If the problem extended to many pots, I prefer the liquid form for convenience - the liquid also gives you the option of solution strength, weaker for light infestations, more if they are into everything and making you crazy while visibly damaging seedlings by feeding on fine roots. But on the other hand, the dunks work fine, are cheaper, and it sounds like you only have just the acorn containers. The dunks are often easier to find, hardware stores, Home Depot, Fred Meyer, garden centers in the insect control aisle...popular product for those who have water features in their gardens (mosquitoes). Intermittent wetting/drying of the dunk doesn't alter the effectiveness, keep a couple for yourself and you can pass on the rest of the package to a friend with a pond.

Growing Oak trees from acorns is a lot of fun. After doing that long enough to feel you have discovered what works best as you try to grow them in pots; you might at one point also begin transplanting newly sprouted volunteer oaks. To successfully do that, simply follow the next described 8 steps. Step 1: From mid May through early June, find some fairly young oaks which still produce and drop large amounts of acorns. If you look closely you should find many new baby oaks trying to grow beneath the canopy of the tree. Also check under other neaby shrubs such as holly or photenia growth habit type shrubs. The ones you dig should be no more than 3-4 inches tall and still be growing out of the acorn which they sprouted from. This size of volunteer oak should have a tap root that is about 6-8 inches long so it can be helpful to first use a garden pitchfork to start making your tiny rootball. Then use a hand held garden trowel to scoop up the rootball using the other hand to hold the soil around the roots. Step 2: If you are too far away to immediately take the volunter oak to the nursery bed system you have set up for them to grow in, then at least wrap the root ball with a moistened section of burlap. Handle gentily while doing this process, because it is very important, for the success of your mission, that you do not break off the volunteer's sprouted acorn. After securing the tiny rootball and burlap with a tie, lay the baby oak on its side. While making certain that you keep the rootballs moist for any and all the baby trees you dig. Step 3: Once you are finished collecting your baby oaks, immediately take them to a nursery system you have set up under the dappled light shade of a mature tree on your property. That nursery can be a group of 5 gallon buckets with holes drilled into them and that are filled with a good quality, well draining potting soil. These buckets do not need to be buried in the soil. It will be best to plant only one of these volunteers per 5 gallon bucket. Keep them well watered all the rest of the spring and fall. 5 gallons of water is best poured into each bucket every time you need to water them. Since your are protecting them in the shade of a mature tree, and running so much water through the pots, it will be good after you start to see some new growth to feed the tree with a non-burning and slow-release type food. I have found Osmokote to work well for this purpose. In the winter you should be able to decrease the watering. It will not matter if the soil in the posts freeze, as long as the young trees in your pots have gone dormant. Step 4: In the next year just when their buds are about to swell and break dormancy, transplant them into deeper pots and move the pots into an area where they can begin to experience full morning sun and afternoon shade. An easy way to make a deeper bucket is to drill drainage holes into a new five gallon bucket. fill it with potting soil which you compress with water and a little pressure. Next cut away the bottom of the five gallon bucket in which your tree has been growing. By this time the roots of your tree should be nicely incorporated into the soil enough that you can simply insert the cut off bottom of that bucket into the top of the new bucket you just filled and water packed with a little pressure. Once the tree breaks dormancy it will not take long for the tap root of the tree to incorporate into the soil of the bottom bucket. Step 5: Continue to care for the trees in these buckets and grow then on the north side of a building where they get some shade, and some west and east sun at different times of the day. Keep them well watered. Step 6: After the following winter, just prior to them breaking dormancy pour 5 gallons of water through the young tree's pot. Lay out a fairly larger sheet of burlap onto which you have shoveled about a 4 inch depth of clay soil, remove the still dormant tree from its container, and set it on the layer of clay soil. Next you can pullup the sides of the burlap while adding more clay soil around the side once all the burlap is completly wrapped around the rootball tie it off in a manner which will not harm the root flare or lower trunk's bark. Step 7: Put the trees in larger pots which have been sunk into the ground. in a sunny location. Back fill those pots with a well draining sand mixed with wood fines soil until the rootball tree can stay stable in the pots. Keep the trees watered in this condition, but do not feed them. Once they leaf out let their leaves do all the work to produce any food their roots need. Step 8: By the time the trees either go dormant in the following fall, or just prior them breaking dormancy after the following winter's end; your trees should be ready for you to give away and to be planted in the ground where they can be left to continue growing.

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.