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Acorns to Oaks!

Hardwood11 said:
I was told a ziploc will work, punch a couple of small holes in the bag.
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Yep...that's all I used and I didn't even punch holes in them although that might be best. I found that one has to be careful to get just enough water in the peat moss to keep it moist but not soaked. To little and they will mold so holes or not...keep an eye on them.

I've heard of some using brown paper bags but you don't want the acorns to dry out either...so moist, not wet or dry...;)
 
Bebbs Oak

So far I have liked the looks and growth of the Bebbs Oak (hybrid). Beside Oikos and Morse. Does anyone know of a nursery that sells Bebbs oak?

Anyone else planted Bebbs? Results?
 
Hardwood11 said:
So far I have liked the looks and growth of the Bebbs Oak (hybrid). Beside Oikos and Morse. Does anyone know of a nursery that sells Bebbs oak?

Anyone else planted Bebbs? Results?
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I have of course (not sure of one I haven't planted)..some are 10 years old and doing well and others are grew from acorns in Rootmakers this spring.

Not sure if any have produced yet or if there are other sources although surely there are...;)
 
Here is a dwarf chinkapin planted in the spring of 09 from Oikos. It is about 3 feet tall now and I would not be surprised if it had acorns this coming year.

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Also, the concordia oaks have big, very healthy looking leaves on them. They are about 30 yards from the apple orchard and dwarf chinkapins on well drained timber soils. They are looking far better there than the bottoms. They are about 6 inches to a foot tall in the bottom while they are about 3 feet on the upland soils.

That is for future reference for those getting concordia oaks ;)
 
chinkapin oaks

Letemgrow: Do you plant any chinkapin oaks? Sounds like they produce acorns at a fairly young age.
 
Hardwood11 said:
Letemgrow: Do you plant any chinkapin oaks? Sounds like they produce acorns at a fairly young age.
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Planted some, but they flooded out on the creek bottom the year after planting with all the rains we have had the past 2 years. I am just going to buy 25 from the MDC this fall and plant 2-3 here and there and see where they do the best on my place...if at all since they were not present to start with. Chinkapin oaks are native to my county and found in a lot of places just not my farm. My farm only has white, bur and swamp white oaks, no post or chinkapin even tho both are found in the county within miles of my farm. Maybe it is just not the right types of soils or the other oaks out competed them, but only one way to find out if they will grow on my farm and IMO, they are the most sought after white oak acorns there are. :way:
 
Well it looks like I will be getting a pound of dwarf chinkapin oak acorns from a northern source. I remember a few people wanted some so shoot me a pm and I will wait a week or two, see how many want some so I can split the goods. Of course a few will be staying with me :D
 
letemgrow said:
Well it looks like I will be getting a pound of dwarf chinkapin oak acorns from a northern source. I remember a few people wanted some so shoot me a pm and I will wait a week or two, see how many want some so I can split the goods. Of course a few will be staying with me :D
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I'd take a couple if you can spare them Phil...;)

I float tested the acorns from Advantage Forestry and at first was disappointed because only about 30% sank to the bottom (normally a sign of healthy viable acorns)

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I used a slotted spoon to scoop out the floaters and then sorted out the sinkers (the good acorns)

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but I also noted in the link I previously posted that it's a good idea to let them soak for 24 hours to rehydrate them and after doing that a good share more then sank to the bottom. Out of a 100 acorns the ones floating in the glass are all that did not sink?

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Peter from Advantage had this to say:

In this case they float because there is air between the shell and endosperm, not because the seed isn't viable. I stored some in my refrigerator last year with the radicals partially emerging and planted them in the spring and they did fine. Just store with a small amount of moisture and turn them over every now and then. Or if you can, go ahead and plant them in the ground or in pots. If you are not satisfied with the results I'll send you some more acorns or refund your money.
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So I marked Ziploc bags with sinkers, sinkers after 24 hours and floaters and since they'll all be started in Rootmaker cells in March...we'll know exactly how this all plays out.

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Acorns can be stored successfully in plain Ziploc but I like to add some peat moss to help make sure they stay moist since moisture retention is critical and Ken Asmus from Oikos tree crops recommended doing so last year...and following his directions his acorns germination and subsequent live plantings were nearly 100%.

