buying acorns
hairmetal4ever
10 years ago
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arktrees
10 years agohairmetal4ever
10 years agoRelated Discussions
buying acorns (Sheffield's, Schumacher...etc)
Comments (2)Wow! I had never heard of these places. You learn something new every day. Thank you!!! I'm starting a couple Quercus muehlenbergii (chinquapin oaks) this fall. It is interesting that white oak family acorns germinate free-fall before they hit the ground (aka - very fast, smiley face)....See MoreAcorns, now what? (pic)
Comments (8)First, be advised that I had very good success when I collected about 30 acorns and first did a float test with them, before drying them and planting them in pots. Since you have only a few, still do the float test with them and only plant in pots the acorns that you discover can sink to the bottom. As soon as you remove the ones which have sunk; dry them in a paper towel. If you want your acorns to grow in forest area, or if you live in a more country type setting, then you can ignore the following suggestions. But if you live in a neighborhood housing addition, then it would be better to at least consider implementing the following advice. Plant them in a pot that you cover just as esh-ga described. Then simply set the pot along the east side of your house where they will benefit from late to mid-morning sun and be fully shaded by 1pm and throughout the rest of the afternoon. Or you could set the pot under some mature, well spread, shrubs which would allow only dappled afternoon sun or shade to reach the surface of the pots you might place beneath. Then just let nature do the rest. If you find you need to water those shrubs at any time, the pots will also receive enough moisture from that or from any rain events. That should be all they need. Simply leave them alone and wait till next spring when other invasive trees that you see have sprouted in your landscape beds, and which you would normally pull up and discard. At that time or shortly there after you should begin to see sprouts growing up from your previously planted acorns. Any acorns that do not sprout, might simply need to remain in the pot for another year before they would be ready to sprout. So after you have established your acorns planted in pots and located them under the shrubs or up near the east side of your house, then begin efforts to create what will be a nursery bed, for you to use to plant any of those acorns you find have sprouted and grown to about 3 inches tall next spring. The raised nursery bed could be small but at least raised 24 inchs tall. I mean, the one you make and have filled with lots of native soil and a good percentage of humus. Watch to see if any weeds grow in that bed, and if they do, simply dig the weeds up before they go to seed. Immediately then, turn those weeds upside down so all their green growth can end up being covered with dirt. Some of the roots left sticking up will need to be cut off and removed, but some also will be from weeds whose roots will simply dry out, die, enough to naturally break apart. In each following spring, spade and turn the soil in your nursery bed again; in time for you to plant there, any new sprouts your discover. That is, once the acorns you planted in the pots have sprouted and grown to about 3 to 4 inches tall. At that time, simply lift the sprout out of the pot, while being careful to try and not break up the handfull of potting soil in which you find the root is growing. Also try to avoid breaking off the acorn you find the little sprout has grown out from. Once you have accomplished this, without delay, take the handfull of potting soil which is encasing the sprout's roots and gently plant your little sprout in your previously prepared nursery bed. It is best to plant the sprout at a level where the attached acorn is just at ground level, and will be covered slightly with a little shredded bark or maybe some chopped up oak leaves that you saved from the previous fall. It is a good idea to cover your nursery bed also with fine mesh wiring, to keep hungry critters from eating the young tender sprouts or their food source acorns from, which your sprouts are growing. Let your sprouts grow and make certain they are kept watered properly throughout the followig growing season. Once they go dormant at the end of that growing season, your sprouts should be hardened up enough, by late winter just prior to them breaking leaf bud, for you to dig them up. Be careful to not break off the tender young roots, and make certain to dig deep enough to get as much of what should be a well develped young tap root. At that time, since the sapling tree should not have broken dormancy yet, you can rinse away the dirt from the roots. Then lay them in, and cover their roots in, a mostened paper towel. Once this is completed, go directly to plant your sapling tree into its permanant growing spot. Even then cage the young tree to prevent hungry critters from damaging it. After this your tree should adapt, break dormancy, and quickly grow to be a nice, 1 to 2 foot tall whip form tree; over that upcoming growing season. It may take two or more years after that for the tree to have developed a nice enough branching structure and thickness of trunk to finally become a nice young tree that is well established and could be considered to have a nicely structured little canopy. If you have the time and patience to do all this, great. Otherwise, it would be better for you to simply go purchase the size and shape of oak tree you want from a reputable nursery....See MoreAcorns needed to increase oak tree diversity on land
Comments (9)cweste, Good advice so far. If you're looking to do a significant reforestation featuring oaks - and hickories! - planting 'locally-adapted' strains of species native to your area is your best bet. Direct seeding of locally-gathered acorns, or transplanting 1-2 yr seedlings of those local-sourced nuts - or from your state forestry nursery - will likely meet with better success than purchasing from a forestry nursery in, say, PA or IA, or soliciting acorns/nuts from folks here who are in very different climate/growing conditions. I'm all for growing 'specimen' trees, usually of 'natives' that either aren't 'native' or, at least, common, in my area; but if I were doing a true reforestation project, I'd want materials from a relatively local source. From your description of the site, some pecans(yes, I know it's a hickory) and black walnuts would also be in order - though with the looming potential debacle of Thousand Cankers Disease, you might need to consider J.microcarpa instead of J.nigra....See MoreAcorns, acorns, acorns
Comments (11)So, today, I'm off for the holiday, but stuck home with no car. Poor me. I guess I have nothing else to do but work outside. (Well, there's always housework, but I close my eyes and it disappears like magic! I love the way that works!) So I bring out my rake and two leaf bags, and ignore the snickers of my neighbors, who snicker at me every year as I go out with my rake and two leaf bags to rake my acre with 40+ oak trees, as they run their machines. I much prefer to rake in peace for weeks- uh, days, than have those infernal machines whining for hours on end. Anyway, I rake from the street up to my front beds, then get down on the hands and knees to clean up the beds. Holy...friggin...moly...!!! There were THOUSANDS of acorns already rooted in this one bed. I spent almost two hours cleaning up a bed that is about fifteen feet long and 4 feet wide, and it was mostly just cutting back echinacea and monarda, and pulling up those darn rooted acorns! I was able to scoop them out by the handfuls in the trench edges, but of course most of them seemed to prefer to root right in the middle of the crown of the plants. It was like harvesting carrots, the roots on most of them were so thick and long! I didn't even get to the second bed. Too time-consuming. After all, I have an acre to rake! (which takes longer than one might think because I have to walk 200 feet to dump my two bags of leaves a million times while raking.) I just quickly removed the whole leaves from the second bed and concentrated on raking. I knew there'd be a lot of oak seedlings to pull next spring, but I think it's going to be worse than I thought. I may have to hire someone just to pull oak seedlings, lol! Funny thing - I did a search to find this thread, and at the top of the page there was an ad - "Click here to find great prices on Acorns. Buy Acorns now." Sheesh, if people bought acorns, I could go into business and become a rich woman! :) Dee...See Morelucky_p
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