How To? -- Planting Oaks From Acorns

[tim1234]

I want to plant some Oaks in the woods behind my house.  The Ash went the way of the Borer, the Elms are gone from Dutch Elm.  Really the only thing left is cotton wood, a few Sycamore and Maples.  Most are Maples and they aren't looking great this year.  I have a lot of Oaks in my yard with lots of acorns. 

What is the process that will give me the best results if I want to plant some of the Acorns and get the best chances of successful growth. 

Here is a pick of some of the car hood donkers I've collected today.

 

From 80' to 100' up these babys reach terminal velocity right before they leave thier mark on my cars

Any help would be appreciated.

Tim

[Radar67]

Park somewhere else   

Stew

[tim1234]

Radar 67

If you could see my yard, no where is safe

Tim

[Fla._Deadheader]

 You kinda have to assimilate nature.  Act like a squirrel, and "Bury" some nuts. 

[sawguy21]

Are you gonna wait for them to grow into nice shade trees that donk someone else's car?

[SwampDonkey]

Poke a hole in the ground and drop the seed in and scuff it over a bit with the boot. Plant in fall when ripe off the tree. You can try a big pot in the spring after storing some seed in a sealed tupperware dish in the fridge, or try some frozen in ice in the freezer. I planted 3 that were in ice over winter and stuck them in a pot, 1 came up and I been planting nuts off it for a few years now. It is a 20 year old tree now.

[tim1234]

Swampdonkey,

Do you just play the law of averages an plant as many as you can or is there something specific I can do to increase my chances.  I've got about 100 acorns collected today with a lot more to come.  I believe the ones falling now are red oak.  The white oaks don't seem to be dropping yet.

Tim

[SwampDonkey]

Use the floater test. Get the scrub pale full of water and toss in the acorns. Most floaters are duds, keep the sinkers. Also, toss the ones with pin holes, grubs.

[tim1234]

SwampDonkey,

I googled your suggestion (floating sinking acorns) and found this study.  It says tree collected acorns are better than ground collected acorns, but sinkers are better than floaters overall. 

Pretty cool.  Thanks for the tip.  I'll plant a bunch and see what happens in the spring.  I would assume a winter in the woods is a good substitue for the fridge or freezer.   Assuming the squirells don't get em.

How tall/Big around is your 20 yr old potted oak?
 
http://www.rngr.net/Publications/tpn/37/37_3_8_12.pdf/file

Thanks again,

Tim

Pretty cool that a simple test works.

[Dan_Shade]

i had them sprouting everywhere, all over my yard this spring from the white oak in my yard.

i didn't want to mow them down, so I used that as an excuse to not mow the grass.

[SwampDonkey]

Yes, tree picked ones are usually best as they are still connected to life support. The ones on the ground could have been aborted for being sterile, wormy, or from wind and they laid there for 3 weeks in the heat and spoiled, or an anxious squirrel starting cutting them off the tree before they were mature. August seems early for acorn collection. I collect in September. I find the ones on the ground are consumed by skunks and coons, right quick. 

My tree is about 20 feet tall and about 8 inches on the but. Obviously not still in the pot.

Reminds me of the butternut seed from last year that dropped and I didn't pick up last fall. Had 5 or 6 germinate this summer, cut most off with the mower and left one standing. Almost as bad as weeds.  Should'a seen last year's lawn crop in the butternut seedling thread. Amazing how a nut like that will take root is dry, hard, grass-bound, lawn soil without even burying it.

[Furby]

Yeah, I was going to comment on them being way too early.
We will get out drop in September or October.

[tim1234]

I thought it was early too, but the acorns look pretty big.  These are off a huge 3' to 4' diameter red oak that is really healthy.  Seems we always get a bumper crop when it has been a dry year.

Tim

[SwampDonkey]

This years seed crop is determined by conditions the previous year. Pre-programed in the over wintering bud. You can actually dissect a flower bud and see the primordium. Easier to find a flower bud in some species than others, especially those that flower before leaf elongation, such as aspen.

[tonich]

Moist prechilling treatment of oak acorns is well-known method. It gives best result when dealing with heavy seeds of oaks. The heavier are the seed, the more time it takes for “stratification”. It is supposed to be done immediately after seed’s dropping. By that stage they matured, but not ready to germinate, since they fall into dormancy.
Different facilities have been used here to get over the seed’s dormant state, which is very typical for heavy seeds. The easiest one is containing in wooden boxes in moistened sand in cold place for 4-5-6 months.
Of course, this all is to be practiced if many seeds for sowing are produced. In your case, SD’s tips should work fine. 


SD,
There is a method for predicting fully excellent seed year of the Common Beech (Fagus Silvatica), by shooting down flower buds. It is a great fun!   

[Dodgy Loner]

You've gotten some good advice so far, but I thought I'd mention one more thing.  White oak acorns germinate in the late fall/winter, so if you collect any of them, just go ahead and plant them.  Red oak acorns germinate in the spring, so you can either chill them in the fridge, or plant them in the fall and let nature do the chilling for you.

I plant seeds of all types in a plowed bed.  Depending on your soil type, you might want to add some amendments of some type.  We have clay soil, so I add plenty of sand.  I also add highly decomposed compost.  I plow all of this together, then plant my seeds at the recommended depth (for most acorns, 1" should be fine) at a spacing of about 4" x 4".  Finally, I give the bed a 3-4" layer of mulch.  The mulch need not be decomposed.  I use wood shavings (not walnut!) straight from my woodshop.  The shavings will help hold in water the next year and prevent weed growth.  The seedling have no trouble pushing up through it.

After your seedlings have sprouted next year, you will want to keep them watered and fertilized, but don't overdo it.  If any of them start looking unhealthy, just pull them out and let the others have some more room.  After one growing season, I do one of two things:  I either replant them in pots until they are several feet tall (usually 2-3 growing seasons); or I just plant them wherever I want them.  The mortality rate will be a lot higher if you don't pot them, but if you've got plenty of seedlings, then you can stand to lose a few.  Hope this helps!

[SwampDonkey]

When I did mine in the lower end of the garden, I kinda just broadcast them like grass seed and raked them in the soil. Then I took sugar maple leaves and covered them to hold moister like Dodgy said, only he used saw dust shavings. I had oak coming everywhere, but hard to manage. The mice sure ate lots to, in the winter when they tunnel in the grass. So now I just poke one here and there in the ground where there is least shade/ground cover. When I took and broadcast seed in the air on the woodlot I had very few successful germinants, but I'm finding some new ones every fall when I can see the red foliage.

Never knew white oak germinate in the fall because I ain't dealt with them much, but I've been in white oak forest in Virginia in October. I might have been told about the germination, but I was too busy picking. I do know sugar maple will germinate in the fall and right on top of the newly fallen soggy leaves. Soggy because of the fall rains. My white oak seed are all duds this year, no pollen.   

[thecfarm]

I usally have 100's spurting up all by themselves in a small section of woods that I keep cleaned up.But these are red oak.They even grow along side the dirt road growing in the gravel.I get them growing in the garden too.

[tim1234]

Stuff always grows best where you don't want it to.  Like grass in the cracks of your driveway

[Lanier_Lurker]

Use the floater test. Get the scrub pale full of water and toss in the acorns. Most floaters are duds, keep the sinkers. Also, toss the ones with pin holes, grubs.

Does the floater test work with hickory nuts as well?