White oak dropping green acorns

I was out walking around a friends property yesterday and noticed a couple of his white oaks dropping green acorns. Would these still be good to pick up and save for spouting or are they not mature enough yet.
 
I walked around the campus at Kansas State Saturday and noticed the same thing. I picked up a couple hundred of them. The next tree over was dropping brown acorns that looked to be the same size, so I think from that perspective it looks promising. Look at the area where they attach to the cap. I noticed on the green ones that ~2/3 of the green ones hap a weird crack in that area. Upon further inspection it seemed that the shell peeled away there very easily and the meat looked brown to black which is not promising so I discarded them. The rest were all sinkers so I laid them on a cookie sheet to see what happens. As of this morning nearly all of the green ones were starting to turn the correct brownish color. I am going to put a few of them in a damp paper towel in a warm spot and see it they will push a radicle.
 
I would still float test them, but most should be OK as long as they don't appear to have any other issues. Also don't force the caps off - you can actually damage the acorn. Most of them should turn color and then the cap will separate much easier. If this was the case earlier in the fall I would be more concerned, but now they should have had time to mature and still be viable. Sometimes oaks will abort their acorn crops if stressed for some reason - those acorns tend to not be viable. Sometimes acorns fall while still green - typically from a wind storm or other critters trying to eat them. If your real concerned and don't want to waste your time. Store them in a cool place and take a few and soak them real good and see if you can get them to germinate - they should germinate in just a week or two with the right moisture and temps - sort of a "rag doll test" like we do for other seed.
 
I was out walking around a friends property yesterday and noticed a couple of his white oaks dropping green acorns. Would these still be good to pick up and save for spouting or are they not mature enough yet.
This time of year they are likely ok to plant.

Per a reply on https://www.facebook.com/groups/307577116010963/ to a similar question

Guy Sternberg Jeroen hit it. It's like the June drop for apples. The trees tend to abort the ones that have no chance of survival due to heavy infestation. But most acorns can survive a weevil as long as it's in the (typical) proximal end and not in the embryo. Float tests are mostly for commercial growers who have thousands more acorns than they need and want uniform growth for grading purposes. Most of us here just plant everything we have, knowing that we'll get pretty good germination anyway if other factors are OK.
 
Back
Top