This is definitely going to be an interesting year for acorns

[Foggy47]

^^^

I got a couple red oaks with trunks in the 8-16" diameter range that dropped a MASSIVE load last year. One of them in particular has more acorns and caps laying under it than any tree I ever remember seeing. Some of mine look good coming out of winter and ready to plant. My brother picked one up and it looked like it was just getting ready to seed itself. Red oak is very very important tree in my part of the world. Always a good bet to find deer activity in the red oaks around peak rut time until the snow buries them.

Any Burr Oak or Pin Oak up your way?

 

[BuckSutherland]

Any Burr Oak or Pin Oak up your way?

If you get up a few miles north of me there is a lot of pin oaks. On the east side of Lake Winni towards Ball Club and Deer River LOTS of pin oak. I don't have a single one on my property that I know of. There is burr oak in my immediate area. SD's property is very close to mine and he has quite a bit of burr oak. Mine is loaded with red oak and only 3 naturally occurring burr oaks that I know of. I have about 60 planted burr oaks, 20 burr oak gamble, 50-60 swamp white oak, and 3 pathetic schuette's. I am getting some white oak next year and possibly a few pin oaks and then my oak days are gonna be done on that property.

 

[Foggy47]

If you get up a few miles north of me there is a lot of pin oaks. On the east side of Lake Winni towards Ball Club and Deer River LOTS of pin oak. I don't have a single one on my property that I know of. There is burr oak in my immediate area. SD's property is very close to mine and he has quite a bit of burr oak. Mine is loaded with red oak and only 3 naturally occurring burr oaks that I know of. I have about 60 planted burr oaks, 20 burr oak gamble, 50-60 swamp white oak, and 3 pathetic schuette's. I am getting some white oak next year and possibly a few pin oaks and then my oak days are gonna be done on that property.

I kinda thought that your land may support lots of burr oak if they were there at one point in time.

When I logged my pines several years ago.....I made the logger leave any burr oaks. I was somewhat surprised to find thousands of small burr oaks in my pines.....and logging released those stunted trees so that today I have scads of Burr Oaks across my property....along with lots of hazel, birch, and aspen.

 

[Feelslikefar.]

There's lots of acorn threads, so I figured I'd just tack on one.

What's the trick to keeping them viable? Last fall a gathered a bunch of white oak acorns and handful of black walnuts. Float tested them all, floaters went outside for the squirrels.
The black walnuts went in the fridge a few weeks sooner, in a ziplock bag with a moist paper towel, not sealed up. Acorns I just stuck in a plastic bowl, bottom drawer of the fridge.

Decided it was time to do something with them the other day, put a couple in some pots. Was planning on doing some more today and decided to float check them again first. They all float, oaks and walnuts.

 

[OakSeeds]

There are 2 ,major reasons why they float and surprisingly, they can be related. The number 1, and most frequent reason is because they lost moisture content ... either got too hot or when refrigerated suffered evaporation (need to check periodically on those in fridge to ensure the paper towel remains damp). Reason number 2 involves acorn weevils. Some acorns have multiple weevils in them (2 or 3) and the weevils eat enough of the acorn to reduce acorn weight and/or to prevent germination. Secondly, if the weevils exit the acorn (little holes) long before the acorns are removed from a stratification container, the holes allow air to penetrate the acorn and reduce moisture. Sufficient moisture (and heat) is the key to germination. You would have been better off to place your acorns (in a crisper in the fridge) in a closed container with a damp paper towel or two.

 

[Teeder]

What OakSeeds said.
I put acorns in a ziplock with slightly moist sawdust and keep that in the beer crisper in the fridge. Usually poke a few holes in the bags, and check about once a month through the winter. I don’t mess with walnuts other than throwing them out of the yard.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

Not much to add on. Just collect about 2-3X the amount you need. Weevils and bad acorns are very common.

I collect a few hundred acorns every year and tend to have much better luck with whites than reds. Some are direct seeded in the early spring and some I put into pots in March/April to be transplanted in the fall. Regardless, all go in a partially closed Ziploc with peat moss and from there into the crisper drawer until they are used.