When Experiments Go Great

In my post almost one year ago, I spoke about my harvest of acorns from an oak tree I pass when I take the dogs for a walk. My posted intention was to plant these acorns around the farm and see how they go.  After more study, I found out that acorns can benefit from the process of stratification which is a method of chilling the seed that prepares it for sprouting in the spring - were our winters cold enough for direct sowing?  Not sure, although I was able to make certain by putting the acorns in the fridge.  When I took a look inside the bag three months later, almost all of them has sprouted!  This was an amazing sight, to find life beginning inside these big seeds.

At that stage I collected all the pots I could find, filled them with a pitting mix and then placed the seed, resting on their sides as the would naturally fall to the ground and then lightly covered them with more soil mix.

Here is the result 10 months later.

I can't express how amazing this is.  What an amazing tree to be able to plant on the farm.  Wide canopies that could enrich the soil with its leaves in autumn, allow the sun to infiltrate to warm the soil in winter and also shade the ground in summer.

I am aiming to plant these out in autumn, so were are still a few months out - for now I can just enjoy watching them on my front verandah and feel encouraged that not all my experiments fail.