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?

[SwampDonkey]

Certainly.  Make sure to husk them first. Works with walnut to.

[Brad_bb]

With grape vines, I've become good at propagating in 5gallon buckets with holes in the bottom, and 10grow tubes inside the bucket.  Each grow tube has one grape vine cutting with potting soil.  I wait for about 6 inches of green growth out the top before I then remove that grow tube and and plant the vine but placing it in the hole and pushing the vine and cylinder of soil out.  I have seen pine trees grown in smaller grow tubes for planting.  It just gives you a way to easily plant and observe.  Once you get a seedling established, you can transplant.  As everyone has said, seed/nuts must overwinter in order to be able to germinate.  I have been planting new black walnut seedlings the last couple of years from the one in our yard.  Either the squirrel plants them in the hard for me, or running over them with the mower drives them in to the ground.  When I see seedlings in the spring, I dig them up and transplant them and replace the soil plug with dirt.  They continue to come up all summer.  Infact there are two that I'll probably transplant today.

[JimMartin9999]

Here is another trick. Store the red oak acorns in moist sand, outdoors over the winter(stratify).  In the spring observe  a few in a shallow planting box, pot, ground etc. 
Wait until the first one sprouts . Then plant the rest where you want them to grow.  Red oak seedls seem to give off a kind of poison about the time they sprout. This makes them unattractive to rodents and maybe worms etc.  Planting them this way gives you an edge.  Naturally, floating the seeds for viability should also improve your success rate.

[Mooseherder]

The Bluejays are hoarding all the acorns.
They aren't even ready yet but most of them are gone.

[SwampDonkey]

Thanks for the tip Jim. However, I was told by a tree nursery that they do this also. But, they always had a battle with coons digging them up. Between them and the skunks they have acorn radar. 

[Lanier_Lurker]

With hardwood seedlings that are produced in an area like Dodgy describes, can they be pulled out and transplanted "bare root" or is it better to pull a root ball with them when transplanting?

[Riles]

You'll get better survival with a root ball, because the fine root hairs remain intact (if you're doing it right), but hardwoods are transplanted from nurseries bare root all the time.

Transplanting is always better while they're dormant, but is less of an issue from container grown stock.

[Lanier_Lurker]

Sounds like unless I am doing this on a mass production basis I would do better to keep a root ball.

Another question: I have a number of northern red oak acorns I have collected that at the time had, or have developed since, splits and and cracks in the shell.  Are these a lost cause as seed or will they be ok?  They all still sink like ball bearings in a pail of water.

[routestep]

I collect and plant acorns from all over. I stratify them in slightly damp sand in 1/2 gallon ice cream containers. Gives me a reason to eat more ice cream. A thin layer of sand in the bottom, then a layer of acorns. Stratified. Ands so on until the container is full. I float the acorns first and only clean and stratify the sinkers.

 I boil up some water on the stove and put the acorns in for about 15 seconds or so. Then pour the pot of acorns through a strainer and cool down with tap water. I had some fungus develop once or twice so now I use boiling water briefly.

  Since white oaks send out a tap root in the fall, I have to use the hot water before that happens or not at all. ( I have a batch in the fridge that had sprouted and I'm seeing if the boiling water killed them.)

 I'm thinking next year to try saw dust instead of sand for the stratifying medium.

 In the spring I take the containers out of the fridge and let them warm up for about a week. I plant the ones that germinate into the ground on a random walk through my wood lot.

[SwampDonkey]

Glad to see there are more of us doing this on a continued basis. Anyone have luck with basswood. I keep planting them, but no luck germinating them. I try to use similar sites I see naturals germinating on. I see them in sugar maple stands and aspen stands around disturbed areas like a harvest trails and such.

[ely]

i have always gathered acorns from every where and planted in the strangest places. not sure if some ever made it though. i do know there are some persimmons growing in a flower bed in st.john ariz. i was visiting there one year and found some seeds in my pocket. a couple years later they were small bushes in there.

with oaks i have had my best luck sprouting them in someone potted plants in the houses.
i also use a corner of my garden but i have to put some hardware cloth over the acorns or the squirrels will dig them all up and have a feast.

