Red oak acorns

[mapleveneer]

Remember last year's post offering oak acorns?  Well here is the story about some of them as told by the recipient of the nuts:

OK.  Here goes.

Received the boxes of acorns and gave half to a friend who put them in a pile of sawdust until he could plant them.  Never got to plant them because the squirrels ate 'em.

I took half of mine and planted them in the ground in my nursery. This w December so I thought they would freeze and that would get them started.  Went back in Jan. and the squirrels had eaten all of mine.

Soooo.  I took the other half and put them in my beer refrig. which had become a freezer and stayed at about 29 - 32 degrees all of the time.   Didn'dt check them for about 40 days or so and when I did I found that all of 'em had sprouted.  So I started planting.   They aare growing nicely.  This winter I will plant most of them in the field of new fir seedlings.  Intend to have an area of nothing but red oak.

Attach. are pics of some of those in pots.  



I tried to upload the photos without any luck.

[mapleveneer]

Original post:

http://www.forestryforum.com/cgi-bin/board/YaBB.pl?board=Business;action=display;num=1061158668

[rebocardo]

Well, I think the rodents got all mine as I do not think any sprouted. I will have to go out and check again. I planted some in pots, I know the squirrels got some of those, even with garlic, hot sauce, and soap on the soil. I really wanted to replace the red oaks I have cut down and will be cutting down.

This was suppose to be the year when the nicest white oak on my property was suppose to produce acorns aplenty. Unfortunately with all these storms and hurricanes, it has been dropping them down green along with the little branches they are attached to  

[Stephen_Wiley]

I kept them sealed in the box until the end of January. Then put them in the refigerator for stratification. Planted them in pots the birds got over 1/2 the remainder were doing great although about 15 got burnt in the greenhouse. Moved them out. There doing fine.

[Frank_Pender]

Yep, and I was neighbor that has all the rodents who wintered well.

  What are the chances of getting some more sent?  This time I will do gooder and not feeding the Chipmunks.

[mapleveneer]

No acorns this year, it is their year of rest.  The rodents around are having to live off of hickory nuts instead.

Maybe next year...

Sounds like a beer refrigerator does the trick.

[SwampDonkey]

Sounds like the skunks and coons work around here, they dig up acorns with acorn radar.

There is a float test that nurseries use, but I don't agree with what they suggest. Fill a pale of water and add your fresh picked acorns in the water, all the floaters are duds. But, I've proven this inaccurate. I've opened some and they have a good set of cotyledons and no worms.

I planted some in the garden two years ago, prolly two pales full and I covered the acorns with soil with a rake, then I added a loose mat of sugar maple leaves to hold moister in spring, for germiantion. I had all kinds of seedling by July. What became the problem was grass, which in turn gave rise tot he mice and moles which girdle the seedlings. I still have all kinds, for lots of work planting. I'm growing them to two feet in height and filling in a 1/2 acre spot on my 4 acre house lot.

When I first experimented with acorns, I had 3 acorns given to me by a neighbor. I stored them in a freezer bag, to which I added water. I put the bag in the freezer for 2 weeks and the acorns where frozen in water. Took them out in November and potten them. I had 1 in 3 sprout. The other two may have been sterile, don't know.

By the way, reminds me, sugar maple seed is born in pairs (samara), but only one of the pair is viable, so the best you can expect is 50 % viable seed when you go collecting.  In the spring of the year I see tons of sugar maple and beech sprouting on top of the leaves. I also see beech seedlings coming up in my woodlot, which is 70 acres, and there is no mature beech.  Most those woods are clearcuts. The nearest is 800 -1000 m away. There is even beech seedlings coming in on my 4 acre houselot, where there was once an orchard, which is 500 meters from the closest woods. And I have some natural oak seedlings, where there never was an oak, but there are mature oaks 2 miles away on a south slope of the mountain. Wildlife do some amazing things. I blame the oak on the moose and the beech on the blue jays. I've seen what they can do with a sac of sunflower seeds over the winter. The potato fields had sunflowers all over.

[Frank_Pender]

Well, Mapleveneer, it is the year for Acorns here.  They are dropping by the thousands.  In fact,  Alice and I were gimping along to the Townecar this afternoon and the yell, "Thanks a lot!".   I said, "What are you talking about?", as she was well behind me because she had fallen two weeks ago and blew her right knee out of shape.  It got to the size of a cantelope real quick.    Anyway, she was complaining , thinking I was throwing acorns at her and  


     We were headed North about 35 miles to see our new grandson (only one) at 10lbs. 1oz. and 22" long.  The named him Cole Michale ...

[Furby]

I don't have any trouble getting maple to sprout, just can't get any to live after being transplanted.  :-/

My method for sprouting: Let leaves and seeds collect over winter and spring into pool without cover. Allow pool to go green through spring. As the water warms, the seeds sprout by the thousands and float to the surface.  
They just don't live when I plant them in dirt. The ones I dig out of the yard before I mow, don't make it either.

Did move two reds from a field near my grandparents place this spring. They are doing great, but I think they had to be a year or two old already.

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah , tiny seedlings don't transplant well at all. I tried it with newly germinated oak and maple also. That's why I'm waiting for them to get a couple feet high. I was successful transplanting butternut, but they are a large seedling the first year. I think it all has to do with how well the roots are developed before transplanting. And I never attempt transplanting beyound the first week of june. Best to transplant in spring as soon as the ground is thawed and before the leaves emerge. Up here its typically between the 3rd week of April 'til first week in June.

cheers

[rebocardo]

Thank You for the article you mailed from The Woodland Stewart. I just read it (lose it for a time). I am going to try the technqiues on some Hickory and Magnolia seeds I have saved from some good trees and try it on some more acrons next year from a beautiful 36 DBH white oak.
 
 

[ely]

i sprouted a bunch of shummard oaks in my garden and kept the squirrels out of em with a piece of half inch hardware cloth, also known as birdwire in the high line ind. just be sure and remove the wire before the seedings are 5 inches tall and before the leaf out in the spring. (dont ask me how i know)

[mapleveneer]

Okay all you acorn nuts!  Not a bumper crop this year but enough to make it easy to rake them into piles.  If you will pay the cost of shipping, I'll ship them to you to try (or to try again...    )

I'll also look up the instructions that I found on how to make them grow!  I don't have any problem, just leave them on the lawn and they all sprout and I have to trim them with the lawnmower.

Let me know how many you want.