[Valkyrie]

have a huge white oak in the yard and it has a massive crop of acorns this year. they are dropping and as all white oaks, germinating almost right away. I collected several bucket full of these and have been spreading them on my property in an area of overgrown and reclaimed strip mine as well as the recently timbered area.

Can I expect any results from this? I put out 2 buckets full just tossing them out into the ground.

 

[Guest]

I did the same with a bunch of red oaks the other week on a property I hunt that has few oaks. If I suddenly see oak seedlings and saplings in a few years, I'll know it worked.

No reason why it shouldn't work, right?

 

[Retiredusne8]

That makes 3 of us,I did the same with my red oak too.Have you heard that a squirrel will chew a V in the white oak acorn to keep it from germinting?

 

[Sqrlhntr]

I have heard that they do this with different oaks. I bought two white oak seedlings this year. I will never see an acorn on them but hopefully they will do wildlife good somtime. I have also read that all animals will eat the white oak acorns before any of the rest. Sounds interesting to have access to the white oak. They are few and far between up here.

 

[red oak]

Worth a try, hope it works for you- that's how mother nature disperses them. I have noticed that more oak seedlings will germinate and grow on disturbed soil such as a skid trail. You might be more successful if you could place them in the ground to get more soil contact but I realize that would be way too time consuming when you have acorns by the buckets full. I bet many of the oak trees we see today resulted from squirrels and blue jays burying acorns in the forest duff. Maybe just poke a small hole in the ground with something like a piece of rebar or a digging iron if you ever wish to try it. I have never seen one used but there is an acorn planter made that you can buy.

I would think slightly burying especially the WO acorns might increase your success rate since they germinate in the fall and the tender sprouts are exposed to sun, wind and frost. The RO's will sprout next spring so may have a better chance of survival but burying them should help too.

Thanks for taking the time to do something which may eventually improve the land and benefit wildlife.

 

[CJBS2003]

Just don't hunt near where you spread those acorns... A WCO might think you are baiting! With as touchy as the baiting subject has gotten, nothing would surprise me!