yes frost came early here,

In the fall I found a mess of bur oak, so I gathered up a few dozen and gave them to a bud that wanted to plant some on his property. Don't usually find BO acorns like that around here

BO are tricky to find. This was the 1st year I found BO acorns, so I planted several hundred.

I got the last of my bur and white oaks planted yesterday:

BO can be tough to find, and they take longer to prepare due to the cap removal process.

Interesting update: this is the first year I tried growing bur oak acorns. I put them in the worst of soil: dry/sandy. Holy moly, to my pleasant surprise they're coming in like weeds this spring. I direct seeded in the fall & winter.

Good luck now pray for a poor crop of deer and hungry bunnies

We have white oaks, I throw away about a 55 gallon drum full of acorns each of the last 3 or 4 years. The ones I miss sprout and grow pretty fast.

wws

My partner planted a bunch of burr oak acorns in air pruning beds in the Fall of 2024. The mother tree was the most popular tree in the entire arboretum with wildlife. It was a race to get newly fallen acorns before the deer did. We need to dig and pot up the trees.

Keith

White Oak acorns commonly sell for $50.00 a 5 gallon bucket full around here. I would plant many and sell the rest.

Keith

I wonder if it's normal for direct seeded bur oak to do better than traditional white oak acorns

Bur oak acorns are larger than other white oak acorns. Having more stored energy makes bur oaks initially take off more quickly. The biggest problem is that there's a lot of wildlife that wants to eat the acorns. Moving even a fairly small bur oak seedling, that's planted straight in the ground, is a chore because the roots get deep so quickly. Direct planting, where you ultimately want the full size tree, is probably best if you can protect the acorn with wire.

Air pruning beds work great, if you want to produce a lot of trees that are easy to move. When the tap root hits the air gap, it pauses growing and more fibrous, lateral roots are produced. The tap root starts growing down again once the tree is planted permanently in the ground. If you put the tree in a regular pot, the tap root will start cooling around once it hits the bottom. Deep tree pots, with an air pruning bottom, prevent that.

Keith

the White Oak, Quercus alba grows in the eastern US, in Oregon you have what is commonly called the Oregon White Oak or Quercus garyana.

2 different trees.

Unless one from the east has been planted in Oregon way out of its natural range.

I have direct seeded Bur Oaks, transplanted seedlings that were less than 1 yr old, planted bare root seedlings (1-2 ft tall), planted potted 4-5 ft plants and transplanted 6-8 ft tall trees with a tree spade.

like alot of things in life, the best results take the most time and cost the least, that would be planting acorns and protecting them.
If you are willing to spend alot of money you can get a larger tree planted with a tree spade.
smaller seedlings (usually bare root) are cheapest, a buck or two.
Larger potted trees are any where from $15 to over $100 depending upon size again.

In any case they all need protection from deer, even the 8 ft transplanted ones (deer rubbing).
One of my large ones got rubbed last fall and top killed it, its re-sprouting from low on the trunk and it will survive.
But I will now cage even my larger ones.