Thoughts on building a tree nursery

[Oakseeds]

I direct seed all of my oak and chestnut trees; most in their final locations, but some using an in-ground container system I developed. My in-ground container trees are the only ones I transplant; those are usually started in early spring and grown in the in-ground container for 1 yr before transplant. On rare occasions, I have transplanted a 6-month old seedling in the fall (only if I know it can be given water on a regular basis and I use a highly specific water retention system and no fertilizer). Some have even remained in my nursery for a second year before transplanting to a final location. Given you probably won't see any trees (above ground shoots) before June, I'd probably nurse them along for a year. Unless you are sure you can keep them watered, it's probably pretty risky to transplant 4-month trees (at least they have been above ground for 4-5 months) with little secondary root system development.

 

[TreeDaddy]

the obvious benefit to direct seed is preservation of tap root versus pruning( via air pruning containers or harvest of bare root seedlings)

The further along i get in my journey and love of baby trees, the more i favor tap root preservation

particularly in my region with brutal,dry summers

"Respect,don't resect!!!"

bill

 

[KDdid]

So I picked up some miracle tree tubes from a local dealer, and started putting them up with two acorns each inside. After the first 40 or so, I decided to save them the exposure this winter, and instead have gone to this:

About 8” of field tile buried about 4” deep, with a hardware cloth screen. Come spring, successful seedlings will get tubed.


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