Green Acorns, will they grow?

[Charlieyca]

I had been watching a couple Swamp Chestnut Oaks near my school in hopes of collecting the acorns for growing. Hurricane matthew knocked 99% of them out of the tree. They are mostly still green, but they fell out of the caps pretty good. I kept the ones with caps to dry out. I floated, dried, bagged and refrigerated about 75 and put 25 into potting mix. What type of germination do you think I will get from green acorns?

 

[j-bird]

As long as they came free of the cap easily they should be fine - they will turn brown over a few days. At least that has been my experience. The only issue I have had with green acorns is when you try to remove them from the cap and they are not ready and you can actually damage the acorn itself.

 

[THE LLC]

They'll do just fine.

 

[Charlieyca]

I checked the area under the caps. I had enough acorns that any with damage or soft spots I just threw out. Thanks guys, will update with pictures soon

 

[Charlieyca]

So after 90 days in the fridge I brought out my green acorns, some with caps still on. 2 weeks later I have 4 of 50 leafed out and 37 putting down a radicle. I did have a few floaters but not too many. I was pleasantly surprised with this much success.

 

[Charlieyca]

Out of 100 acorns, 63 started to put down roots and 18 have top growth so far.

 

[shedder]

Since Matthew was 1st 2nd week of Oct they were likely close to dropping.

 

[Charlieyca]

Majority of them pulled free of the cap, I tossed the ones that didnt. I noticed on the ones that floated at the 45 day mark, a lot of them had bad spots on the cap end.