The Naked Oak Tree Farm

09/14/2026

This September has been a caterpillar and wasp zoo in the nursery! I'm glad they can grow so well even on the seedling trees, though the To***co Hornworms did go a little crazy on the American Hollies, but the parasitic wasps took care of the issue before it went too far. Entomology experts please weigh in on any incorrect identifications!

edit: had to re-post to remove that Facebook chat forced option. Clicking on pictures should finally work now!

08/31/2026

One of the greatest things about a family business is watching the next generation learn and complete meaningful work that they can be proud of, even at a very young age. These black willow seedlings were collected and germinated this spring in a flat in the hoophouse under vermiculite and mist. Here we break off a handful at a time and plant them into individual pots. Unlike hardwood trees that need careful root pruning and placement in each pot, black willows have a fibrous root system and are much more forgiving during transplanting - so a perfect task for the kiddos! These black willow seedlings will be ready next year, and each was transplanted by these hard workers.

08/20/2026

Figured out the website a little more and can now setup something we have wanted to for a long time. Followers of this page, when purchasing on the website, can enter this discount code for 20% off anytime. Thanks for your support!

TNOTF26

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08/18/2026

One thing we really need to start posting more about is our conservation projects. The main point of the nursery was always to support these projects, and your support helps us continue paying for expenses related to these initiatives. We always steered clear from research grants mainly because they usually require a deadlines or milestone updates on the order of months to a couple years. Unfortunately trees don't work like that and research just takes as long as research takes. We didn't want to spend more time writing project reports than actual work, or compromise on available observational data because of time constraints. Our website has sporadic updates in the conservation tab, but it's much easier to post smaller interim updates on Facebook, so that is what we will do.

To that end, I wanted to mention how happy I am today with the continued support from people around the country on our Red Mulberry project. Continuing on on from Weston Lombard and Ohio State's DNA project in 2022, we are collecting fresh re-samples this year of previously identified "pure" and "mostly pure" red mulberry trees. That boundary between pure and mostly pure is what we are building our morphological assessment to confirm. The continued support from those donating their time and efforts to ship us samples greatly enhances the quality of this assessment by giving us the genetic diversity needed to capture any regional variations in pure red mulberry and differentiate those from hybrids. Building on previous efforts, the final goal is to produce a macro and microscopic assessment that is as good as high quality DNA testing in identifying pure trees. Our collaborator Paul Adanick specializes in amazing microscopic photography, plant research, and characterization especially around trichome density in this case, which has already been proven as one of the most statistically significant traits of pure red mulberry.

The below map shows all of those who are supporting this project by sending in more samples this year. Thank you!

08/18/2026

As our family stays more than busy each year managing a small backyard nursery, we also try to plan for the future. These are beach plums from a potted 3 gallon tree. Not only did it produce a very large crop at a young age and ripen earlier than others, it also (most importantly) passed the taste test as our young son ate them like candy.

Many customers have asked for named varieties of native plants for garden use for a more consistent taste and growing habit. While our main focus will always be local wild ecotypes, we also want to provide options to use native fruiting plants in gardens in place of foreign ones. Native Americans in these same lands did the same and it's rewarding to eat and appreciate the fruit endemic to this region.

This one we are calling 'Provider' due to it's large crop and reliability, with excellent fruit quality and taste. We will take cuttings next season and if they are stable and grow the same over the next few years we will start offering them in the future as a horticultural option.

This is in addition to American Persimmons which we also plan to start grafting next year. The non-local native option 'Yates' is well known and makes very large and tasty fruit, though we also plan to clone a wild local favorite and see how that goes as well.

08/12/2026

Hard to believe, but it's officially the start of our fall seed collection season. This started with Black Cherry two weeks ago, followed closely by American Elderberry and now Sassafras. (We even now have an unusually early bearing Beach Plum to collect seed from, super early and not usual, but delicious!)

Some tools that are essential for this process are shown below. One of the absolute best has been these catch nets, which are nothing more than insect garden netting suspended by step-in posts. Instead of looking for low hanging branches or picking up seeds from the forest floor individually, these can be setup and monitored daily.

The other is a standard kitchen food mill to scuff off tough pulp, and then a food processor with plastic blades to clean on the remaining pulp. Most hard small seeds can be cleaned in this manner. It's easiest to let them soak and slightly ferment for a few days to allow the pulp to soften first, as long as the seeds are kept cool. We also mix them in an acidic enzyme bath designed to mimic a birds stomach which cleans the pulp off very well. The pulp of many fruits contains compounds that inhibit germination, so removal in a controlled manner helps get a more consistent germination rate the first season they are planted.

Some seeds drop with immature embryos, like Elderberry seeds. They need some warm moist stratification after this point to continue developing, but most seeds can go directly into moist stratification in the fridge for next season or dried further for the freezer to store for many years to come. We have mostly always just collected for the subsequent year, but with more freezer space now we are starting to collect for the future.

Seed collection schedule for our area in the last picture for those interested in collecting your own!

07/14/2026

Peaceful morning today continuing to up-pot seedlings. Here is a 1 gallon pawpaw going up to a 3 gallon pot. I included pictures that show the process of cutting the pots off and peeling the fabric off the root ball, this is identical to how they should be planted.
You can see the many root tips just at the edge of the root ball ready to immediately grow into wherever the tree is placed. This is one of the reasons why they do so well transplanting even outside the optimal transplant windows of spring/fall (always using mulch!).
The last root ball picture is a good example of how a tap root self prunes and creates many new forks and root tips. These will be ready in the fall.

07/13/2026

Our customers care about the ecosystem and are looking for native trees and shrubs for their homes and landscape. Sometimes that means a suburban yard becoming a refuge for native wildlife, sometimes that means rehabilitating newly purchased residential land, and sometimes that means planting out in protected state parks and refuges. No matter the situation, it usually involves reclaiming areas previously impacted with invasive plants.

One of the most important steps after removing invasives is restoring the landscape to rebalance the soil life and bring in more native insects. Trees and shrubs are only part of the solution. It’s critically important to start restoring native herbaceous species and one of the most knowledgeable local nursery owners I’ve ever met is Magi at the MagiK Garden out of Blue Bell PA. - https://themagikgarden.com/
She is actively restoring her woodland and has the knowledge and plants to help you start restoring your land. You can order on the website for pickup. Its worth the trip!

Edit: farmers market picks up in the fall, order online anytime and pickup at her nursery!

07/08/2026

As promised, here are the species currently ready for sale at July 20% off pricing! Open days this month are July 12, 19, and 26. See link in comments for booking an appointment.

Conservation project pricing remains at the usual 40% off for orders of 10+.

07/07/2026

Finally finished up-potting all seedlings into smaller pots just before the July 4th weekend! Yes this is very late!

Now moving onto up-potting last year's smaller pots into larger pots for the fall. Here are some nice beach plums moving on from 1 gallon to 3 gallon pots.

This also means I need more space. A row of 5 three-gallon pots takes up the same space as 24 one-gallon pots. So, July 12th and 19th, and 26th will be our Mid-Summer sale with everything at 20% off. This means:
1 gallon pots go from $15 to $12
2 gallon pots go from $25 to $20
3 gallon pots go from $30 to $24
5 gallon pots go from $50 to $40

Next post will have inventory updates with pictures of available species and current size.

Sonia says we need to standardize our annual sales so going forward July will be Mid-Summer Sale (20% off) and September will be our Fall Sale (20% off).

Happy Planting!