Our Farm

Coast Redwoods, Sequoia sempervirens, can be planted close to each other, 3 – 7 feet apart and then pruned and groomed to be a hedge.  Ours was planted out of 24 inch containers and within 3 years, a fully private hedge was created.  For this one, trees were placed about 4 feet apart and are now 12 feet tall.  It is pruned so that the top is narrower than the base so the sun keeps the interior green, not browned which would happen if no light penetrates.  Plan your height so that your ladder works!  Redwoods are shallow rooted and need to be watered if they are not in a fog zone.  Here at the Main Street Tree farm we have a single tree that has a 6-foot diameter trunk and makes quite an impact when you walk up to it through bush and suddenly see the massive giant’s base up close.

Mike is working hard on re-oaking strategies for Napa and California.  We are growing trees to be used for restoring native oaks to parts of Napa.  Sometimes the location for the oak planting is in a home landscape setting and is easier to care for the tree while it is getting established and other times there are challenges to get the tree up to a big enough size where watering, gophers, deer, erosion, cattle, other rodents, weeds ….. are not going to prevent success.  The interest in reoaking is going up and up lately.  We are experimenting with many different ideas to make it work.  In this picture Mike is taking a break from dissecting test root balls to study the recovery of the tap root in a transplant.  Brownie is available to help make farming fun.

We are famous for our large sized Valley Oak, aka Quercus lobata.  This picture shows a couple in 48 inch diameter containers.  They are about twenty feet tall and about 5 inch caliper (the width of the trunk).  These trees do fine with good watering after they are put in their forever home.  The Valley Oak is very fast growing if planted in their favorite habitat which is the valley floor, clay soil is great for them.  The range goes to 1500 feet.  They are also called water oak and are not the type of native oak that hates to be watered.  They even grow in the river!  They will find the water table with a strong tap root that reforms and drills deep deep deep into the clay for summer water.  Until that happens you will need a drip system so it won’t dry out in the summer.  The whole valley floor here in Napa was Valley Oak back in the day before wheat, fruit trees and finally wine grapes dominate.  Usually you will see the round apple sized gall balls hanging and that will help identify a Valley Oak from a distance.  If you are from other parts of the US you would call this tree a White Oak.  Beautiful!

We carefully collect acorns to grow up to sizes for people to purchase and plant so that they can have more oaks trees on their property.  Acorns planted would do the job if those busy critters don’t munch your tree as a snack.  The Quercus lobata or Valley Oak and the Quercus agrifolia or Coast Live Oak are both fairly fast growing oak trees.  The Q. douglasii or Blue Oak though is slow growing.  We have some that are crossed in nature with the Valley Oak and it is much faster growing (than straight Blue Oak) called Jolon Oak.  It is CUTE!

Thanks Rob!  We love our new sign.