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.

White oak update

One of the swamp white oaks that David gave us last fall.

It stands about 18 inches tall now. Although a little insect damage on a few leaves, this has good color and new growth as you can see on the top. The deer and rabbits have left this alone and I think we have a good start to this one.

2013 Fall Planting Update

In mid-October we planted all the seedlings that David aka Sam delivered up to us. A couple of swamp white oak, a couple of catalpa and what ended up with 5 Kentucky coffeetree (a few volunteers were in the pots). The chestnut is planted in what is our new grove. I planted 5 more chestnut nuts so I think that qualifies as a grove.

The catalpa are framing the cedars as "bookends" on the west and the coffeetrees were added to the row with our showcase tree and to a couple of other rows with smaller coffeetrees. The swamp white oak were planted in the last row next to the willows.

Of course. all were caged with woven wire and chicken wire or hardware cloth to prevent the large and small vermin from doing damage.

Catalpa:

Swamp white oak:

Tree number one of the chestnut grove:

I planted 51 swamp white oak acorns up the bottom three rows using an old brass planting stick. I have 100+ planted in planters in the back yard of the homestead.

50 black oak acorns are planted in the northern three rows at the farm. Another 190 black oak acorns are in a bag of peat moss in the bottom of a fridge in the basement.

I have a couple of tubs buried in the garden that I sowed aronia seeds and planters that have paw paw seedlings and hard maple seeds that fell this fall from my neighbor's tree.

After a few more chestnuts get in the ground, I think I've just about finished with the fall planting.

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.