Why I Oughta...

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

I recently posted an update on the grown-from-seed tree seedlings that I've been nurturing for the past few years and included the oak trees that are from acorns that I collected last Fall .  Last year, I collected a variety of tree species - various oaks, chestnuts and even an Illinois Pecan and stashed them in the fridge to cold stratify.    That lead me to what I'd describe as 'mixed' results.  I have had quite a few seeds turn into seedlings, but because it was a mixed-bag, I am (somewhat) guessing on the variety of the tree and where I picked it from (a park?  Our block? Up in Wisconsin?) when I took the acorns.   But, I've enjoyed that seedling-growing process.  So, this year, I'm simplifying things.  I'm only going to keep ONE variety of acorns over winter.  What tree is that, you might be asking?  The answer is:  I'm not sure.   But, I do, indeed, know that it is a columnar oak tree that is planted along Maple Avenue near downtown Downers Grove.