Growing Oaks from Acorns

[Mohawkman]

My question is: Seeing that a burr oak acrons are so large with a hard outer shell, will deer still consume them?

I have some property in a creek bottom near me. They eat the well there but that is their only choice. That and pecans. Here are a few pics under the tree. First pick is at a different spot sorry.

[njlowak]

nice

[toledo]

I planted 12 last year from Native Nursery and so far they have taken off well. I used a tree tube and "t" post then mulched around them and watered as often as I could when it did not rain on them.

I think the plan is to mix 20% mushroom compost in with the native soil. Put them in 60" tree tubes, compost with chipped tree trimmings, and I should be able to get the truck to most of them to water when they really need it.

[IkemanTX]

I think the plan is to mix 20% mushroom compost in with the native soil. Put them in 60" tree tubes, compost with chipped tree trimmings, and I should be able to get the truck to most of them to water when they really need it.

If you do what you have mentioned above with Nativ Nurseries seedlings, you will have a HIGH rate of survival.

If you are planting this year, try and do it before bud break. If you can’t get them in before that, the Ideal time for planting is in the fall.


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[timoub007]

I spent a bit of my free time in the last week or so digging pecan saplings.
Here is a thread in the Classifieds where I have them for sale.

https://discussions.texasbowhunter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=760900

Have some more to dig but ran out of containers. If these go quickly I will get more bags and dig the others before it gets hot.

Tim

[BigL]

Tagged. I have about 50 trees around my yard. Going to try to grow a few this year with my daughter. Thanks for the tips in this thread.

Made me think of it as we were out raking the leaves and pollen for the third and final time this spring.

[GraceNmercy]

I used to have an ongoing thread on another forum of my plantings on our small 33 acre place in Anderson county near Frankston. Got too busy to keep it updated but came across this and had some down time and thought I'd share.

I've been a tree nerd for years and started planting on our place probably in 2012 just before my great uncle who lived on the property passed at 92 in November 2012. Most of our property was gently rolling gassy pasture lands except for the hardwoods in the bottom areas along a creek that runs through our place, and mixed pine and oak on a sandy hill.

I started planting pines on one of the sandy areas of our place in 2012. I planted a few potted loblolly pines I got from a nursery here in Houston, and ordered 1000 more bare root seedlings from arborgen in Bullard, which is 5 minutes away from our place. I also planted 100 allegheny chinquapins in the uplands on our place. This was to get more forest cover on our place and hopeful that it would attract any remnant turkey populations. This was before TPWD reinitiated the turkey stocking program using the super stocking method in 2014...we'd heard birds gobbling on a neighbors place around that time.

The following year I planted about 100 yellow poplar in the bottom lands on our place, and on the southeast corner of our place on a hill with red sandy clay I started planting 3-4 year old Dunstan chestnut trees in 2014. I also planted paw paws down in the bottoms and also large potted white oaks and shagbark hickories.

Since then I've grown from seed more Dunstan chestnuts, pure Chinese chestnuts, American chestnuts, and various oaks including white oaks, shumard, pin oaks, bur oaks, scarlet oaks, nuttall oaks, post oaks, turkey oaks, pawpaws, hickories, American hazelnut, sugar maples, and ozark chinquapins.

When I grow from seed I don't do all the fancy things and spend all the money some folks do. I get a few large deep pots (20-30 gallon) and fill them with a mixture of miracle grow moisture control, peat moss and native soil from the planting areas and fill to a dept of about 10-15 inches deep and plant multiple seed about a half inch below the soil surface.

I always start planting late February and early March and I wrap wire around the pots with closed tops and set them outside so they can naturally stratify and harden off after they sprout. I usually have 1.5 - 3 foot seedlings by fall and I always plant out in the ground in early October ...sometimes late September if there's enough moisture.

I do this every year and have good survival, but I've now started direct seeding to save myself from digging so many wholes to plant trees. Direct seeding has worked well for me as well, but I always start after bud break (late Feb-early March) when most squirrels have stopped searching for the nuts they planted in the fall. I like direct seeding because the seed has the opportunity to send down that taproot as deep as they need, and when you don't have to dig them up and transplant them later they just keep on growing and won't go into shock and need as much time to get acclimated to a new area. A tree from seed will always grow better than a transplanted tree.

Right now I have trees of varying ages and sizes, and many of the chestnuts have been producing for a few years. Last year I got to the property late to harvest the nuts and the deer and everything else had been hammering them. The ground was torn up under the trees and they'd pawed the spiny burs off to get to everyone that had fallen to the ground. It will probably be a several years before any of the planted oaks produce, but between the chestnuts and old oaks on the place and more cover, the deer hunting has improved drastically on the 33 acres.

