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Re: Acquiring/Planting Bur Oaks

Hi,

the best time to plant oaks is in the fall, in my opinion.   I think you
should grow them yourself in order to preserve the native ecotype.  Problem
is, you have to find a Bur oak who is having a good reproducing year.  These
can either be abundant in mast years, or few and far between.  Here is the
method I use to grow Bur, White, Red, and Chinquapin oaks.

Collect acorns in the fall, float in water and assume the sinkers are good.
Carefully examine each acorn for evidence of weevils, small holes usually,
and discard the damages ones.  Pick the 3 best acorns and plant in half
gallon cardboard milk cartons with most of the bottom removed.  I use
ferti-loam potting soil, but any light mixture should work.  Remember that
acorns of the white oak group, and Bur oak is a white oak, germinate in the
fall.  Plant the acorns as soon as possible and keep the milk cartons in a
cool place.  I usually pack a large container with leaves, putting the
cartons in among them, and protect the whole thing with chicken wire.  You
want to keep the cartons from dropping below 20F, so use plenty of leaves to
protect them and place in a protected area.  During the next year keep them
well watered and fertilized and you should have a 2 foot tree (twig) by
fall.  Then plant and protect from rodents until it is of decent size.

Now, I realize most of this might not be possible for you, but you have an
idea of how I grow them anyway.  Planting in a garden bed, protecting them,
and transplanting when they are larger will also work.  Watch out for that
tap root, it's a doozey.

My largest oak grown as described above is 4 feet tall, 2 years old.  Gotta
have patience, for sure :-)

I know what you mean about growing plants for ecological instead of monetary
reasons.  I wanted to re-forest my back yard, imitating nature as much as
possible.  Unfortunatly most of the information I found involved spacing and
species selection for maximizing production.  Quite annoying.  The book Once
and Future Forests http://www.islandpress.org/books/bookdata/once.html
(publisher link) is a good read and has a lot of valuable information, but I
am not sure it applies to your situation.

d:-)

Mark Stephens (markws@one.net) - Fairfield, OH  Zone 5
----
http://home.one.net/users/markws      - Our Backyard Forest
http://gilmore.pond.org               - Gilmore Ponds Conservancy




----- Original Message -----
From: J. Raasch <jaraasch@facstaff.wisc.edu>
To: <prairie@mallorn.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 07, 1999 6:15 PM
Subject: Re: Acquiring/Planting Bur Oaks


The information I've gathered at UW-Madison so far is from people more
interested in establishing wood lots for future harvest. I think native
restoration calls for different planting and maintenance strategies. For
instance, I won't be planting the trees in ideal soil. I won't be planting
a large number that can't be carefully tended to for the first few years.
I'm not interested in pest-resistant hybrids that will yield a lot of
straight timber; rather, I'd like trees close to the local ecotype. All the
nursuries I've checked do not even sell bur oaks.

By posting my question, I was hoping to learn something from people who are
actively involved in planting savanna vegetaton. I was also hoping to find
additional sources of trees. Perhaps someone is aware of a stand of small
oaks about to be destroyed by development around the edge of a city. With
more information -- from people with experience -- I can accomplish my goal
with fewer problems and perhaps save money as well.

That is what gives.



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