My fil had a very nice Burr Oak tree that is now going to have to be cut down. :-( We got 3 of it's acorns to try to plant but I have no idea on the best way to do this. Should I just plant them outside where we would want one, or do I plant them in a peat pot and wait til Spring? I really don't want to mess this up. I live in an Oak forest, so the conditions should be good. Suggestions please? Thanks! :-)
You are probably better off planting them outside as they develop a pretty impressive tap root even as first-year seedlings and don't appreciate it being disturbed. The only downside of planting outside is that the squirrels might find them. Either way, you should plant them as soon as possible because acorns are "hydrophilic", meaning that they die if allowed to dry out.
Oh thank you so much for the advice! I had no idea they are hydrophilic. I thought they might have a long taproot early.
It makes me sick about the tree being cut down. :-(
I am not sure how deep to plant them, which end goes down, etc. Also, I thought about the squirrels too, but seeing that they had a nice crop of acorns this year, and they are not going to be planting these themselves, maybe they won't find them. ;-)
This message was edited Dec 2, 2008 10:06 AM
An educated guess is better than nothing, I suppose:
plant one inch deep.
Thank you :-)
I did plant them yesterday. I found something online that said to plant them 3 inches deep and it didn't matter which way they were in the ground. Now I just keep my fingers crossed they sprout and live. Thanks again!
I bet if you plant them in your compost pile, if you have one, they'll root, then you can transplant them to a 5-gal container. Every acorn or pecan put in our compost pile by a squirrel or bird germinates and starts growing! LOL
That's a good idea Stephanie! lol I haven't made a compost pile here yet, but the leaves where I planted them fall so heavily that there is better dirt there than anywhere else.
My old place had a compost pile and one year I had thrown our pumpkin in it. That spring we had a very healthy pumpkin plant growing and actually got two very nice pumpkins from it. I could never actually purposely grow pumpkins. They would always die. Doesn't it figure?
A blurry picture of one of my compost pumpkins. It was perfect!
I should have mentioned that the radicle (the first root) emerges from the acorn at the pointy end. But it is true that it really doesn't matter how you plant it. The root will always find its way down, and will immediately take a dive once it emerges from the shell.
A three inch planting depth would be fine too, I'm sure. That would be if you planted in the ground.
Three inches in a pot is fine too, but you'd better have a VERY deep pot. That would be two inches less soil that the root has to grow in, as opposed to planting one inch deep. Two inches of extra depth in a pot for an oak is very significant. If you planted in a pot, it's not to late to replant the acorn.
I did plant them in the ground Leftwood. :-) I laid them on their side. Thanks so much! There is a layer of leaves over them and I marked the spots. We never mow in that area and it gets plenty of sun. I had read where Burr Oaks do not grow in forests. They like the sun. :-)
It's true Bur oak tends toward a savannah ecosystem, but you will find them in the woods also. When you do, most of the time you'll find that it is older than other nearby trees, and the area probably was a savannah back when it was a pup.
A little gravel under the leaves might deter busy squirrel paws and the like...
Good luck!
Hopefully you planted the acorns right away. Acorns cannot dry out or they die. As long as you planted the acorns within a few days of collecting, you should be OK.
Good luck, Burr oaks are beautiful, long-lived trees.
