It is best to pick your seed from the tree. Those on the ground may have
been attacked by a small worm as evidenced by a small hole in the shell.
You can pick from the tree as soon as they come free with only a slight
twist. If you want to use the ones from the ground give them a float test.
Put them in a bucket of water, those that float are bad. When planting I
would suggest starting in a pot as if you try to go directly into the ground
the squirrels will find them. Put two or three acorns in a pot, pointy end
down and just push them even with the top of the soil. You can leave them
outside and they really don't need a lot of attention but do need to be
covered with a strong screen to keep the varmints out. I planted some burr
oak acorns and covered with ordinary window screen only to have them stolen
with in a week. Good Luck.

"Lil' Dave" wrote in message
ink.net...
Oak trees are starting to drop acorns. Picked many up along the
fenceline,
don't want any trees here. Most are green, normal sized. A few are dark
brown, and still fewer are very small and dark brown.

Rear of the backyard, on the other side of the fence, is an area workman
and
delivery people used for their vehicles during the building of the house.
I
would like a few tree back there.

Is it possible to grow a few oak trees from the acorns? If so, which
acorns, green or brown colored? Should I wait until early spring, then
plant them? Should I plant directly, or plant in a container then
transplant?

Variety of oak is live oak. They shed leaves for one week in early spring
and quickly replace them, but have leaves the remainder of the year.
Texas
hill country area. I could probably transplant some saplings from the
road
frontage on my property, if growing from seed is too difficult. These are
Texas Red Oak variety. Long term plan is to provide shade in area, put a
sight buffer between the backyard and the street, and increase the
potential
of the Palmetto variety St. Augustine grass's growth by decreasing water
evaporation. (shading). Right now, except for the most hardy natural
growth, is barren.

Winning the fight against the prolific juniper trees here. Now the oaks
can
have some water. No, they're not cedar trees, although I do have some
cedar
on the property.
http://southwestfarmpress.com/news/0...ions-rainfall/
http://agnews.tamu.edu/dailynews/sto...C/Oct2004a.htm
For awhile, cutting of junipers was banned here due to this bird. But
they're still around.
http://aviary.owls.com/golden_cheeke...k_warbler.html