I know there was a thread before but I can’t find it. I have a tree in my backyard and I’m just wondering how I should store the acorns over winter. I know you can bag them and put them in the fridge. Can you freeze them in a deep freeze and will they grow in the spring?

According to the chart below I believe it’s a bur oak





I floated a 5 gallon pail and there’s only about 40 floaters


Two years ago I planted a 5 gallon pail and 90 % of them came up. They are now about 1-2 feet high.

Next question how easy are they to dig and transplant to where I want them? Not sure I want to plant this bucket this year. Thanks for any info!

I would plant the acorns straight in an air pruning bed, dropped to the ground, covered in wire and heavily buried in leaves for the Winter. As soon as it warms in the Spring, lift the bed back off the ground, so the roots can be air pruned, once they develop. Once the trees go dormant in the Fall of next year, separate them and plant them where you want them.

Trees in an air pruning bed have excellent root development and are very easy to separate.

Keith

I’d say if you had 90% germination, Id keep doing whatever you did! Why would you even ask?

Digging trees out of the ground sucks and you damage and even lose a lot of trees, unless the ground is extremely soft. Air pruning, temporarily slows the growth of the main tap root and causes the development of a massive amount of fibrous roots, so that when you plant the tree in it's final location, or just pot it up, it grows well very quickly. Once you lift the sides of the air pruning bed, you can literally just pull the trees to the side and out, with no root loss or damage.

Keith

Would plant right now. Oak tap roots are fragile. Growing for two years then replanting is a pain on a large scale.

6keith is right. If you dig them and transplant them 90 percent will die.

I would just start stomping them in the ground where you want them to grow and let nature take it's course.

they make a planter, I think it's called the squirrel, Keith do you have pictures of the air bed

Here's a good video on air pruning, from the guy I first learned about it from.



I've been doing it for 3 years. I've been using broken down yard carts with, expanded raised metal bottoms. This Fall, I'm making some huge beds, I'll take pictures of.

Keith