English Oak Direction

I acquired this English Oak recently and would like to invite suggestions as to where to go from here.

It needs some branching on the back side of the tree for balance. Right now, it only has one small branch coming from near the bottom of the tree. Picture #2 shows this in the left hand side.

Any and all suggestions are appreciated !!

Thanks

Hello Gandalph. I see a couple of problems with your tree at present. Firstly, the lack of low branches and the distance between them. The top third of the tree has a kink that sends the tree off course. If it were mine, I would reduce the tree gradually over a couple of years to promote backbudding. I would also prune back the branches by half for the same reason. The base of the tree looks promising, a major consideatiom when choosing material.

will baddeley wrote:Hello Gandalph. I see a couple of problems with your tree at present. Firstly, the lack of low branches and the distance between them. The top third of the tree has a kink that sends the tree off course. If it were mine, I would reduce the tree gradually over a couple of years to promote backbudding. I would also prune back the branches by half for the same reason. The base of the tree looks promising, a major consideatiom when choosing material.

Thank you for the response and I do agree. In preparation for chopping I would like to increase the coverage of lower branching. In addition to the pruning of some of the upper branching , would you recommend defoliating the upper branches?

Hello Gandalph. By cutting back the branches, you will probably find most of the leaves will be removed anyway. I wouldn't leave it much longer though, as you need any new growth to be hardened off before Winter.