that time of year again, squirreling

[sparkymarky]

last year around this time whilst out on walks i collected a quantity of acorns, beech , chestnut seeds.
a winter with the seeds in the fridge, i then planted the seeds which had germinated in the spring, i am now left with 6 small oaks from the project.
does anyone else do this year in year out, i`m not a tree hugger or anything (if you`ve seem me with a chainsaw you will know that ) but i believe that we all use wood / timber and we should do something in a small way to replenish the uk`s hardwood population.
has any one else been as lucky to grow from seeds??

a few pictures,

cheers, mark.

 

[stevebuk]

you dont have to do all the cold bit , they readily germinate themselves, and above ground too..

 

[Paul Hannaby]

Here in the forest the trees all seem to do a pretty good job of it without any help. There always seem to be an abundance of saplings.

 

[henton49er]

We are overrun with tree seedlings - ash, sycamore and horse chestnut mainly (as that is what is growing locally). Unfortunately, these are never where we want them to grow. We do try to plant one tree per person each year as sort of a vague carbon offsetting idea, but without any calculations as to the percentage of our carbon footprint that we offset. To date we have planted willows, cherries, crab apples, silver birch, tulip and ash. This year we plan to pollard (bit of a posh world for hacking with a chainsaw) our willows and plant some willow sticks in the hedgerows. Some will rot; some will thrive.

Mike.

 

[RogerS]

It's the only thing the squirrels are useful for...they bury acorns and then forget them. If they grow, we nurture them. So far we have 9 oaks in the paddock and two in the garden. Unfortunately I won't be around to harvest them but someone will hopefully.

 

[gregmcateer]

Yep, sure do.
SO far have got a wee oak and some hazel starting to come through.
My problem is knowing where to plant them out - any hints and tips, anyone who knows about this sort of thang? I would hate to put them in a daft place only for them to get mown or chopped down in a few months / years.
Greg

 

[sparkymarky]

you dont have to do all the cold bit , they readily germinate themselves, and above ground too..

thats interesting, i tried a few years ago with this method and had all the seeds / acorns fail to germinate, the method i use is to put the seeds in a small sealed box like a margarine tub with some wood shavings made damp with water, then stick in the fridge over winter, this spring 75% of the seeds had germinated but when planted them out in tubs the frost got to them and killed off most, so i was left with 6 oaks.

i too get quite a few saplings grow across the farm in the hedge rows and in our 3 acre wood, i quite often will pull out any nice shaped sycamores and re-plant in a corner of a field to see how they will progress. i rarely get any nice oak saplings though.

on the plus side we have recently felled a dying ash with a good 7 meter long trunk which at base has a 20" diameter, trouble is there`s a bee hive in a hollowed branch which needs to be removed before it can be harvested .