How to Grow Your Own Oak Tree from an Acorn

Have you ever wondered how to grow a majestic oak tree from a tiny acorn?

This video is your step-by-step guide to turning that acorn into a thriving legacy. We'll cover everything you need to know, from selecting healthy acorns to planting, nurturing, and finally transplanting your young oak tree.

In this video, you'll learn:

How to identify viable acorns
The importance of cold stratification (for certain oak varieties)
Choosing the right pot and soil for successful germination
Watering and care tips for your growing seedling
When and how to transplant your oak tree outdoors
Growing an oak tree from an acorn is a rewarding experience, and this video will equip you with the knowledge and confidence to do it successfully.

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[BurnlyB]

I’m in southern central Ontario. Last October I collected acorns from 3 different Red Oaks. Float test over night resulting in 400 viable acorns. I put them in sandwich bags with a wet paper towel, 20 per bag. Then into my beer fridge in the shop that is set to 4 degrees Celsius. By February the acorns were starting to sprout, in early March I potted them individually in small containers of potting soil and stored them in a corner of my shop. I keep my shop at around 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Now at the end of April I have over 300 oak seedlings about 3 inches tall on my shop floor. I plan to plant them this fall. Sorry so long winded, but I wanted to comment because it really is an easy process that doesn’t cost much. Thanks for your video.

[nickbono]

I live in Northern California and I planted 50+ quercus lobatas (valley oak) which is a white oak. Every single one, I just gathered the acorn in fall, and buried them in the ground under about an inch of soil covered with mulch and gave them a good soak. I usually had about a 90% success rate. Then once they popped up I covered them with tree tubes and give them some water in our brutally hot and dry summers about once a month and that usually works until they are old enough to handle the dry summer. I started planting about 4 years ago and most of my trees are about 4-6 feet tall now. Just gotta keep the deer away from them when they pop out of the top of the tubes!

[AJediSurvivor]

I found an acorn about 6 years ago when i was on my way home from college. I live in the UK, and you should see it now. Its an amazing specimen.

[Lovetobike]

in my test with the live oaks they tend to grow weather they float or sink ive only conducted 2 pretrial test batches so far so good on all of them they are pretty resilient

[patnelson]

Very helpful, to the point, clear and good visuals

[AKrn]

Every year I pull dozens of oak trees from my yard thanks to my neighbor's trees.

[chrisleblanc]

I’ve observed the process carefully for water oaks. A crow dropped an acorn into my front flower bed (they like to collect them from near by trees and wait on my roof. When they see a car coming, they fly and drop them in the path of the car so the acorn gets smashed and they can eat the meat). It sat there about a week until water from my gutter down spout helped cover it with soil. Like magic there was a sapling in a few months.

[dusancville]

Thanks a million for your presentation.
No such a conrainers in Serbia yet but I believe l may make a holes myself on a 2 lit Coca cola bottle, no ?
Last October I put acorns, selected after water test, in an ice-cream plastic container filled with mix of soil and sand - in the fridge.
End of March plastic ice-cream box pulled out, put at the window and I got 13 little oaks ❤
They are currently in a small flower pots, separated but I run to collect Coke bottles and engineer this openings on the walls and on the bottom 🚀

[GardenDoodles]

We were lucky to have found several baby oaks around our Regal Prince columnar oak but this was interesting to watch. It took almost a decade for him to produce any acorns so we were really excited!

[djbazzone]

Question: I planted a couple acorns in pots. I guess they are burr oak. The acorns were huge, the size of golf balls. Squirrels got one, but the other germanated -- caged for protection. The second year in the fall I planted the sapling in the ground. Question is, upon germination the plant formed two trunks, should I chop one trunk off? The sapling trunks are about 4 feet tall. Not sure if they will compete.

[JoshRock]

Can you give a tutorial on how to do tree tubes? And best way to keep away deer? Thanks

[davidparker]

I just picked a bunch of acorns from the base of a wide spread oak tree I thought might make a good shade tree on the south side. I put them in a glad back and into the freezer. I did see that the wood was white from some sawn branches. I just love the spread of that thing is all. What strength that wood must have to spread such wide branches. Maybe i should just try taking a cutting. I may have bungled it already. As I surrender my ignorance to greater truths.

[tobysorensen]

Thanks for the video.
I'm not finding the pots you used in the video. Description still has a different pot than the air pruning pot.

[VickyYoung-qgfd]

Do you plant the oak in a shade place or sun?

[Mark_KEYCV]

Thank you for this video sir.
However, the pots in the supplied link don't have the air vents up the sides like the ones you show.
I suppose it wouldn't be that hard to drill some additional holes as it is my understanding that those holes are a big benefit.
Any advice? Again, thank you.

[marcin]

If I put the acorns in a moist substrate without covering them completely and simply put the pot in a semi-shade and put a few leaves on them, i.e. I recreated natural conditions, is there a chance that they will sprout in the spring or should I stick to the fridge method?

[billkraemer]

You don’t even need to dig a hole. Just dropping them on ground and leaving them for the winter they will sprout by the thousands. I lived in Grass Valley California for twenty years. Jillions of those oak trees I saw sprout.

[a.w.]

I've had a couple of red oak and white oak (might be swamp or burr oak, not sure) acorns that I sink/float tested and then put out in my garage, in the cold. I'm in 5b in an upper Midwestern state, so it's been quite cold. They've been out there for a couple of months. Is that stratification enough, do you think? I didn't know about the timing for the white oak species, and didn't know about the air pruning pots. The acorns have just been in a ziplock bag with no paper towel.

[Trail_Trash]

I'm in ca and have grown many Quercus Agrifolia and a few Quercus Lobata with great results but I collected Quercus Kelloggi from different trees over the years and never had one germinate, I have read recently that they do take two years to ripen on the tree and must be very fresh and need to be chilled for some time before they will germinate. Any help? My first seeds were from Yosemite valley where there are a couple massive Black Oak (Quercus Kellogg) trees, probably two or three hundred years old.

[vilmh]

Hello, from Sweden. I have tried once, but they froze on the balcony... Now I´m on it again. I have gotten some to start growing leaf. But a question, what should I do with my 4 twin acorns tree trunks? Should I cut one of them?