Every 3rd year? We get a huge crop of acorns about that often but there are acorns EVERY year.

I just bought a nut collector and use it. It looks like a little wire basket on a stick.

We also get maple seedlings and ash and black walnut. I just pick them. Not much else you can do. At least the acorns are big enough to shop vac or use a nut collector.

I have pecans like that. Wait until it rains and the soil is soft and moist. Take a pair of pliers and pull up the little trees. Grab it close to the soil line and pull slowly, don't yank. You need to do it in the spring before they get too big.

It works here, even with our clay soil.

bk

T&M, we have acorns every year, too, as the Oaks don't produce in unison. But most Oaks here produce only every 3rd year naturally, likely because this particular zone 6 sees scarcely a drop of rain between mid-July and mid-September. Any Oak lucky enough to fall within the Hosta border gets plenty of water during the summer drought, thus it's able to produce every year.

Bkay, I do pull them up during the Spring; waiting any longer is sure way to lose the battle and gain another tree in the garden. Have to get your fingers on the tap root below the nut and it comes up without too much of a struggle. I was hoping someone had a simple solution to prevent them from taking root in the first place. Years ago all this bending and digging wouldn't have been such a big deal, but when you're older and talking about doing this HUNDREDS of times each Spring, coupled with planting and weeding, it's a pain.

A preventive solution is what I'm seeking, but I have the feeling this is just part of gardening under Oaks and Hickories. And without the Oaks and Hickories they're be no Hostas, so I suppose that's that.

I'm fortunate to have the most natural prevention possible. I'm surrounded by scrub oaks (Gambel oaks) but hardly ever get a seedling from all the acorns they drop. Animals eat the acorns over the winter leaving just empty shells. I'm not sure which ones. Squirrels? Raccoons? Maybe the rats are being helpful, for all I know.

We have live oaks around here, and there are none in my yard, but they are nearby street trees. They produce mega amounts of acorns EVERY year. We have a lot of Asian folks here and they gather them up from the street in plastic bags. The squirrels carry those damn acorns for a block and plant them in my pots, and elsewhere around the yard. I'm past 70 and I pull them up the minute I see them. The nut is still attached and the root is 6 or 8" long! I guess that is why they have survived so long.

-Babka

We have no oaks in the direct neighborhood though a few seedlings occur anyway. I had four maples, got rid of 3, but the last one had a very productive spring with a lot of the flying seeds, probably to make up for his lost 3 buddies, so I was sweeping and collecting those seeds. Maple seeds pop up everywhere in spring and get pulled, the earlier the better.

I know it's best to pull the acorn up along with the seedling, but when the seedling breaks off from the acorn, I don't sweat it. That particular acorn isn't going to send up another plant, is it?

There is no preventive solution. The trees are doing what they're designed to do and there's no practical way to catch the seeds before they fall. :) Unless you cut down the trees

Get a nut roller, don't discourage squirrels that eat them, or find someone who likes to cook with them and offer to them.

I just consider oak and maple weeding as part of my regular weeding routine.

I have over 50 large live oaks and cedar elms. We have been here 4 years, yet to see any acorns. <knock on tree wood> However, the elms are a *#^^!!)^% nightmare. I must have pulled several thousand baby elms in my beds this spring, way more than the other years, but even before was in the upper hundreds. I'm still finding them here and there.

Glyphosate which will not leech through bark, but will be absorbed by green trunks or stems or any foliage including pine needles. I can't imagine weeding the many hundreds (thousands?) of new seedlings from oaks, maples, pines and others each year...not to mention plain old weeds. Very close to plantings; weeding, Preen (corn gluten) and mulch.

I live in the woods, so tons of tree seedlings everywhere! Every walk through the garden I'm pulling them out. At least they are easy to pull, just don't let them get too big. Lots of squirrels and chipmunks help, though they tend to bury the seeds and nuts in the garden too!

My hosta live under a canopy of trees. I'm always shaking debris off the hosta leaves and pulling seedlings. It comes with the territory. UGH!

Thistle and Maize, sadly I believe you're right. Was really hoping to avoid the continued onslaught each year but it is what it is, I suppose. We've got plenty of Grey and Fox squirrels. Just seems like they do more PLANTING than EATING. :-)

PugMother, I'm inclined to agree but I still try to get the whole works, just in case I'm wrong. I've only missed two over all these years and nothing came up there, so you're probably correct.

Jon, interesting about the Glyphosate but obviously too risky to put around my Hostas. I used Preen for the first time this year in my sun beds. It killed my Coreopsis and didn't really make any difference on weed prevention. Mulch is far more effective. Every year is a learning experience, isn't it? For me, anyway.

Thanks for all your comments and helpful tips, everyone.

Mulch does make a difference, but in the case of my elms it only goes so far. While no other weed has penetrated my cedar mulch beds in a couple of years, the elms could not care less. I even have a large area that is rocked over weed fabric and they pop up by the hundreds in the rock. The couldn't be more healthy had I planted them in the perfect soil.

