That's cool Larry.
In the forest, I think that almost all acorns are eaten by wildlife.
The few that are covered by leaf litter to go on and establish a root
are lucky indeed. Oak has a tremendous ability to develop a strong root
system and persist in the understory despite repeated browsing and then
when an opening occurs they can take advantage.
Some say that we need big openings or fire to regenerate oak. This may
be the case in some areas. But I'm thinking that the demise of the
American chestnut which provided a bounty for wildlife has contributed
big time to increased acorn/oak seedling predation and the dearth of oak
seedling regeneration in many areas. Rather than making bigger forest
openings or lighting forest fires to regenerate oak how about increasing
the deer hunting season?
On Prescott peninsula in the Quabbin watershed forest, deer overbrowsing
pretty much extirpated the oak and now a sea of black birch filled in
the gaps after their timber harvests. They tried planting oak but the
plantings all failed. Maybe they should have used some of your
seedlings!
Mike
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of lawrence tucei jr
Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2009 8:27 PM
To: Entstrees
Subject: [ENTS] Growing Trees
ENTS, I wanted to share this with everyone. I grow
trees every year as do many of you. This is one method I use, I"ll call
it my tree box. Acorns, nuts, etc., are placed in the soil just pressing
them into the surface in the autumn. Then I cover them with leaf debris
for the winter. After the dormancy period they sprout in Spring just
like on the Forest floor. My success rate is above 90%. I mix my own
soil with cow manure for a natural fertilizer. After the trees out grow
my box I transplant them. This year I'm growing 7 Burr Oaks from Texas,
that I picked on my way to Colorado this fall. Many White Oaks, some
Hickory, Red Oak, Swamp Chestnut Oak, Chestnut Oak, Live Oak, Darlington
Oak, etc. I really enjoy doing this, done it for years. Here's some
photos. Larry
Lawrence Tucei Jr.
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