Depends on the type of soil and location you are wanting to plant them. The soil can be different all over a piece of property with the changes in elevation. You can look at a topo map of your property and that will tell you what you can plant in which area. You can also look at what kind of trees are already there and that can let you know what kind of tree will do best in a general area. The zone that you live in is another thing that you can use to help you determine what can grow there. It is usually best to have both white and red oak species. Some years the white oaks produce good and some/most years the red oaks will produce good. White oaks are more desirable because they have less tannic acid in them. Tannic acid makes the acorns taste bitter. That’s why deer prefer the white oaks over red. (With a few exceptions)
•Red oak: A lot of people like sawtooths because they grow fast and produce at an early age. They are very hardy trees and they have less tannic acid in them than most other red oak species. That’s why the deer love them. The survival rate is very high in sawtooths.
There are many other red oak species, but I don’t know what zone you’re in. I live in South Georgia so I mostly know what is best in my area.
White Oaks: chestnut, white, and overcup oak are some of my favorites and those take a little more time to produce.
How well each tree does depends on several different factors. The amount sunlight is a huge factor to consider for each species. Keeping grass and any other vegetation away that are competing with each other. The spacing also plays a huge role in the overall survival and health of each tree. I usually space mine 30’-50’ apart. I prefer 50’ spacing for most of my trees. It makes them much easier to mow around.
The easiest and cheapest thing to do is to identify which trees you want and then try locate some that are growing in your area. Find the best looking trees that are producing the most acorns and collect as many as you can. Put the acorns in a bucket full of water and pick out the ones that float. If they float they’re not viable. Lay them out on a towel to dry and then Put them in ziplock bags and label each bag. Poke a lot of small air holes in the ziplocks. Also fold up a paper towel and put just enough water on it so it feels damp. (Not soaking wet!) put the paper towel underneath the acorns, in the ziplock. Store in the fridge until you plant them the following spring. Buy the bigger white styrofoam cups like they sell at the dollar store. I use a fat pencil to poke a hole in the bottom of each cup. Get a bag of peat moss and get some sand. (I get sand from the river near my house) try to get the sand that has a little more of the small rocks in it. (The little rocks will let it drain better than fine sand). Mix the peat moss and sand 50:50 and fill each cup just under the rim. Pack it a little bit and then lay the acorn on it’s side with the smaller end in the center of the cup. Put a little more of the soil on the top so when you pack it it’ll be at the rim of the cup. You can let them grow in the cup until the following winter. Then you can either plant them or transplant them into a 1 gal pot and grow them for another year. I’ve actually planted them without taking them out of the cup. The styrofoam will get brittle and the roots will bust through the cup. I think they actually do better leaving them in the cup. I sell most of mine, so I step them up to a 3 gal pot and sell them on the 3rd or fourth year. You can put newspaper about 8 pages thick around your tree to keep vegetation from growing around them as much. The newspaper will eventually decompose and the ink will not hurt the tree. (Make sure you take any pages out that has the glossy shine to it).
You will have to keep them watered or you can buy a cheap misting system from lows and then you don’t have to worry about them. Make sure not to over water! Trees and plants will grow a lot faster under a misting system, but you’ll have to read the proper way to use it. You can find more information about all of this at freeplants.com. They have information about the best ways to propagate most any tree or plant that you can think of.
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