Sprouting acorn?

[Yarg]

So I visited my church where I grew up and there is several fully mature oak trees of different varieties. I parked under it must have been a 70 to 80 foot White Oak and much to my surprise there was hundreds acorns many of them sprouted... Since it was loose soil and it was a warmer day I grabbed a couple of handfuls.. some of them only had two inch radicals while others had up to 8 inch. I put them and a protected area and my parents flower bed temporarily radical down and covered with mulch.. There was also several 6 and 8 in seedlings.. this is right adjacent to a parking area so these to be trees don't have a chance..
I don't have any Oaks on my land and have never planted any so if I wanted to have success would it be from the sprouted acorns with the longest radicals or from the smallest seedlings I understand about the taproot... Also some of the sprouted ones were missing the other half of the nut.. so should I only be picking the one that still has the full nut thanks

 

[TreeDaddy]

I've had live oak acorns sprout on kitchen counter tops

Also had white oaks sprout in rain gutters on the roof

"Life finds a way"
Ian Malcolm, Jurassic park 1993

bill

 

[The Fishman]

I would plant the ones that have the healthiest looking taproot whether it is long or short. While an acorn with a broken taproot will probably survive, it will have to devote energy resources to replacing the broken root. An acorn with a smaller taproot may be easier to get out of the ground without damage. With that being said, a larger acorn will generally produce a larger seedling than a smaller acorn from the same tree. If the acorn is missing half the nut, it is missing half the resources that would be used to grow the seedling. It will probably survive, but may not get as big the first year as an acorn with both sides.