Welcome to Garden Web. I thought you might like to know there is no email link on your member page, thus no way to email you. To set up your email, just go to the bottom on any page here, and click on Member Pages Then click on Edit your Personal Information, Page, and Preferences You will then probably be asked to login in again. Once there, set the drop down box to Show my email address to MEMBERS And then check the box Allow other users to send you email via forms at our site. That will place a link on your member page, and will also show your email address to anyone you email about a trade. Happy gardening and trading Sue

The mix of sowing medium is probably fine, what you've done incorporating the Jiffy mix into the Miracle Grow is lighten up your end product with more peat and vermiculite. All of the nutrients for germination and early growth are already contained in the acorn, you don't need to concern yourself with that right now. Thoroughly wetting the sowing medium initially is good. From there, rather than on a schedule, you'll want to insure it's continuously damp, neither wet nor allowed to dry. It sounds like you may have your acorns a little shallow - "Stratification: Cold stratify for 30 days or until radicle emergence. (this has been done for you by mother nature and you are seeing the radicle/root in the acorns you collected) Germination: Sow seed 1 to 2 inches deep, tamp soil, keep moist, mulch seed bed." (suggestion for sowing outdoors) There is the chance if rain has fallen since the tree incident the chemical was moved through the soil to the area from which you collected the acorns, but don't despair - it seems propagation of these trees has been in effect for quite some time. Not to say you should not be attempting to grow your own, but "Auburn University's School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences has been growing -- and selling -- baby Toomer's Corner oak trees grown from acorns from the same historic trees"...From what I'm reading they have some at different ages now - it will be years before the original trees can be replaced with the now seedlings but there steps are being taken to decontaminate the soil, reinstate them.

I've grown many oak trees from acorns. My father in law taught me a lot in this category. I've had the best success with direct sowing them into a prepared site with the soil worked and amended. Think of how the germinate in nature...not planted/sown deeply. Just bury the end so the tap root can form/grow. Just a thought.... Tammy in Indiana

I have a bur oak that i bought from lowes that I planted in Fall 2005. It was probably 5 feet tall. Maybe 4.5 feet tall for 5 gallon. It grew about 8 inches for 2006. This year, it has grown 2 feet already and is in its 2nd growth spurt right now. It's amazing how much growth it has put on this year. I was hoping for 3 feet of growth and it looks like I might get more than that with all the rain! I had shumard oak that REALLY GREW this spring after planting it in fall 2005. Unfortunately, that violent storm over a month ago snapped it in half. Looks like for 5-7 gallon, 4-7 feet height, it takes a year to establish roots before they really take off in 2nd year. I can confirm that oak trees grow VERY LONG TAPROOT. I planted a bunch of acorns in the small cups and didnt think about roots since they have grown only 3-4 inches. When i took them out of the small cups, i was shocked to see all those long tap root circling around in the cups. Lesson learned. It's best to air prune them! I am curious how fast oak trees grow when planted as an acorn. I probably will experiment with that on my "retirement" land (thats a long time away :( ) and there are area that I want to grow trees for privacy. There's no water there for me to water container trees so Im stuck with planting seeds or very small seedlings. Anyway, the oak trees that I grew in small cups last year hasn't really grown very much this year. I had to prune the tap root off. Apparently from reading about tap roots, they do not like their tap root pruning and will significantly slow the growth. Oh well.