White oak vs Red Oak acorns.
Whitetail Deer
We have had an absolute bumper crop of acorns this year. I have recently accumulated a substantial quantity of white oak AND red oak acorns. Almost all of the white oak acorns have already sprouted. Am I correct in assuming that since they have sprouted, I should probably get them in the ground NOW, versus waiting until next Spring? Since the red oak acorns are higher in tannins (and have not sprouted yet), I can probably hold off on planting those if I choose to do so, although it wouldn't hurt to plant them now if my time allows. I have read that acorns should be planted on their side, 1"-2" deep, and I think that I may try to cover them with some chicken wire or mesh screen for the first winter to minimize animals eating them. When the acorns sprout, I am assuming what is sprouting will become the tree, and the root will develop later, right?
White Oak acorns drop on my deck annually and if I don't blow them off deck after a good rain they'll sprout a little tails maybe out to an inch or so long, I always assumed that was the tap root...
Medicineman - You can plant now or later.
The white oaks will grow whenever conditions are good, the red oaks will have to go through stratification first. (stratification is not related to tannin levels).
The tail you've seen is the root. After it's grown a few inches it will split at the acorn and the topgrowth with come out and go the opposite direction.
I believe direct seeding produces a better tree than container grown ones (for trees that have a taproot rather than fibrous). But, direct seeding in the fall will increase predation. I prefer to keep them in the fridge until spring to give them the best chances. I've tried to winter protect them with wire. I ended up going to a lot of work for most of the nuts to end up eaten anyway, and the wire cages I made weren't always easy to find afterwards.
To store in the fridge; Float check, put sinkers into a large Ziplock back with a moist paper towel, don't zip the top completely closed, keep in the crisper. Check for the paper towel to dry out about once a month, and look for mold.
Yes. Its the tap root. Actually the acorn doesn’t need to be buried. Just poke a hole in the soil for the root and gently press the acorn into the soil.
Yes, a rain will sprout the white oak family in the fall. Helene came through and knocked off a lot of the acorns. By the weekend following, the “bait” I was counting on to hunt through October was on the ground sprouting. Deer cut off them like a light switch.
The red oak family of trees are different for sure. The acorns that are falling off this year are actually two years old. They only posses the ability to produce bi yearly. White oak can produce yearly.
I don’t remember the science at this point but, I’m certain it’s linked to why white oak acorns sprout the first rain after they’ve fallen versus red oak.
Chicken wire is a good idea. I've had good luck by building what looked like a door frame out of 1/2" x 6" lumber, tacking chicken wire to it and then laying it over walnuts (planted 1 1/2 -2 inches deep). Be sure to dig the frame into the ground to discourage animals from burrowing under it. However, when I've tried white oak acorns, I really had problems keeping squirrels out of it.
great info....thx
I planted several in a 6" deep pot and kept it by the window all winter. They really took off quickly, but after a couple months, they stopped growing, and after 4 months, they were dead or dying. I wondered if they needed a bigger pot, or if the soil simply wasn't amended well enough. While my attempt to grow them indoors didn't work, I might plant a couple acorns inside again this Fall, but I will use a much bigger pot this time.
I started chestnuts by putting them in a plastic bag in the refrigerator until they sprouted a root in February/March. I then placed them under a grow light in these 14.5” tubes made by cutting a 58” tree tube in four pieces. I lined the tube with paper and filled it with the soil mix. When time to plant in late spring I bored a hole in the ground to the right depth and slid the paper, soil, and tree out of the tube and into hole with minimal effort and disturbance to the young tree/roots. You could probably start the white oaks in a similar setup.
That is interesting rock50, thanks for sharing... Curious, what kind of paper?
Construction blueprint paper. Would have preferred newspaper, but subscription is now digital. (We can't get a reliable delivery service in the country)
Great idea!! I wonder if parchment paper would work slick?
I did what rock50 did once, but only used paper for the tube. I made them tall, general rule of thumb is that a tap-root plant will have a root every bit as long as the top-growth. I kept them squished into 5 gallon buckets as the water breaks down the paper. When I planted them I just dropped the whole tube in the hole and called it good. Grew some really nice chestnuts and persimmons that way.
We had the largest acorn crop I've ever seen last year here in central MN. This year the bur oaks were spotty, but there's been another pretty good crop of red oak acorns. Deer have been hitting them on the public land I've been hunting. Fun listening to them crunch acorns.
Forgot about this until going through phone cleaning up my pix... One of acorns I spoke of above fell in my tomato planter on the deck and when I pulled it out on October 26th and realized it started a pretty good tap root and thought about this thread so I repotted it...
At first when it started to leaf I thought it was going to be a Red Oak with the pointed lobes since there is one close behind the White Oak overhanging the deck, but as can be seen in today's picture next, the lobes turned round...
The weather started getting chilly here around mid November so I repotted it again this time in a smaller planter and brought it inside next to a window and it's doing really well... I just now took this picture and the leaves haven't even wilted... I thought with all the more sunlight we get here now they would have died back... It'll be interesting to watch how it grows if any this winter treating like a house plant... If it survives, I'm gonna plant it in a special place for me and show to my grandkids where it's at so they may remember me...
Jake, I used to grow a lot of live oaks in California and give them out as gifts for people to plant in their yards 20 years ago. Many of these trees are now very large.
The key is definitely that it's a numbers game. X amount will sprout, X amount of those will survive a few seasons, and X amount of those turn into big trees.
I started with acorns in a zip lock till they sprouted, then moved them to gallon size pots and quickly weeded out the under-achievers. Then I got them into bigger pots and if they survived that, they went out as gifts to go in the ground shortly thereafter when they were about a foot tall.
The diamonds in the rough are 1 in 50-100, but you can legitimately grow more than that into actual trees. I used 50/50 soil from right next to where I got the acorns because I figured that that dirt worked for the parent, so it must be good for the sapling.
I also only picked acorns up from the biggest, healthiest trees.