So the bags are marked with type of acorn and if they floated or sank and then mixed with moist (not wet) peat moss

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Be sure to check your acorns periodically for moisture and check for mold problems through out the storage period... :way:
 
Looks like some of those floaters are viable. The tap root looks good in them still, I figure the ones I were sent would have looked better had they not fallen out of the plastic bag and dried out in the mail carrier.

They are all in a plastic baggie, wrapped in a damp paper towel to rehydrate them and hopefully more germinate and are viable. Time will tell I guess :D
 
dark_viper42 said:
Anyone have experience with English or Swamp White Oak?

Pros and cons of each? Which will produce faster?
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I have some experience with each. Bur x English tree produced acorns in about 7-8 years.

I know some swamp white oaks produce in less than 10 years, but I have not witnessed that personally. I think Dbltree has some swamp white oak/bur oaks hybrids that are producing acorns...

I like both the swamp white oak/bur oak hybrid and the bur/english hybrid, no real cons, nice trees, I would recommend that you plant both if you have room.
 
letemgrow said:
Swamp white oaks produce acorns pretty quick for a pure species.
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I agree...I have lots of young Bur-X-English but the English oak is not native and so far the first tree to produce at 10 years was a Swamp White oak hybrid....:way:
 
Swamp whites/or swamp white hybrid

dbltree said:
I agree...I have lots of young Bur-X-English but the English oak is not native and so far the first tree to produce at 10 years was a Swamp White oak hybrid....:way:
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The swamp white oak/ bur oak hybrid is also a good all around tree as I have found that it does not need to have wet soils to survive. So far from my experience...It seems to do well on lighter soils as well as wet soils. Grows fast, should produces acorns early. I think it will be a good choice for planting oaks in most states.
 
My family thinks I am crazy, acorns and bags of peat on kitchen table!! My daughter picked up a few at a city park where she had a cross country meet and they look like huge swamp white oak. All of them sank so they got their own bag and went in the frig.

Couple questions: Is there any point in keeping an acorn with a hole, indicating something got in there even if it sinks? I had one little grub came out in the water after couple hours. Am I supposed to poke some small holes in the bags as well? How "damp" should it be in the bag?

I don't even own land but this seems to be turning into a project with my daughter and it costs very little so I figured nothing lost for the effort. We can plant the trees where we hunt and maybe keep one for home!
 
huntdoc said:
My family thinks I am crazy, acorns and bags of peat on kitchen table!! My daughter picked up a few at a city park where she had a cross country meet and they look like huge swamp white oak. All of them sank so they got their own bag and went in the frig.

Couple questions: Is there any point in keeping an acorn with a hole, indicating something got in there even if it sinks? I had one little grub came out in the water after couple hours. Am I supposed to poke some small holes in the bags as well? How "damp" should it be in the bag?

I don't even own land but this seems to be turning into a project with my daughter and it costs very little so I figured nothing lost for the effort. We can plant the trees where we hunt and maybe keep one for home!
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The acorns can still germinate if the worm was inside. Just depends on where the worm ate in the acorn. I just keep the peat damp but not where it you can ring water out while pressing it.

I poke holes in the bag and check them every so often to make sure they are not getting moldy at all. You can also plant them out this fall and tube them to try part as a fall planting and part as a spring planting.
 
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Iowa oaks

I am putting together a plan for tree planting next spring. I would like a little advise:

Here are the oaks that I plan on planting- (south central Iowa)

Bottom ground---swamp white oak, swamp white/bur oak hybrid & Pin oak

Ridge ground---northern red oak, bur oak, bur/english hybrid oak and some white oak.

I will mix and match a few pin oaks and swamp bur oaks on the ridge ground as well.

Does anyone see any changes or additions? Thanks.
 
I would go light on the english/hybrids personally. Swamp white oaks do as well on the upland soils as bottomland soils on my place...they are everywhere so they must be great acorn producers or browsed much less than other oaks. Pin oaks do well on upland soils also and I would add a few black oaks in there on the ridges as they are very consistent acorn producers and deer do feed on them..at least on my place.

Those swamp/bur hybrids should do well on the upland or bottomland soils, but there is only one way to find out :D
 
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