From: wes@sscvx1 (Wes Smith)
Subject: Re: Acorns/Oak propagation
Date: Tue, 4 May 1993 19:50:12 GMT

In article <AftfMli00iQ45Begov@andrew.cmu.edu>, "Curtis P. Yeske"
<cy13+@andrew.cmu.edu> wrote:
> Does anyone have any hints on getting acorns to grow?  My yields are
> down around 1-2%.  Most of the books I have looked at deal with
> mature trees. 

Curt - The one time I tried growing acorns into trees, I had
germination rates around 90%.  Here's is what I did:

1.  Mix potting soil / sand (for weight) in approx. 4:1 ratio.
Specifically, I believe I mixed two large (3 cu ft, maybe?)  bags of
potting soil, one 50 lb bag of play sand.

2.  Gather acorns as soon as they fall from the tree.  I've read that
germination rates will fall drastically if they are left on the ground
even a couple of days.  I actually gathered most of my acorns before
they fell, as soon as I noticed others were beginning to fall.  If
your tree is small enough, shake the branches and gather only the ones
that fall.

3.  Take your newly gathered acorns and toss them into a bucket of
water.  Discard the "floaters".  Those floating are likely hollowed
out by worms and will not germinate.  Inspect acorns for even small
pin sized holes caused by same worms, discard if found.  Only about
10%, maybe less, of the acorns I gathered showed no evidence of insect
damage and were suitable for planting.  IMO, this is the single most
important step of the whole process.

3.  Plant 3 acorns per container (I used 1 gallon containers, and
repotted as they grew - less chance of overwatering a smaller
container).  Plant acorns point down at a depth equal to twice acorn
length.  To rephrase, there should be as much soil covering acorns as
they are long, measuring point to cap.

4.  Bring inside garage or basement whenever outside temperatures
falls below 27 or 28 degrees.  Container plants will be damaged at
temperatures much higher than they could tolerate in the ground.  You
might get away with lower temperatures, I definitely could not as I
was growing southern live oaks.  Northern oak varieties no doubt can
tolerate somewhat lower temperatures, but I wouldn't chance it
personally.  Protect from squirrels, they like to dig around in
containers here.

5.  Be patient in the spring.  My oaks sprouted a good bit later than
when my trees leafed out.  Actually, I had already given up on them
and they came up in spite of my neglect.  Select strongest growing and
carefully remove any others that come up.  Re-pot when you notice
roots growing out drain holes.

6.  Fertilize "potted" trees with a water soluble fertilizer (like
Miracle-Gro) at mixture rates lower than and less frequently than you
would use for ground plants.  Potted plant's roots are easy to burn.
Don't overwater your trees, let the planting mixture almost dry out
before watering again.  Believe it or not, more of your trees will die
from overwatering than underwatering.  I didn't water a couple of
leftover trees the second summer (in Dallas' heat, no less!!!) and
they still made it through the following winter.

Sorry if this is turned out to be a lot more than you really wanted to
know, I can't help but get a little excited about this particular
project.  I grew up in Amarillo, TX where there are few (actually,
none I'm aware of) native trees on the plains.  Growing a tree from an
acorn is easily the most satisfying gardening "experiment" I've
attempted.  No doubt your friends will appreciate your success as
well.  Trust me, you won't have any trouble giving them away.

Good luck - Wes Smith (wes@sscvx1.ssc.gov)