by Nora Palmatier and Mano Kalathil

Doug Tallamy makes it sound sooo easy to plant an acorn and create a tree, so a few Tree Stewards decided to experiment. Here’s what they found.

Nora’s Experience:

First, to determine if the acorns were viable. I checked whether they sunk or floated in a pail of water. As I collected the acorns in the fall, squirrels chattered angrily in the tree. I apologized for removing some of the bounty but there was so much – and a lot of the acorns I found had only one bite taken and discarded, so it’s not like the squirrels were being careful either. The floating test resulted in half of the acorns being put back for the squirrels and other critters. I kept the 20 that had sunk to the bottom.

I decided to start the acorns outside over the winter using an 18 x12x12 deep self- watering planter.  The soil was from the back yard under an old compost pile, near site of oak trees so lots of organic material shared by mature oaks were in the soil. Twenty acorns were pushed into the soil just slightly, perhaps half inch of soil on top.  The entire top was covered with screen mesh to keep all the moles, mice, squirrels at bay… This worked, but I did enjoy watching one squirrel who wouldn’t give up trying to dig through the screen.  I  didn’t have to worry about desiccation or severe freezing this last winter and I enjoyed visiting the planter regularly searching for the first break through in the soil.

Eureka! In early March I could see acorns breaking through the soil, splitting with little white “noodles” coming up, and by April there were a dozen oaks.  I weeded to remove any non-oaks (how did that stiltgrass get in there!) and re-covered the seedlings with a mesh tent that was high enough to allow seedling growth. I started planning the transplanting by purchasing compostable 12” planting bags, thinking this would be an experiment to see if they truly did compost afterwards.

The compostable bags were prepared with mixture of purchased potting soil, more backyard soil from the compost area, and some sand, as the dirt was very heavy in organics. I carefully dug out each oak seedling, taking photos and being amazed. Perhaps I kept the seedlings out too long as I fooled around taking photos and measuring – but this is a learning for me.  Look at the photo below; I expected there would be a direct correlating that long roots would have high stalks but that isn’t always the case. The longest root was 10 inches yet the shortest of 3 inches had the most leaves!

Eleven oaks each had their own bag with extras remaining in the planter. And I learned that being this careful with roots is time consuming and hard on the back muscles!  I placed each bag in the planter with a plastic fence around it with only inch wide holes and limped inside for aspirin

The transplanting was successful from the backyard animals’ point of view. The next day, only one seedling had shriveled, but 10 had totally disappeared! Oddly, neither the plastic fencing nor the soil looked disturbed from digging and there were no roots, stems or leaves visible.  Deer rarely come to our neighborhood but one might have had a midnight snack.  Should have put the screen back over top rather than taking a hot shower for muscles! 

The remaining four are now in a Fort Knox with mesh around the fencing and over top. The oaks seem to be growing well but there really isn’t enough sun in my back yard for enough hours of the day. So I’m now mulling over where to keep planter and how to transplant oaks safely.  It was a great learning to experience the oak roots, but I doubt I’ll do this again.

Mano’s Experience:

In November 2023, I placed 30 White Oak acorns in a 12 x 24. I only covered it with a plastic wire mesh.  

In April 2024, I found 11 White Oak saplings about an inch tall. I had to cut the wire mesh to safely transplant the saplings. I transplanted the saplings into a gallon bag with leaf mulch from the county along with half a tablet of Jobes fertilizer. I lost 50% of the saplings to squirrels in the first week: the squirrels really liked that I dug the saplings up and placed them in neat row for easy access. I then purchased these wire mesh waste baskets and the remaining plants thrived.

In October, after half of the remaining saplings had died due to mice and too much shade, I asked a fellow Tree Steward to keep the surviving saplings in her full-sun greenhouse. They quickly filled out, and three came back to me so I could research the roots. Two of the three have lots of smaller roots, and the leaves and stems are sturdy. One poor guy looked scraggly with only 2 brown leaves and no supporting roots or root hairs. The third wasn’t as vigorous as the first but had a good mass of roots. All three had same environment but there could have been voles or they could’ve had poor drainage.

These saplings have now been transplanted to my neighbor’s sunnier yard.  I encourage others to grow acorns and other seeds to explore roots. 

I also definitely agree with Doug Tallamy that best way to grow an oak tree is to plant an oak where it will grow so the roots don’t experience transplant shock.  Just ensure you protect your tree from all the mice, birds, squirrels and weedwhackers.