My sister has sent what she calls burr oak acorns. I want to plant them.
Should acorns have the cute little caps removed before planting? Should
they be scored? soaked? What?
Thanks, Jackie, zone 7

On 5/5/2008 4:40 PM, Jacqueline Davidson wrote:
My sister has sent what she calls burr oak acorns. I want to plant them.
Should acorns have the cute little caps removed before planting? Should
they be scored? soaked? What?
Thanks, Jackie, zone 7



I've sprouted acorns of white oaks. One of the "sprouts" is now a tree
much taller than my two-story house, about 20 inches in diameter at
chest height (the height at which tree girth if often measured), with a
branch spread of 45 feet or more. It's 31 years old.

Acorns from that tree are now trees planted in a nearby park. See my
http://www.rossde.com/garden/garden_oak_acorn.html.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at http://www.rossde.com/garden/

Something interesting about acorns:
http://www.treedictionary.com/DICT20...nr-acorns.html

and

http://www.treedictionary.com/DICT20...te-acorns.html

Bur oak is close to white oak. Do the acorns mature on current growth or on
last years growth of bur oak?


--
Sincerely,
John A. Keslick, Jr.
Consulting Tree Biologist
http://home.ccil.org/~treeman
and www.treedictionary.com
Beware of so-called tree experts who do not understand tree biology.
Storms, fires, floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions keep reminding us
that we are not the boss.
Some people will buy products they do not understand and not buy books that
will give them understanding.
"Jangchub" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 5 May 2008 19:40:05 -0400, "Jacqueline Davidson"
wrote:

My sister has sent what she calls burr oak acorns. I want to plant them.
Should acorns have the cute little caps removed before planting? Should
they be scored? soaked? What?
Thanks, Jackie, zone 7


The acorn should be fully dried and brown and the whole of it is
planted. In nature, squirrels and crows do this. I have a bur oak,
and several climax live oaks which produce acorns and I also have tiny
trees coming up everywhere on the property. I dig them out and give
them away to friends. It can take a year for the acorn to sprout the
seed inside of it.

"symplastless" wrote in
:

Bur oak is close to white oak. Do the acorns mature on
current growth or on last years growth of bur oak?

for a tree expert you certainly ask pretty basic questions...
bur oak acorns take 2 years to mature, so they obviously
mature on last years growth.

lee
--
Last night while sitting in my chair
I pinged a host that wasn't there
It wasn't there again today
The host resolved to NSA.

I just blew some leaves away from an area and many acorns were growing in
leaves. They are not in the soil but in the duff. Maybe planting acorns
down in the soil is too deep.

http://www.treedictionary.com/DICT20...orns_duff.html


--
Sincerely,
John A. Keslick, Jr.
Consulting Tree Biologist
http://home.ccil.org/~treeman
and www.treedictionary.com
Beware of so-called tree experts who do not understand tree biology.
Storms, fires, floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions keep reminding us
that we are not the boss.
Some people will buy products they do not understand and not buy books that
will give them understanding.


"Jangchub" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 5 May 2008 19:40:05 -0400, "Jacqueline Davidson"
wrote:

My sister has sent what she calls burr oak acorns. I want to plant them.
Should acorns have the cute little caps removed before planting? Should
they be scored? soaked? What?
Thanks, Jackie, zone 7


The acorn should be fully dried and brown and the whole of it is
planted. In nature, squirrels and crows do this. I have a bur oak,
and several climax live oaks which produce acorns and I also have tiny
trees coming up everywhere on the property. I dig them out and give
them away to friends. It can take a year for the acorn to sprout the
seed inside of it.

"enigma" wrote in message
.. .
"symplastless" wrote in
:

Bur oak is close to white oak. Do the acorns mature on
current growth or on last years growth of bur oak?

for a tree expert you certainly ask pretty basic questions...
bur oak acorns take 2 years to mature, so they obviously
mature on last years growth.

lee
--
Last night while sitting in my chair
I pinged a host that wasn't there
It wasn't there again today
The host resolved to NSA.

I do not have all the answers. So in that respect a bur oak is similar to a
red oak. Very interesting. I learn something new everyday.
I believe the vessel arrangement is similar to white oak with tyloses
plugging all but the current growth increment. Can you verify that Lee?


--
Sincerely,
John A. Keslick, Jr.
Consulting Tree Biologist
http://home.ccil.org/~treeman
and www.treedictionary.com
Beware of so-called tree experts who do not understand tree biology.
Storms, fires, floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions keep reminding us
that we are not the boss.
Some people will buy products they do not understand and not buy books that
will give them understanding.

"symplastless" wrote in
:

I do not have all the answers. So in that respect a bur
oak is similar to a red oak. Very interesting. I learn
something new everyday. I believe the vessel arrangement is
similar to white oak with tyloses plugging all but the
current growth increment. Can you verify that Lee?

i believe so. it's been awhile since i read up on the oak
family, but i think they all form tyloses.
the burr oak is a pretty interesting tree. i have a few on my
NY property, but they don't grow at all in my area of NH.
lee
--
Last night while sitting in my chair
I pinged a host that wasn't there
It wasn't there again today
The host resolved to NSA.

Jangchub wrote in
:

On Tue, 6 May 2008 21:37:31 -0400, "symplastless"
wrote:

I just blew some leaves away from an area and many acorns
were growing in leaves. They are not in the soil but in
the duff. Maybe planting acorns down in the soil is too
deep.

Better not tell the bur oak, live oak, and red oaks
because the crows bury the acorns about two inches down in
the soil. I have plants all over coming up. Not to say
the acorns in the litter wont germinate, but usually their
fate is limited to the litter layer in that case.

right, the ones that germinate in the duff, or aren't buried
tend to dry out & die before the root gets established. not
always, because there are always exceptions, but most of the
time. i have the same problems germinating my American
chestnuts. i was not burying them far enough down...
lee
--
Last night while sitting in my chair
I pinged a host that wasn't there
It wasn't there again today
The host resolved to NSA.

The white oaks have conducting and non-conducting sapwood.
http://www.treedictionary.com/DICT2003/S/sapwood.html

The current growth increment is the only one that is not plugged with
tyloses.
http://www.treedictionary.com/DICT20...20vessels.html

All other sapwood increments are plugged. Oaks are heartwood forming trees.
The red oak has all conducting sapwood and forms traumatic tyloses when
wounded. You could take a cookie of each and spit on it and blow through.
The red oak will bubble all increments of sapwood unless wounded. The white
oak will only show bubbles in the current growth increment. You can look
these things up in the dictionary. I will go back and add some links for
you.

John

"enigma" wrote in message
. ..
"symplastless" wrote in
:

I do not have all the answers. So in that respect a bur
oak is similar to a red oak. Very interesting. I learn
something new everyday. I believe the vessel arrangement is
similar to white oak with tyloses plugging all but the
current growth increment. Can you verify that Lee?

i believe so. it's been awhile since i read up on the oak
family, but i think they all form tyloses.
the burr oak is a pretty interesting tree. i have a few on my
NY property, but they don't grow at all in my area of NH.
lee
--
Last night while sitting in my chair
I pinged a host that wasn't there
It wasn't there again today
The host resolved to NSA.