How to grow an oak tree?
Oak is a delightful beauty, a powerful tree that will become the soul of any garden. To grow an oak, you need to know a few important nuances. We will tell about them in our article.
What you need to know about growing oak
Which acorn to choose for planting?
Only acorns with a "cap" will fit, healthy,without damage. Open several acorns - the dead seeds inside are black or gray. You can also check the acorns with water - dead seeds will float, and the living will go to the bottom. It is advisable, together with the acorn itself, to take a handful of the land in which the mother tree grows.
When to plant the seeds?
Two options: either in the autumn or in the spring (an easier method, since there is less risk of damage to the seeds by rodents and fungus). Fall should be planted to frost - for example, in September and October; in the spring - just after the snow comes down. Also collected in the spring of acorns, you can leave for storage until the time of planting, providing them with proper storage.
How to store acorns?
In order to grow an oak from the seeds, provideventilation, moderate humidity (at 40%) and coolness (the temperature should be around 0 degrees). Therefore, you can put the acorns, for example, in a plastic container (with holes) together with a slightly damp foliage and place it in a cellar or in a refrigerator. Periodically, it is necessary to check acorns for the presence of mold, throwing spoiled seeds.
How to grow an oak tree yourself: tips
- To grow an oak from an acorn, make a garden andmark out the grooves at a distance of 15-25 cm along it. For every meter of furrow length, spread from 15 to 50 acorns. The amount will depend on the size of the seeds and their quality. If the seeds are large, ideally healthy, then you can put less.
- Each acorn is pressed into the ground for 2-3 cm at a spring planting and 6-7 cm in the autumn.
- Regularly cleanse the soil of weeds. You can periodically fertilize.
- Water as the land dries.
Note that the oak grows slowly. First, its root system is formed and only then the terrestrial part begins to look through. That is why the first sprouts you most likely will see no earlier than 1,5-2 months after planting acorns. In summer it is very important to protect seedlings from powdery mildew.
In the second year of the plant, it is best to transplant it into a schoolchild to ensure a more compact development of the roots. For the transplant, choose only the best seedlings.
You can also grow the tree in a tub for the first two years and then transplant it into the open ground. How to do this, you can read in our article How to grow an acorn.
