Stratification done, now what?

hunts_with_stick

5 year old buck +
Ok so my acorns, hickory nuts and beech nuts have been in the fridge for 60 day. Now what? Also, should i blame the beech or is that worthless as a tree?
 
I’m new to this so cut me a break!
 
I just leave mine in a partially open ziplock with a moist papertowel until time to plant in spring
 
It’s tempting to get some started early in the house but this for me leads to more frustration when I can’t get them in the ground because it’s still frozen. So my suggestion is to wait until spring.
 
Deer do use beach nuts. I've not seen deer eating hickory at my place. I think it is due to the thickness of the shell. Squirrels will eat them, especially when acorns are scarce.

As for what to do next. We have plenty of oaks, so I've only grown DCOs in the oak family. Most of what I've grown have been chestnuts. I don't know if this applies to your oaks or not as some don't need stratification and some do, but here is what we found with chestnuts. Another guy and I started a boat load of chestnuts one year. We used pretty much the same techniques. We recorded our results and compared them. The only significant difference was stratification time. He used 90 days and I used 60. He got significantly better germination rates than I did. If you poke around on this forum and do a search, you can probably find that thread. As I recall, I even posted a graph that showed when each of my nuts showed top growth after they were removed from cold stratification and planted in Rootmaker 18s. We both started our nuts indoors under lights using the rootmaker system.

Thanks,

Jack
 
Thanks!
 
I have planted mine in doors in the man cave so it won’t be really warm as the cave is half the garage I am putting night crawlers in some of the pots to see if they add a benefit
 
I have planted mine in doors in the man cave so it won’t be really warm as the cave is half the garage I am putting night crawlers in some of the pots to see if they add a benefit
I don't see nightcrawlers themselves having any real benefit in indoor containers. The professional mixes that need to be used in air pruning containers have plenty don't benefit from worms. I can't imagine getting enough droppings in that short time to do any good. If you want the natural fertilizer produced from worm droppings, I'd raise the worms in a separate box with stuff you are trying to compost. Then, I'd make work dropping tea using a 5 gal bucket and air compressor and some heat and use that tea to water your trees.
 
Do you use lights or heat lamps or anything?
 
Do you use lights or heat lamps or anything?

Angus just started a thread asking about lights. To further that description, I use a timer to set 15 hour days. They do need some amount of darkness. I used small oil filled heaters in my indoor greenhouses to keep the temp above 70 degrees. You can't put it too close to the seedlings. You just want the ambient temp to be between 70 and 80 degrees. I also use a timer on a oscillating fan. Stems build strength from occasional wind. The biggest thing is watering. Most of the trees I've grown do best with rain water. I don't water on a schedule but by weight. You can search the forum for more detailed info from some of my old posts.

Thanks,

Jack
 
Here is my set up I am just keeping it above freezing for now will heat it up more in March or april
 

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Here is my set up I am just keeping it above freezing for now will heat it up more in March or april

I'm not sure I follow. If you are not starting them indoors under lights, you want to keep them in the dark so they don't produce top-growth. It is hard to tell from the pictures, but those don't look like air pruning containers. You will have circling and j-hooking roots to deal with if you try to grow them in smooth pots. Trees will look fine for a few years above ground but eventually the roots will constrict themselves. If you are going to wait till spring, you may be better off direct seeding rather than growing them in pots.

Thanks,

Jack
 
Jack,
I’ve witnessed deer eat hickory nuts. Just once though. I latter put a friend in the same stand and what we believe to be the same young buck ate them again for my friend. We were both dumbfounded.

This was in an area where there was no valid reason to be eating those rocks. Still have no idea why.
 
Jack,
I’ve witnessed deer eat hickory nuts. Just once though. I latter put a friend in the same stand and what we believe to be the same young buck ate them again for my friend. We were both dumbfounded.

This was in an area where there was no valid reason to be eating those rocks. Still have no idea why.
I've learned that any given deer will break all the rules in some situations. When we talk about what "deer" do, we are generally referring to inside the 3 sigma point of a bell shaped curve. When you get outside that, deer can really do some strange things.
 
I've learned that any given deer will break all the rules in some situations. When we talk about what "deer" do, we are generally referring to inside the 3 sigma point of a bell shaped curve. When you get outside that, deer can really do some strange things.
Yep. Who knows? He may have ate from someone’s Hemp patch and had the munchies. I seriously thought he was breaking his teeth.
 
We started our acorns outside in mid-March last year. Transferred them to 3 gallon pots in June/July. They were doing great until the rabbits mowed them down last week!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Bummer!
 
Massively eats hickory nuts in our area is a major food source that is in the Northern Lake Ontario area
 
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