Too bad those squirrels don't eat the acorns instead of burying them. I wish there were easier solutions to all these things.

santamiller, I hear you about the elms. Here it's Siberian elms. When they drop their seeds it's like confetti is raining down for days on end. I've seen birds eat the seeds, but they don't eat enough. And the trees get a start before I know it and seem to grow at the speed of light. So I commiserate with you on the blasted elms!

I have ash trees … and they are a pain … my back is not as young as it used to be.

Bragu - we have an ash that I am about ready to cut down. This year it dumped it seeds, followed by a round of leaves (I don't know why but it always sheds its spring leaves then leafs out again), then the leaf stems, and now ANOTHER round of seeds!

I'm thinking it's not healthy and stressed. Which is fine by me because it's more incentive to get the tree guy to cut it down. Messy and not even attractive or offering any real shade.

Also, I would discourage the use of glyphosate or Roundup. It's really a vile substance and has been classified as possibly carcinogenic to humans.

If I had a nickle for every tree seedling I pulled, hoed and cultivated out, I could fill my whole place with the biggest, bestest hosta available! This year is the worse I ever remember. My biggest offender is the Black Cherry trees. Thousands of them sprout in early spring, then come the oaks and soon the maples. I spend just about as much time cleaning the tree crap off the hostas as I do pulling seedlings.

Oh the joys of gardening!!!

Oh, those baby trees... Even in other part of the world you can'd avoid them!

My garden is quite small, so hostas live under fruit trees. Apple trees are ok, but cherry and plum trees are very disturbing... Not only they have seedling, but also those strong root-shots. Annoys me a lot!

Hostatakeover- The active ingredient in Preen I scorn gluten. Farmers discovered that no weeds grew around corn silos and experiments showed corn gluten kept seed from germinating. I suspect that something else killed your Coreopsis.

Once again, glyphosate has been shown to have no effect on the health of farmers who are the people who are most exposed to the chemical. It is without any doubt the safest of all herbicides, far safer than almost all organic herbicides except vinegar, which is acid and will burn foliage with not much guarantee of preventing regrowth.

Calling it vile and cancerous without any basis in fact is foolish. At this point I am tired of preaching about it and if you want to continue to believe, beyond all science and proof that there is a government conspiracy to hide harmful effects then go ahead, be my guest.

Spend your time bending over pulling seedlings. Don't cry about back aches or how hard it is. Don't tell me about Canada which bans 'all' sales of any herbicide for home use, period. Don't tell me about UN studies which force fed doses of glyphosate millions of times that of any possible exposure and notice a slight increase in cancer in rats. Simply keep suffering with weeds and seedlings unnecessarily.

I consider it punishment for allowing yourself to be ignorant of the facts. Glyphosate for over 50 years has been the safest and most effective herbicide available, period. It has never been shown to increase cancer risk in any way except when massive doses are forced into rats. The people most exposed to it have zero increase in any cancers and no indication of any ill effects. Studies show it passes through the body with zero change. It affects amino acid enzymes in plants through foliage....period. It has never, after 50 years of testing been shown to cause any harm to humans.

So, please continue to labor under ignorance if you choose. I am quite tired of trying to educate people that simply aren't interested in facts.

Jon

Then stop preaching and calling people ignorant and we'll all have our entitled opinions. Problem solved, and to be clear, I'm smiling while saying this. :)

It is comforting to hear that other people are dealing with little trees in the garden and debris in the hosta leaves. It does take a lot of time to pull the seedlings and get rid of all the stuff those big cupped Hosta leaves collect. At least now I can imagine all the rest of you in your garden dealing with the same issues - maybe with slight differences - I only have Mountain Ash and Maple seedlings. I guess we do it for that Hosta High!

Thistle and Maize, everyone is entitled to their own opinions. They are not entitled to their own facts, however.

I would suggest you don't believe a word I say and do your own research. Please don't fall into the trap of accepting something as absolute truth without looking at each side rather than accepting any information at face value. Here is a link Glyphosate, the new Agent Orange?

Modern synthetic insecticides, fungicides and herbicides which target specific conditions using far less toxic and environmentally safe chemicals are more effective and safer than those allowed as organic. Modern chemicals increase crop yields and reduce costs safely. Hybridizing including enhanced hybridizing by way of gene splicing (GMO) have saved billions from starvation. If the people arguing against progress had their way billions of people would starve to death based on pseudo-science which has no basis in fact.

I don't think there is much chance of that, but I really do not like to have my intelligence insulted. You, of course, did not, but I hope you can see why I sometimes overreact.

Jon; 'preaching science' and always smiling. ;-}

I haven't even argued this point, Jon, so you don't know what facts I have researched and you don't know my background in soil and water science with the US Geological Survey, but I suppose it was just easier to overreact. Perhaps you can appreciate your overreaction and name calling was inappropriate and pretty much has driven me now from reading this post anymore and perhaps this forum in general.

Enjoy your gardens and your opinions.