On 4/27/12 10:35 PM, Farm1 wrote:
"David E. Ross" wrote in message
...
On 4/27/12 1:07 PM, karamonde wrote:
Hello everyone!

First of all let me say that the anti-bot filter made it hard for ME!
Especially the "type the 6 digits or letters you see in the box" - I
couldn't see most of them!

Anyway, the question I have is this: I picked up ~15 acorns last October
from 2 oaks near my house and planted them in a flowerpot, somewhere mid
December I decided to dig around them and check for roots - by gently
testing whether the acorns were loose or not. Turns out that 7 of them
had rooted, of those 3 made it to oak seedlings which are now ~20cm tall
each and starting to leaf. The plants were outside throughout the winter
and until now with the exception of 10 days that I was away and brought
them in the house to avoid drying out (it was quite hot), now since I
put them back outside their leaves drooped. Originally I thought that
their leaves may be too heavy for them and that nature will take its
course, however last night I put them back in the house to shield from
very high winds and rain and in 24 hours their leaves have perked up
almost perpendicular to the stem.

Is this normal? Could it be caused by the cold that we are having this
week? Am I confusing them by alternating temperature between indoors and
outdoors?

I am attaching a photograph from last Saturday to illustrate what I
mean, the plant at the back has been the faster grower, I think I got
two species here, Q. robur (the red/brown coloured leaves) and Q.
petraea.

A friend who also grew oaks years ago said "You're worrying too much,
just leave them outside - they look fine".

Comments?


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See my http://www.rossde.com/garden/garden_oak_acorn.html.

David you say that your oak is 28 years old and in 'recent' years it's
dropped acorns. How 'recent' is 'recent'? We have oaks of at least 4
different types that would be less than 10 years old dropping acorns. Is
that type of oak slow to form and drop acorns or does that just apply to
oaks in your area?



It was 28 years old in 2004, the last time the page was updated. It is
now approaching 36 years.

It dropped acorns before 2004.
In recent years, it has dropped acorns of its own. I started two
seedlings from this tree. They are now large saplings.
That is, by 2004 I had already picked up acorns, sprouted them, and
nursed them to saplings in 5 gallon cans. Given how long that takes and
the fact that I did not initially do anything with the acorns it
dropped, the tree may have started dropping acorns at 20 years.

My oak is a valley white oak (Quercus lobata). These are slow to mature
and then live 200 or more years. Some may even live 500 years. It is
not unusual for a mature, old valley white oak to have a trunk that is 2
yards (72 inches, 1.8 m) in diameter at chest height. Mine is "only" 21
inches (0.54 m) in diameter. While it is mature, it is still quite young.

My ash tree (Fraxinus uhdei) was a sapling when I planted it about 38
years ago. For an ash tree, it is not only mature but also quite old.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean, see
http://www.rossde.com/garden/climate.html
Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary