Signs of Spring

 

Red oak acorns are starting to break open. We picked these up from a local tree last fall until the first snow and then "floated" the acorns by putting them in water. Whichever sinks, these should be viable. The acorns are placed into a bag of peat moss in the spare frig to simulate the cold winter - this is called the stratification process. If we planted in the ground right away, then squirrels and other critters could get them.

These are ready to be planted in a tube tray with a peat moss/sand mix and will I let them grow in the tubes until next spring. So long as the squirrels and chipmunks stay out, they should be ready to plant. We lost half of our white oak seedlings to them last summer. Previous year's surviving white oak, red oak and hickory will be planted in a few weeks.

We do this every year and we lost access to several white oaks last fall. Still looking for a black oak source that we lost a few years ago.

The numbers: of the acorns we pick up, we throw out 70-80% after floating. Of those seedlings that are planted, only about 20% survive rabbits and other rodents to year three. Putting up wire cages increase the chances of trees making it but no guarantees there.

Looking forward to spring planting.

From a single acorn, a forest

As the acorn sprouts to open sky
one of many to be planted on the hill.
Some day this one will be added
with a chance to reach towards heaven.

Red oak in the makeshift greenhouse

 Last fall we had a good harvest from my sources of acorns of white and red oak. The neighbor's pin oak was not short of it's yield and squirrels had their fill and more. I'm sure I'll find acorns sprouting throughout the yard as a result of their hard labor.

But this is a red oak - and that means it's special. Among the oak species, the red oak was the one most prized by my father for his carpentry work and our kitchen table he made was from red oak.

Also, this seedling is a cousin to the Stranded Tree.

Red oak seedling a few inches tall

This year, we continue to experiment in our planting times, fertilizer, etc. to collect additional data for future plantings.

I also have something special planned for this year (if only spring will cooperate) and I hope to reveal it soon.

In the mean time, I'd like to share from a song from David Gray, The Sapling:

Gonna lay down in the grass
And watch that acorn
Split in two
Slowly take root

Linked at Poets and Storytellers United:Weekly Scribblings #13: All The Small Things

Tree planting 2015 YTD

We are way behind on planting this year. Our focus has been on infrastructure, adding to the berries and cleaning up

It seems like the weather has been 3-4 weeks behind average: a late frost, dry April and now a wet May. So long as we don't have a dry, hot summer, we should be fine to plant seedlings into June (if we time it between the rains.)

I learned a lot from last year, and we can apply it going forward. Here's a red oak I planted by acorn last year:

Taken in early May, this was planted in the south section in April, 2014, in some "empty" space among the walnuts.

So far this year, we planted 30 bur oak acorns and a couple of apple, apricot and hazelnuts trees.

Spring is almost here (I hope)

A close up of our red oak at the top of the hill (taken 12/21/14):

This encourages us that we are doing the right thing. There's life in a tree even in the dead of winter.

2014 acorn harvest has started

For the past couple of weekends I've picked about 100 swamp white oak acorns and planted 60. Of the three oaks only one is producing a moderate number of acorns. Not much from the other two.

Below: swamp white oak, black oak, red oak and four bur oak acorns on top.

The white and red oaks have plenty more acorns to fall from the tree and I fully expect to gather more. Last year produced very few red oak acorns and this year it seems that the black oaks are the species that aren't yielding much.

A camera shy red squirrel was stuffing his cheeks while I picked up the 150 or so red oak acorns last night after work. Maybe his descendents will be nibbling acorns from one of the seedlings that will sprout up from this harvest (20+ years from now.) Another squirrel would take a few bites from an acorn and drop the remnants on me while I picked from the ground. After the second acorn to wiz by my ear, I decided this was enough for today.

I floated off the bad acorns and bagged the good ones into ziplock baggies with peat moss. I have about a couple hundred feet to finish off the row to plant the white oak this fall and what I don't plant this fall will be left in the spare fridge to plant in the spring with the red, black and bur oaks.

These will fill in nicely where we lose a seedling this winter.

Get to work, planting and cutting weeds (of course)

57 seedlings planted this weekend: chestnut, red oak and a couple of catalpa. I started the catalpa from seed from a neighbor who moved to a new house last fall and I picked a few seed pods from his yard. Germination rate was about 10% and I only have about 5 seedlings that were okay and one that excelled.

