Burr Oaks

[Jacqueline Davidson]

My sister has sent what she calls burr oak acorns. I want to plant them. Should acorns have the cute little caps removed before planting? Should they be scored? soaked? What? Thanks, Jackie, zone 7

[Jangchub]

The acorn should be fully dried and brown and the whole of it is planted. In nature, squirrels and crows do this. I have a bur oak, and several climax live oaks which produce acorns and I also have tiny trees coming up everywhere on the property. I dig them out and give them away to friends. It can take a year for the acorn to sprout the seed inside of it.

[David E. Ross]

I've sprouted acorns of white oaks. One of the "sprouts" is now a tree much taller than my two-story house, about 20 inches in diameter at chest height (the height at which tree girth if often measured), with a branch spread of 45 feet or more. It's 31 years old.

Acorns from that tree are now trees planted in a nearby park. See my .

[symplastless]

Something interesting about acorns:

oak is close to white oak. Do the acorns mature on current growth or on last years growth of bur oak?

[enigma]

"symplastless" wrote in news:9tednQvCC-0JUILVnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

for a tree expert you certainly ask pretty basic questions... bur oak acorns take 2 years to mature, so they obviously mature on last years growth.

lee

[symplastless]

I just blew some leaves away from an area and many acorns were growing in leaves. They are not in the soil but in the duff. Maybe planting acorns down in the soil is too deep.

[symplastless]

I do not have all the answers. So in that respect a bur oak is similar to a red oak. Very interesting. I learn something new everyday. I believe the vessel arrangement is similar to white oak with tyloses plugging all but the current growth increment. Can you verify that Lee?

[enigma]

"symplastless" wrote in news:0_adnfzUndColbzVnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

i believe so. it's been awhile since i read up on the oak family, but i think they all form tyloses. the burr oak is a pretty interesting tree. i have a few on my NY property, but they don't grow at all in my area of NH. lee

[Jangchub]

Better not tell the bur oak, live oak, and red oaks because the crows bury the acorns about two inches down in the soil. I have plants all over coming up. Not to say the acorns in the litter wont germinate, but usually their fate is limited to the litter layer in that case.

[enigma]

Jangchub wrote in news: [e-mail]:

right, the ones that germinate in the duff, or aren't buried tend to dry out & die before the root gets established. not always, because there are always exceptions, but most of the time. i have the same problems germinating my American chestnuts. i was not burying them far enough down... lee

[symplastless]

The white oaks have conducting and non-conducting sapwood.

current growth increment is the only one that is not plugged with tyloses. other sapwood increments are plugged. Oaks are heartwood forming trees. The red oak has all conducting sapwood and forms traumatic tyloses when wounded. You could take a cookie of each and spit on it and blow through. The red oak will bubble all increments of sapwood unless wounded. The white oak will only show bubbles in the current growth increment. You can look these things up in the dictionary. I will go back and add some links for you.

John