[Redonthehead]

I'm a big fan of planting acorns. I'm part owner of 800 acres of hunting/ag land and have been planting bareroot seedlings for quite a few years, but have started direct-seeding also. Its' succussful enough to keep doing it.  Put in about 50 gallons of floated/stratified pin, swamp white, and bur oak acorns.

The best method I've used so far is disc up the ground with a 10' disc, broadcast the seed (by hand), then disc the acorns under.  Obviously only good for open areas.

Another method is wait for a nice late winter muddy day and take a game vest full of acorns and walk about stepping them into the mud.  For the dryer times I have made two hole "pluggers" to punch a 1.5 inch diameter hole in the ground, drop in an acorn, then replug with dirt.

Main problem is predation by mice, coons, squirrels, etc. Thus store the acorns until late winter (can't do that with white oak) and plant an inch or more deep.

[routestep]

There is a book on Amazon call "The Man Who Planted Trees". It is by Jean Giono. Appearently this French sheperd planted acorns and changed the countryside, one acorn at a time.

[SwampDonkey]

For some reason I seem to remember it being cork oak in Spain. Am I wrong?


Ok, it seems it was in Providence France. But is it a true story? I do remember a documentary about a fellow planting trees but I thought it was cork oak in Spain because they were being high graded and exploited.

[JimMartin9999]

Stratify the red oak acorns  in moist sand over the winter, in cans, outdoors. Have a few where you can observe sprouting.  When the first one sprouts in the spring, plant the rest in the ground, or pots.  Red oak acorns are attacked by mice etc. but give off some kind of chemical that makes them unattractive  shortly before they sprout.  By protecting them until shortly before they are put out, you greatly increase survival. 

The other tips also help.

[moonhill]

This is interesting, I live on the coast of Maine next of Canada.  White oak doesn't grow here, it's most likely due to our early frost which can kill the saplin, confirmed from a earlyer post. I tried once to plant red oak, stuck a stick into the ground, acorn into the hole, packed down,  than marked with a flag,  close to 100 nuts.  Some came up others didn't, probably 20%, the odd part was half or more of those came up in spots I didn't plant them in, I assume squirrels, mice or birds, and there are no oaks for miles.  So, the ones that did come up, our goats pretty much ate.  Over all not very successful, but these posts give me hope, I will try again, this time with no goats, we ate them.  I may even try forcing some white oak from the southern part of the state and plant in the spring.  Tim B.

[SwampDonkey]

Try some white oak seedlings. I have a white oak I planted from a seedling, it was from Exitor NH by a lake where dad's uncle had a cottage. Probably the newly germinated seed in the fall will be killed by frost, that is why it's not as far north. Oaks are very hardy in my experience.

[rebocardo]

> I will try again, this time with no goats, we ate them.

The circle of life, just don't watch the movie JAWS 

None of the oak I planted really grew, the nuts the furry rats buried did ... I did get a few hickory to grow, none of my magnolia sprouted.

Not a good first two years of doing it. Try Try again.

[routestep]

I have a wood lot just North of Springfield Maine. It's pretty far North and East. Anyway I plant White Oaks and Red Oaks. The red oaks do better and grow pretty fast, some are twelve feet high now in 15 years with heavy competition from other saplings.

I only plant acorns that are germinating. They don't all make it and the white oaks are real sensitive to shade but some have taken hold.

There use to be a nursery in Mars Hill that sold oaks. You could check to see if they still are in the business.

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, Mars Hill has a stand of red oak on the southern end of it. Probably 100 acres in size, goes from the SE around to the west where the ski hill is. It's up the hill from any land that was cleared for field. Maybe the ski hill operator would let someone pick acorns. I'm sure that is where my wild red oak came from because we never had any oak on our woodlots growing before they were cut. They aren't growing like thick aspen, but very sparse and usually near trails where there is more light. Thick sugar maple regen would choke them out.