The loss of an oak (Querus spp.) Can be nearly as devastating as that of a family member. These magnificent trees live hundreds of years in order to be an oak beneath whose branches that you play in childhood can remain a friend for a lifetime. Yet oaks die from causes ranging from old age to lightening to pine wilt infection, and from time to time, sorrowfully, you have to leave them. You can replace your treasured oak by growing its seedling from an acorn. This provides you a new tree with close family ties into the pine that expired.
Planting an Acorn
Gather acorns in the oak tree branches before its total demise. Pick or knock them from the tree in fall when they begin to turn from green to brown. If the acorn caps twist off readily, they’re ripe and ready. Remove the caps and float the acorns in water. The ones that sink to the bottom can be germinated. Store the decent acorns in a plastic bag in the fridge. Leave one flap of the bag open to allow airflow.
Select a sunny planting site with soil like the place where your initial oak climbed. Remove weeds and grass in a circle within a 2-foot radius around the planting hole. Dig the planting hole 12 inches deep with a shovel or hand trowel. Refill the hole with extracted soil, tamp it down, then press an acorn to the earth to a depth of 1 inch. Plant a germinated acorn root down, an ungerminated acorn tip upwards. Space multiple plantings at least 8 ft apart. If you simply need one tree, plant several acorns approximately 6 inches apart and eliminate the weaker seedlings at the end of the growing season.
Water the planting site extensively. Put a 3-inch layer of bark-chip mulch over the entire cleared area. As the seedlings grow, move the mulch a few inches back from the flames. Water the plants a few times in early spring and early summer, supplying at least two gallons per seedling. Keep the soil moist during the first growing season.