This is the White Oak Tree in question. You can see how close it is to our power lines. Photo by J&J
We need to take down a tree, but before we do that we’re going to make sure we can replace it somewhere else on our property.
We have about 120 feet worth of road frontage, meaning that of our nearly 7 acres, about 120 feet of it is adjacent to a maintained public road. That is where our grid power comes from, our municipal water, our internet, and, of course, our driveway.
When the power was put in they did so at a diagonal – so the wires go from the across the street, from the south side of our driveway and then cross the street to the north side of our driveway.
This diagonal path causes 3 large trees to be potential hazards for falling in a storm and cutting off our power, as well as blocking the road and driveway. So, we want them removed.
They are also within the right-of-way of the main road. So, we are asking our County Road Department to work with our power company to ensure their safe removal, so neither the power or the road are in danger.
White Oak (Quercus alba)
However, one of those trees is a large White Oak. It is huge and beautiful, but it needs to go. But we REALLY want to encourage more White Oaks on our property (for pigs, deer, and just because!)… so we are going to use the acorns from this big tree to grow more!
This is how we found some of the acorns, just ready to root themselves right there on the top of the soil! Photo by J&J
This idea actually started when we went to collect acorns for the pigs (video). We went out to the tree and starting picking up acorns. It didn’t take long before we noticed that about 1 out of 20 acorns were already trying to spout – in December, on top of leaves, in a bit of a gutter.
This quickly gave us the idea to find some particularly good looking ones (nice big acorn with a nice big root starting to come out) and give it a place to grow.
The acorns we collected starting to root well inside the Cone-Tainers. Photo by J&J
Deep Seedling Pots
To grow these new white oak seedlings we are using a system called “Cone-Tainers“. They are specifically made for deep rooted plants, like trees. It will ensure that the root is able to go straight down and once it has established itself we can then transplant it to a permanent location.
To mimic the area where they were sprouting we have placed the Cone-Tainers in a Utility Tub that stays full of water. The Cone-Tainers are 10″ tall (here is another shorter version), but the Utility Tub is only 4″ tall, so the soil in the bottom stays moist and can soak up towards the acorn, without the top soil being overly wet – which we hope will simulate the gutter like area we found them in.
Another acorn sprouting on the top of the soil, which is why we didn’t bury them in the Cone-Tainers. Photo by J&J
Will this be successful? Only time can tell, but we think we’re off to the right start. It will be a few decades before these seedlings reach the heights of their parent, but at least the tree will live on!
It may be some time before these seedlings grow up enough to give you an update, so be sure to Subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see how things turn out!
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