If I prune the tree down to take some stress off of the lacking root system? Or, would it be better to not touch it and the higher quantity of leaves would help to produce more of the "food" nutrients needed for root creation?

Are there any other suggestions which may increase chances of success?

I want to eventually use this tree as a bonsai many years from now, so cutting the trunk ALL the way down (if safe and/or increases chance of success) does not bother me.

ps. along with the oak I had to move a small beech tree, reading up it has much better success probability. But any suggestions would be nice too. -2ft tall; 2/3" trunk diam at base; strong leaves w/ brilliant green color. thin, by age, but strong trunk. estimate 1.5-2 years old

hello , the solution (one off many solutions ) is : the root graft.
you approach grafting of young oak at the nebari of the tree.
Three or four years later, you cut the stem of seedlings and keep only the roots , look to the photograph:

i used this technic ten years ago for transplant this very big oak.

?

well i appreciate the try... my difficulty was understanding what you meant by that. But graphing would be my last try, I got a post earlier on yahoo answers and a lady told me to top it... she suggested that the small amount of roots would definitely not be able to support the demand the leaves put on them. So what I think I am going to do is, cut it down to the lowest possible offshoot to retain SOME foliage, and hope for back budding, that way there are more than sufficient roots for the few leaves I am going to spare.

Also, another informational page gave a second pruning season of late summer, so this may actually be my best scenario.

If i cut it down tonight I will try hard to remember to post an update.

This is before
i47.servimg.com/u/f47/16/87/88/52/p1010612.jpg

i47.servimg.com/u/f47/16/87/88/52/p1010614.jpg

and then after cutting. I sealed the 5 wounds. The leaves are already sad from the shock after 1 day. Hopefully the root system can perk them up and start new budding growth

i47.servimg.com/u/f47/16/87/88/52/p1010615.jpg

You can try soaking in a seasol solution for a day and mist the leaves.

Mick