Gathered a few saw tooth acorns and a persimmon seedling fail.

[animal1x]

Went to my neighbor's place yesterday and came away with somewhere between 300 and 500 saw tooth acorns. They all came from trees in his side yard and the oldest ones he said were around the 7 year old mark, give or take. They were all loaded with acorns and acorns all over the ground. One smaller, shorter tree he said was only about 5 years and even that one was pretty well loaded. He gave me a bunch he already had gathered up in a bucket and I picked up a few more off the ground and shook a few off the lower limb of one of his trees. I got 'em home and laid out in a cardboard box in the garage right now. Some of 'em were a little damp so I'll let 'em dry off good, sort through 'em, then go from there.

On the persimmons...I set out 5 persimmon seedlings this spring and they started out real well. At least as well as any other fruit tree seedling I've planted. They put out leaves, had fresh new growth. Looking good as far as I was concerned. Pretty tickled about 'em. Then the hot dry weather hit. I was very worried about 'em through this late summer and early fall as they are in an area that is a little hard to get to with no real close source of water so the only water they were getting was what I was bringing to 'em. As I said, I only had 5 and I thought I could keep up with the watering but well, after 60-70 (or more) days of 95-100 degree temps and no rain, well, there was only so much I could do and they didn't make it. I'll go ahead and leave the tubes on 'em until next spring and see if any of 'em come back out but from the looks of 'em I seriously doubt any of 'em will. Granted I didn't open the tubes up and see if maybe there was any green under the bark anywhere or perhaps a leaf or two way down at the bottom might still be a little green. But just looking in from the top of the tubes things are not looking good. Oh well, always next year and maybe some oak seedlings to set out and another try with the persimmons.

 

[blueKYstream]

I planted some persimmons last Spring. I think we didn't have rain for about 35-40 days with similar temps. I know I lost 5%. There's another 20% I'm not sure about. All the leaves in the tubes yellowed and fell off. Some that had leaves outside the tubes were green still. Most aren't to that stage yet though. It's a bummer putting in all that time to lose them!

 

[H20fwler]

Persimmons is something at the top of my list to try next spring.
Where did you guys get yours?

 

[ksgobbler]

Persimmons is something at the top of my list to try next spring.
Where did you guys get yours?

Kansas forest service.

 

[blueKYstream]

Illinois or Kentucky Department of Forestry.

 

[animal1x]

Persimmons is something at the top of my list to try next spring.
Where did you guys get yours?

Got mine from our county Soil and Conservation Service office. Ordered them last fall and picked up Feb. this year.

 

[animal1x]

Bringing this back up because my persimmon seedlings may not all be dead after all. Made a round today just to look things over. Drove the golf cart up around the hill where I had set the persimmons out with the idea to pull the tubes off and bring to the house. Gave a couple of the seedlings a scratch with my thumbnail and there was some green showing where I scored the bark. So maybe, fingers crossed, they're not all dead. I'll probably grab a few more from Nativ Nurseries just to try to make sure I have a female or two but maybe, just maybe, some of last years seedlings are gonna' make it.

Also, last fall I went over to my neighbors place and I got a half of a plastic grocery bag or so of sawtooth acorns. After sorting them out I had probably 300 acorns. I put them in the garage in a cardboard box and a little bit of damp peat moss to overwinter. So hopefully I can get a bunch of them to sprout and grow.

Lot of habitat work to be done here, i.e. chainsawing, spraying, hinge cutting, etc., but planting and growing stuff is the fun part.

Anyway, just thought I'd let ya'll know that maybe not all the seedlings are dead.

 

[j-bird]

I had great response of sawtooth germination from acorns. I planted 2 or 3 acorns directly into the sight I wanted them to grow in but they also grew fine in containers as well - being an oak you have to be mindful of root circling. I have also seen first hand how important weed control and the like can be for seedling growth as well. In areas where I kept the weeds under control - they are now 3 and 4 feet tall.....in areas where the weeds shaded them out they are maybe 12" to 24" tall. Acorns gathered fall 2016 all planted spring of 2017. I planted multiple acorns per site with the intent of removing the weak ones as I didn't figure they would all germinate. I probably had 75%+ germination rate. Good luck with yours.

 

[animal1x]

Thanks J-bird. 75% seems like a pretty good germination rate to me. At least I know I'd be happy with it. This will be my first attempt at growing oak trees from acorns. Hope I can get somewhere around your 75% germination rate. I put about a third of them in containers with soil today. Hope to get 'em all in by the end of the week. Not sure what I'm gonna' do with that many sawtooth seedlings but if it comes to that I'll figure something out. First gotta' see if I kept the acorns alive and viable through the winter, then like you, sort out the weaker ones. Anyway, we'll see.

 

[Catscratch]

I get nearly 100% germination on Sawtooths. So very easy to grow!
I may have missed it, but did you float check them?

 

[animal1x]

Yes. Sorted through 'em , threw away the cracked ones and ones with holes in 'em, then float checked them just before I put 'em in their containers. Ones that floated got chucked out also. I even cracked a couple open and tried 'em myself. They were a bit bitter, LOL.

 

[bigbendmarine]

Like Catscratch, I've found sawtooths to be almost bullet-proof on germinating / growing.

ONLY caveat I'd add to that is if you grow them to seedlings in pots instead of direct sowing, the following year when you go to plant the seedlings survival rates if planted BEFORE leafing-out should also be about 100%... but let them start leafing out before planting them, and you will see quite a hit to the survival rate. Majority I've planted before leaf out and all survived, but one year I was really busy and a warm February in my area (north Florida) caught me behind the 8 ball. Think I only had about 50% survive the transplant shock of being planted when not dormant.