Our place has zero oak trees. So for the past couple years while I’m hunting I bury a few acorns here and there. Anyone have any luck doing this? Any tips?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
-
-
I’m sure there’s some that can help more than me but I think you want to put them in the freezer for a bit then put in a bucket of water. The ones that float I don’t believe you want to plant next year as they will not be any good. -
I planted about 12 acorns in a bucket 2 years ago and I’ll be darned if every one of them didn’t sprout. I transplanted 2 into the ground last year and they haven’t grown. The remaining trees in the bucket are almost 2’ tall. Be selective on the acorns you pick and baby them in good soil as long as you can before transplanting.Comment
-
Where are you trying to plant,what kind of oaks are you trying to plant and are you getting acorns from similar areas of what your planting in.Live oaks will grow almost anywhere they get enough water to survive.Other oaks can be a little temperamental depending on the soils.Comment
-
I started my tree growing and planting/nurturing venture about eight years ago. Not sure what I’m up to but I’m probably at around 400-450 various varieties of trees planted. Here’s my piece and what I’ve done.Originally posted by BassProJD View Post
I’ve done every way imaginable.
I’ve gathered acorns of red/shumard , live oak, chinkapin oak and bur oak. As mentioned above, float test them. If they float, toss them as they have a worm or they’re bad.
Red oak acorns or acorns of the red oak family (think oaks with leaf lobes that are pointy, shumard, pin oak, red oak, etc) need to be stratified in the fridge for a few months. White oak variety acorns (live oak, bur oak, chinkapin, etc can go right into the ground/potting soil and will germinate immediately. (It’s also why they rot a little quicker than red oak variety.)
When I plant acorns in the ground, I dig a small hole and will throw three or four acorns in it. Since we have cattle, i only plant on fence rows and at the t posts. That way I know where they went in the ground, then when they sprout and are growing, I can select the best seedling of the bunch, kill the other ones, then protect the seedling. Seedlings will be browsed off by deer, cattle, and rabbits. I’ll either tube and cage it or just cage it. Any one that I plant via seed, I’ll prune and spray herbicide to keep competition at bay but I don’t water to help along.
I’ll also plant into black landscaping buckets in my back yard and will baby and nurture thru the summer, then will plant the Bucketed tree in October/November. Gives the roots the most time to get established before it gets hot. The bucketed ones also get caged/protected. Since potting soil was used, bucketed trees get watered thru their first summer to help them get established.
I’ve always scoured deals on oaks at home depot and lowes. I never pay full or half price. Shop at the end of the planting season or even this time and you can find deals. I’ve gotten the 3.5 gallon oaks for $10 before. That’s worth it to me but i won’t pay the $29.97 they usually ask.
Lastly, I’ve had amazing luck buying young seedlings from nativ nurseries. They’re the nursery for mossy oak. They use the “rapid mast” system with their rooting containers. (In short, they air prune the roots so it’s a mass of hair like roots that absorb water and nutrients, instead of a tap root) Check them out. They also have very informative videos. I order some trees from them every year, in probably 75 trees from them I’ve only lost maybe 15.
Last year I ordered Bare root trees from the Texas forest service… was very pleased with the shumard oaks and bur oaks but every chinkapin died on me.
Lastly, avoid Arbor Day foundation. Love the concept and what they do, but their trees suck. Don’t waste a year like I did.
Good luck. Don’t be like me and let it become and obsession. Haha.Comment
-
We have a few that we dug up and replanted. Just dug down and pulled the whole root and put in a bucket. Once they get bigger we move again
Sent from my SM-G970U using TapatalkComment
-
So far this year I've collected about a 5 gallon bucket full of acorns from a couple of different trees. I've planted about 50 acorns at the house in small black containers that I will baby over the next year. Of those, most of them have started to sprout but havent pushed through the soil yet.
The rest of the acorns, I've soaked in water for a few hours and went and hand spread them in thick fence lines that are currently made up of hackberry trees. If any of them do sprout, i probably wont even know until next winter when everything else grass wise dies and hopefully I see a few baby oak trees.
On the ones I threw out, I also added some dirt to the water mix. It was messy but I scooped out hand fulls of the mud/acorn mix and threw it out that way. I'm thinking that maybe having alittle wet mud in shaddy spots will help germinate those acorns.Comment
-
thanks for the info y’all! I’m getting burr oak and Mexican white oak acorns by the dozens. My thought process has been, if a squirrel can take an acorn and bury it an inch deep and grow a tree, then so can I. So I fill my backpack up when I go hunting. After I’m done I walk, scratch a hole In The ground, toss an acorn, and cover with dirt. Lol
there are oaks in the area but for whatever reason, none in my section of woods. I just want my kids to have acorns holding game on the property when they get older. Hope my squirrel tactics work.
Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkComment
-
Yak blue,
What type of the oak tree do you think this is (first two pictures)?
Comment
-
Not exactly sure…if you had live oak trees in the area that’d be my guess, but the holly oak is a good guess too.Comment
-
As other have said, definitely do a float test.
For best results after you get them planted, put a cage on them. Then watch them and change the cages as they grow bigger.
There’s a bunch of fantastic videos out there they get very specific on maximizing survival and growth rates.Comment
-
.
Comment