I keep the chestnuts on one section of the property because I plan to harvest and sell in the future, but for habitat goals and to feed wildlife I've gone to planting ozark chinquapins, which grow in more of a timber form than the shrubby allegheny chinquapin and it's also native to northeast Texas. I've been planting them on the sand hills along the pines and oaks I've been planting over the years.

I just direct seeded over 100 chinquapins and have about 40 I just grew from seed in a couple of pots to be planted out in the fall. Also just received about (10) 4 foot tall saplings with 2-3 foot long root systems that my wife won in a drawing at our Ozark chinquapin Foundation annual meeting, that I potted up to be planted out in the fall.

Once you get into this type of stuff and see the benefits it can be pretty addicting. I can attest that with more cover, browse and mast producing trees the deer hunting has definitely increased on our small 33 acre tract. I lease it to a couple of guys and the deer harvest has definitely increased.

[TxAg]

^^^ Great write up. I enjoyed reading that. Sounds fun!

[toledo]

I used to have an ongoing thread on another forum of my plantings on our small 33 acre place in Anderson county near Frankston. Got too busy to keep it updated but came across this and had some down time and thought I'd share.

I've been a tree nerd for years and started planting on our place probably in 2012 just before my great uncle who lived on the property passed at 92 in November 2012. Most of our property was gently rolling gassy pasture lands except for the hardwoods in the bottom areas along a creek that runs through our place, and mixed pine and oak on a sandy hill.

I started planting pines on one of the sandy areas of our place in 2012. I planted a few potted loblolly pines I got from a nursery here in Houston, and ordered 1000 more bare root seedlings from arborgen in Bullard, which is 5 minutes away from our place. I also planted 100 allegheny chinquapins in the uplands on our place. This was to get more forest cover on our place and hopeful that it would attract any remnant turkey populations. This was before TPWD reinitiated the turkey stocking program using the super stocking method in 2014...we'd heard birds gobbling on a neighbors place around that time.

The following year I planted about 100 yellow poplar in the bottom lands on our place, and on the southeast corner of our place on a hill with red sandy clay I started planting 3-4 year old Dunstan chestnut trees in 2014. I also planted paw paws down in the bottoms and also large potted white oaks and shagbark hickories.

Since then I've grown from seed more Dunstan chestnuts, pure Chinese chestnuts, American chestnuts, and various oaks including white oaks, shumard, pin oaks, bur oaks, scarlet oaks, nuttall oaks, post oaks, turkey oaks, pawpaws, hickories, American hazelnut, sugar maples, and ozark chinquapins.

When I grow from seed I don't do all the fancy things and spend all the money some folks do. I get a few large deep pots (20-30 gallon) and fill them with a mixture of miracle grow moisture control, peat moss and native soil from the planting areas and fill to a dept of about 10-15 inches deep and plant multiple seed about a half inch below the soil surface.

I always start planting late February and early March and I wrap wire around the pots with closed tops and set them outside so they can naturally stratify and harden off after they sprout. I usually have 1.5 - 3 foot seedlings by fall and I always plant out in the ground in early October ...sometimes late September if there's enough moisture.

I do this every year and have good survival, but I've now started direct seeding to save myself from digging so many wholes to plant trees. Direct seeding has worked well for me as well, but I always start after bud break (late Feb-early March) when most squirrels have stopped searching for the nuts they planted in the fall. I like direct seeding because the seed has the opportunity to send down that taproot as deep as they need, and when you don't have to dig them up and transplant them later they just keep on growing and won't go into shock and need as much time to get acclimated to a new area. A tree from seed will always grow better than a transplanted tree.

Right now I have trees of varying ages and sizes, and many of the chestnuts have been producing for a few years. Last year I got to the property late to harvest the nuts and the deer and everything else had been hammering them. The ground was torn up under the trees and they'd pawed the spiny burs off to get to everyone that had fallen to the ground. It will probably be a several years before any of the planted oaks produce, but between the chestnuts and old oaks on the place and more cover, the deer hunting has improved drastically on the 33 acres.

I keep the chestnuts on one section of the property because I plan to harvest and sell in the future, but for habitat goals and to feed wildlife I've gone to planting ozark chinquapins, which grow in more of a timber form than the shrubby allegheny chinquapin and it's also native to northeast Texas. I've been planting them on the sand hills along the pines and oaks I've been planting over the years.

I just direct seeded over 100 chinquapins and have about 40 I just grew from seed in a couple of pots to be planted out in the fall. Also just received about (10) 4 foot tall saplings with 2-3 foot long root systems that my wife won in a drawing at our Ozark chinquapin Foundation annual meeting, that I potted up to be planted out in the fall.

