Burr Oaks

[Klunker]

Last fall I gathered about 50 acorns from 2 different Burr Oaks. Let them sit for about 3 weeks so that all the borers in them chewed there way out so I'd know which ones where viable. Then I planted the remaining about 30 nuts in about 12" long chunks of carpeting cardboard tubing that I had sawed to length. I buried these tubes up to the tops in my garden and covered them with a screen to keep the squirrels and chipmunks from digging up the acorns. Well today there were 4 that had a shoot with leaves on them. So I pulled 14 of the tubes to plant in an old hay field I own thats alittle more than an acre in size. The tube that showned no sign of life I slowly pealed back the cardboard that was rotting away and carefully removed the dirt till I found a nut with a root and a shoot and then buried them in the field. Only one of these 14 had a bad acorn. That acorn had a hole from a borer in it. Other than that all the other ones had signs of life in them. Curiously about 4 of them had the top of the shoot "burnt off". Frost maybe? Hard to believe as the shoot was well under the top of the soil level. But if I looked closely at the burnt tip ones you could see 2 small bumps farther down the stalk which I'm sure are leaves. So I gave them a shot in the field. Now I need to protect them from the deer. I've got about 12 more that I need to plant. No signs of life in these yet, but its early.

Whats the old saying, "from little acorns grow might oaks". I'll never see it but maybe my great grand kids might and thats good enough for me.

[Coach]

My method of getting 100% germination?   Check beneath the trees in spring for nuts that have just begun to sprout, and plant those.