Why I Oughta...

Last Fall, I collected a few dozen acorns off off a small stand of upright, columnar Oak trees that are planted in a parkway near our downtown.  On many of my early morning walks, I'd stop by, see if the acorns were 'loose' and then grab a few before they fell to the ground.  Our Oaks in our yard last year threw off A HUGE amount of acorns - a mast year.  These columnar oaks were simliar. I identified these as Regal Prince Oak trees and here's a look at some of the acorns as I collected them in September 2023 .   In November, I water-tested them (if they floated, I tossed them), then buried them in wet sand for a long Winter's nap via cold stratification .  I also grabbed three large Chinese Chestnuts and did the same - tested, then tucked-in the fridge for four+ months.   In 2022, I collected a wide variety of acorns, but didn't label them.  This year, I went with JUST ONE species - the Regal Prince Oak. Earlier this month, I took the container out of the fridg

For the past few months, I've been collecting acorns for a set of columnar oak trees and have been planning on trying to get them ready to plant up in the Spring.  Last Fall, I collected a wide variety of nuts, so when Spring came, I wasn't totally sure what was what.  This year, I know I only have one variety. Here's the pile of Regal Prince Oak (columnar) acorns that I started with: I put them in a bucket of water to test which were viable.    You can see all the floaters below: I also had three Chestnuts that I tossed in, too. After 12 hours, I fished all the floaters out - below are the number of non-viable acorns.  I'd say that's probably half (or more). I went back after 24 hours and found a couple more floating.  I fished those out and tossed them for the critters to enjoy: And here, below, is what I was left with:  enough acorns to pack away in wet sand and stick in the fridge for Winter: Next Spring, I'll pot them up and see if we can grow our own colu