Acorns have been falling for a couple of weeks and I picked some swamp white and red oak acorns from a group of trees at a college in Cedar Rapids. I get a few looks from the drivers as they pass by but no one has called security yet. I'll be stopping by a few more times over the next weeks and I'll get as many as I can before the squirrels can bury them before winter. After float testing them, I ended up with only a couple dozen good acorns.

I planted 10 white oak acorns yesterday. This makes 458 fruit trees and seedlings, 242 acorns and nuts for a total of 700 new plantings this year.

Not bad for couple of part-time conservationists and their son.

2014 planting update, 3/24/14

Red oak planted in containers:

 

One month after planting, the tallest reached 2 and a half inches. Those planted in the star trays are only about an inch. I'm not sure why the difference, but I like the progress on these. The roots will start to wrap around the bottom of the container or try to poke its way out the drain holes. I've had good success with pin oaks the past two seasons with this size of cup and will get these in the ground after another 6 weeks or so.

When we get back to actual spring-like temperatures for good, these will be outside for the duration.

Also in the ground this past weekend: 15 coffeetree seeds and another 10 black oak acorns.

Spring planting update, 3/16/14

As of 3/16, we have 35 chestnut sprouts from 55 nuts potted on 2/22:

And the red oak are breaking ground after initial planting on 2/22 and 3/1:

Our small "forest" numbers about 200 acorns and nuts planted so far in the basement. As the frost is below 6 inches at the acreage, I planted 20 black oak acorns (10 on 3/9 and 10 on 3/15) and 5 coffeetree nuts on 3/15.

No signs of white oaks or chestnuts that I planted in the ground last fall. Yeah, I know it's way too early, but I'm impatient and want some progress.  

Spring planting - getting ready

In the crisper tray of a basement refrigerator is where I have acorns, chestnuts and a few other seeds, some of which were stored in bags of peat moss. While always in the back of my mind, I haven't made a habit of peaking in our stash.

On Saturday I discovered that a good majority of the red and black oak acorns had germinated:

Now it's time to think about getting them in the ground soon, except the ground is frozen down to 24". The next best thing is to put them in dirt in planters. I was impressed with the star trays that we received the aronia plants in, and I purchased a few for this purpose. The trays that came with the aronias are currently in the garden filled with white oak acorns (with hardware cloth covering to keep the critters out.)

I put the nuts in a peat moss/sand mix and gave them a good soaking. These are placed under a south facing window near a heat vent.

Since nearly all of the chestnuts germinated as well, some with an inch plus root, I planted some of those in a tray and a few extra pots. Those 32oz drink cups from the convenient store work very well for planters. 

Potted this past weekend: 45 red oak, 38 black oak, 52 chestnut.

Acorn and chestnut inventory, 10/08/13

Last week I received about 500 red oak acorns from Acorno.com. They're supposed to have come from Iowa, but I'll have to take them at their word. I still ended up with about 500 after floating them and at a price less than what they currently list. The reason for ordering was that my local trees had none. Not a single acorn from any of the red oak trees that I know of that are easily accessible.

About 300 swamp white oak acorns from a local college campus. Floating was about 80-90 percent successful. The four trees had a good crop this year and I've been battling the squirrels to get at them. A couple of the locals aren't too happy with me taking their food supply.

The black oak inventory nearly doubled to 39 acorns on Monday after I stopped to pick up #2 son on campus and I went to my source. This one tree sits very close to a linden and I picked up a few dozen of those seeds to try my hand with. Only about 5% of the acorns have been viable after floating. I've been checking this tree for the past month to try to increase my numbers and only getting a couple of good acorns on each visit.

I get some strange looks as I pick up acorns and seeds from around campus. I'm thinking of wearing a tuxedo while picking but someone is sure to call security and I'd rather not be chased about by net-carrying guys in white coats.

David aka True Blue Sam and his mom, Bea, stopped by and dropped off at least 2 gallons of Chinese chestnuts. With a very good flavor, some of them will not make it to the tree farm. But I have a planned spot where the chestnut grove will be and I'll be getting some in the ground this fall. With his generosity, I have several to experiment with to see what works best for my ground.

Here's the inventory:

 From left to right - swamp white oak, Chinese chestnuts, red oak and black oak.

We have a good supply for this year's fall planting and for spring. An old fridge in the basement now holds our inventory and the "crisper" drawer is a little full.