Re: acorns!
- To: loretta gerity jacobs
- Subject: Re: acorns!
- From: W* B*
- Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2001 15:26:49 -0800 (PST)
Regarding acorns. We get very few on the ground from our tree, because the
squirrels collect them in the branches. So do the blue jays. They take
them all over the neighborhood.
Does anyone have garden oaks where the neighborhood has the same species
on high, sunny, dry ridges? I remember reading that Lyman Benson directed
his botany students at Pomona College, in Claremont, California, to
experiment with acorns to see if there were germinating differences in
rich, loamy, moist soil or in dry, clay-gritty soil. They found that
acorns coming from trees on ridges with both a northern exposure and
southern exposure betrayed the origin of the pollen they received by the
way they germinated. Those with pollen from trees in more moist, shady,
northerly locations sprouted better in moist, loamy soils, and those with
pollen from the dryer, sunnier locations sprouted better in dryer soils,
even though the acorns came from the same 'mother' tree. I remember
thinking at the time that he had determined a great, simple research
project for undergraduate botany students, and assumed that the acorns
pollinated by the trees in the more loamy situation would be better in the
garden.
Elly Bade
Berkeley, California
On Sat, 24 Feb 2001, loretta gerity jacobs wrote:
> Karl Hoover wrote:
>
> > just dump more compost material ontop of the whole mess. or perhaps,
> > next time, invite some more squirrels. also you will probably find
> > that even acorns several years old will sprout irregularly after
> > some number of years of delay
> >
>
> My squirrels have been unable to keep up with the hundreds of these
> fallen acorns. Perhaps they don't actually get much "down" time, as the
> dog is always chasing them back up into the trees. Yesterday I hand
> sifted 2 - 5 gallon barrels full of them out of compost. Most had
> sprouted. I think it's pretty much a wasted effort , as there are so
> many more. I have a question for the group, do sick-looking trees make
> more acorns, in an effort at self preservation? I've looked around the
> area, and noticed that the trees that have the healthiest appearance,
> (lots' of leaves, showing vigorous growth, etc,) don't seem to shed as
> many acorns, as the ones that look less vital. Also, there is quite a
> range in the size of the nuts themselves, some are about 1 inch long,
> thin, and others are 2 1/2 inches,very fat, lots' of "meat" in them. Is
> this typical of one tree, or am I seeing nuts from different trees?
> They sort of all run together, and to my inexperienced eye, they all
> look the same. (To quote Ronald Reagan). "You've seen one Redwood,
> you've seen 'em all" . Or was that James Watts?
>
> I digress. ahem...
>
> Anyway, thanks for the help.
>
>
> loretta in fairfax
>