Once you get into this type of stuff and see the benefits it can be pretty addicting. I can attest that with more cover, browse and mast producing trees the deer hunting has definitely increased on our small 33 acre tract. I lease it to a couple of guys and the deer harvest has definitely increased.

Thanks for posting. Have any pics?

Do you think the ozark chinquapin would grow in burleson county? It gets pretty dry. Where can they be purchased?

What methods are you using for direct seeding in the ground?

[GraceNmercy]

Not sure how well they would row there as that's further west outside of their range. Most chestnuts like somewhat acidic soil and the further west you go here in Texas it becomes more alkaline. You may want to do a soil test.

If you're soil is 6.5 ph it's worth a try. Ozark chinquapins are supposed to be somewhat more tolerant of a higher ph soil than other chestnuts, so it's worth a try, but if soil test show your ph is 7 or higher I don't think it's a good idea to plant them unless you amend the soil the lower the ph and that's something you'll have to continue to do to keep it that way.

As far as direct seeding I don't have any special methods. I just dig a small 1-2 inch deep hole and lay the nut in there on it's side all snug, and cover it back and lightly tamp dirt on with my shoe. There's a lot of bermuda in our field, so in places it was thick I'll pull it from the roots to plant in the area, but most spots I don't weed.

I've found that trees are pretty resilient and as long as they're planted at the right time and the critters don't find the nuts, they will do alright on their own once they send down the taproot. During the hot summers the tall grass can even act as a shield against the scorching sun.

There are lots of folks who do a lot extra when starting their seed but I don't live on our place, so I do what works best for me and my goal on our place. One thing I learned through all this is that if you plant on sandy soils on hill tops or slopes, and there's not a lot of grass growing it's best to add mulch around those seedling once they come up.

I usually plant early enough for the root systems to get pretty deep, but just in case the summer sun drys out the ground so much that we enter a drought, the much will help retain moisture in the ground for a longer period of time until you can get there to water things. I'll look to see if I have pictures to post later.

As far as ordering Ozark chinquapins, you can join the foundation and they send seed to new members. Visit: https://ozarkchinquapinmembership.org/

Thanks for posting. Have any pics?

Do you think the ozark chinquapin would grow in burleson county? It gets pretty dry. Where can they be purchased?

What methods are you using for direct seeding in the ground?

[HoustonR6ryda]

may have to try some for my property.nice...white oak will draw deer for miles

[GraceNmercy]

may have to try some for my property.nice...white oak will draw deer for miles

Chinquapins and chestnuts will draw better than white oaks...problem is chesnuts drop late September and October, while white oaks drop late October into November. May be a good idea to plant both so once the last of the chestnuts fall, the first white oaks start falling. There you'll have a longer season for hard mast and keep the deer and other wildlife around longer.

There are a few late dropping chestnuts, but you'll have to check with some of the experts on the All About Chestnuts facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/272120753285618/

[AgHntr10]

So I know the optimal time to plant trees is when they are dormant but would it be a complete waste of time to try to dig and pot some 1-2 year old saplings with plans to plant next winter? I have some areas of my place that didn't get shredded at all last year so I have several small oaks coming up now. Some white, willow and water oaks.

[GraceNmercy]

Those oaks might be a challenge to dig up unless they just germinated within the last month or two. If they're over a year old that tap root is going to give you a run for your money trying to dig it out. You have to get as much of the taproot as possible in order for the seedling to survive, and maybe add some rooting hormone to the roots once your potting it it. It needs to be potted up pretty quickly and so that the roots don't have time to dry out or else you're wasting your time. If they make it through the summer they should be alright to plant out in the fall.

So I know the optimal time to plant trees is when they are dormant but would it be a complete waste of time to try to dig and pot some 1-2 year old saplings with plans to plant next winter? I have some areas of my place that didn't get shredded at all last year so I have several small oaks coming up now. Some white, willow and water oaks.

[IkemanTX]

I planted 20 trees in in-ground net pots this year and every single pot had a seedling come up. They are designed to constrict roots and only allow thin feeder roots out of the bag, containing most of the root system for better transplanting. I’ve got 7 sawtooth oaks, 5 chinkapin oaks, 1 chestnut from the grocery store that somehow sprouted, 1 burr oak, and 6 post oaks.

I had 3 of the bags left over, and I planted a few acorns I collected at the US military cemetery in Normandy this past fall. I am absolutely stoked that all 3 germinated. Those will be really cool to have around.

Don’t mind the lettuce... I decided to utilize the space between the trees while the seedlings were still small.


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