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Food Plots Starting Sawtooth Oak Seedlings from Acorns

W

WMAn

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Nov 5, 2010
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Location
Williamson County
I have a Sawtooth oak that I planted six years ago. It has acorns on it for the first time this year. I have been collecting the acorns and planting them in my raised garden beds.

My plan is to pull up the bare root seedlings and replant them where I want them.

Will they sprout? Will my plan work? How long do I wait to pull up and replant?
 
I don't see why it wouldn't work, but I'll tell you what my 4 year old and I did last year. We took a gallon bag of moist saw dust, put acorns in with them, put it in the fridge for 3 months. Then we planted 50 or so of them in (1) 5 gallon flimsy black gardening pot (disposable kind). I cut around the top of the pot so the pot would only be like 5" deep so I didn't need as much potting soil/dirt mix. It took them a surprisingly long time to sprout (maybe a month or more), but they did and grew quickly. We then took the pot to the farm, pulled them out, and planted them (got tired of baby sitting - but I had probably 150 plants). I think my way allowed a little more control over some variables that you're way doesn't, but I see no reason why your way wouldn't work either.
 
I planted sawtooth acorn I got from Georgia this past year. Picked them up in the fall, rapped them in damp paper towels and put them in in ziplock baggies in the fridge over winter. In May I planted them in small pots in potting soil. Pushed the acorn down in the dirt and just barely left the top of the nut showing. I planted 10 and everyone of them grew a is doing well. Moved them to 5 gallon pots after they were about 10" tall. Most are now about 20 to 30" tall.
 
I've done this but buried my acorns in large flower pots that were left out all winter. I waited until the following fall to plant. Excellent results with the trees that are planted but not all my acorns sprouted.
 
I did basically what Blount Arrow described with Dunstan chestnuts. Put them in damp peat moss in a freezer bag and allowed to striate in fridge for about 3 months. Took them out in the spring and planted them in pots in my garage under a lamp. I kept them in my back yard all summer so I could make sure they got enough water, then that winter I transplanted them to my property and planted them in grow tubes. Most lived.
 

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