Overcup oak bitter?
- Thread starter Shedder
- Start date
The Fishman
5 year old buck +
Overcups are a white oak, so they should not be as bitter as a red oak, but I have heard contradictory things about deer's preference for them. I have talked to people who say that deer love them while I have read online other people say that deer don't eat them. It may be a case of what else the deer have to eat in that area and their taste preference could vary by location.
I am currently growing some and the seedlings seem to grow fairly quickly. Currently, most of the ones I started this year are 12-14 inches in height. The main problem I have with overcup oaks is trying to tell if the acorn is viable or not. Even without the cap, all of the acorns float. This is what they are supposed to do since overcups are often found in areas that flood. The one thing I did notice this year is that if I removed the cap, the acorns germinated a lot quicker. Some of the acorns I didn't remove the cap from are just starting to pop up while others from the same tree that I removed the cap from started germinating back in March.
I am currently growing some and the seedlings seem to grow fairly quickly. Currently, most of the ones I started this year are 12-14 inches in height. The main problem I have with overcup oaks is trying to tell if the acorn is viable or not. Even without the cap, all of the acorns float. This is what they are supposed to do since overcups are often found in areas that flood. The one thing I did notice this year is that if I removed the cap, the acorns germinated a lot quicker. Some of the acorns I didn't remove the cap from are just starting to pop up while others from the same tree that I removed the cap from started germinating back in March.
Shedder
5 year old buck +
The Fishman
5 year old buck +
If you try to remove the cap off an overcup oak, you will soon learn that it is a pain in the butt to do it. I removed the caps off some of the acorns I collected and planted them last fall in a raised bed that I made. These started popping up in March. Since I had no way of knowing if the overcup acorns were viable since they all floated and space was limiting in the raised bed, I didn't bother removing the caps on 20-25 and planted them in the yard where I had filled a hole in with sand. I figured I could easily dig them up if they germinated. They did germinate and I have moved them to pots, but they didn't start until a few weeks ago. I actually had three germinate some time this week since they were about three inches tall yesterday when I was cutting grass.
They will still germinate with their caps on, but it may take them longer. This makes sense to me now that I have thought about it since the cap covers almost the entire shell. The shell has chemicals in it that inhibit germination of the acorn. This is why most acorns need to be stratified since the stratication allows the shell to break down. My theory is that the overcup cap protects the shell from breaking down and therefore delays germination. This is my theory at least for what I saw. I am not sure how the extra couple of months of grow time will affect their height at the end of the year, but I will find out. Some of the ones that germinated in May are starting to get close to 8 inches tall so they aren't that far behind the earlier ones.
They will still germinate with their caps on, but it may take them longer. This makes sense to me now that I have thought about it since the cap covers almost the entire shell. The shell has chemicals in it that inhibit germination of the acorn. This is why most acorns need to be stratified since the stratication allows the shell to break down. My theory is that the overcup cap protects the shell from breaking down and therefore delays germination. This is my theory at least for what I saw. I am not sure how the extra couple of months of grow time will affect their height at the end of the year, but I will find out. Some of the ones that germinated in May are starting to get close to 8 inches tall so they aren't that far behind the earlier ones.
