OK I live in New England, there are tons of oak trees around my home, Mrs.Phlosphr and I routinely gather 2 large 5 gallon buckets of acorns every year to give to the squirrels over the winter – the squirrels that don’t hibernate that is.
My question is this: Could we plant an acorn, and grow it?
I’d assume the medium would have to be fertile potting soil, and the recepticle for the acorn would have to be quite large, maybe 10 gallons. But does anyone know if I can grow a deciduous tree in my home?
Also, which way would I plant the acorn? Point down or up?
How far down would you think? How long would it need to gestate? Would we have a seemingly empty pot in our house while we wait for the tree to come about – a year even?
Would it lose it’s leaves every year if it was not outside?
A deciduous oak tree would not survive very long in most houses; if you kept it in an unheated conservatory through the winter when it is dormant, you might have a chance.
One of the evergreen oaks might fare a little better.
Visit your local library and look for a beginners’ guide to growing bonsai trees - that should contain all the advice you need about growing trees in pots.
Don’t worry that a bonsai tree has to be restricted to a few inches in height, you can limit the size of a tree to your own tastes. It doesn’t matter which way up the acorn is planted - remember that they germinate naturally by falling into a random position - but you guess right that your pot will look empty for some time. The plant won’t look anything like a tree for several years. I’d also recommend you to plant several acorns together as they won’t all germinate, and if you only plant one the chances are that it will be a dud.
Traditional bonsai growing methods typically require that the plants should not be kept indoors all year round and should not be kept in a centrally-heated room for more than a few weeks at a time maximum.
Well it seems everton and mangetout are saying quite similar things. I guess we should put the acorns (more than 1) in a pot and – put them outside – or make sure they are not in a heated environ so as not to disturb their own biological clocks. We wouldn’t want them to think it spring when it’s really winter.
Is that it though?
What else should I do, any precautions? I’d really like to grow an oak tree in my house!
Actually, lay the acorns on their side, with about half of their diameter in the ‘potting medium’ and half out.
I’m in Australia, but I get around 90+ success rate with this method, but you can always ‘thin’ out if you get too many germinating.
Oaks are a long growing plant. I have some that my daughter and I planted around 8 years ago and they are still only about 3 feet high, but look like trees. After the 1st year they were about 4 inches high, so they actually looked good.
I wouldn’t keep an oak inside, they are a cold climate tree and won’t like the dry heat of the indoors.
Well, my grandma tried this, for a couple of years many years ago, and what we found out was that getting enough light for the tree is a real problem. Oak trees need full sun, I mean really all-stops-out full-blast thousands-and-thousands-of-footcandles sunshine, and setting the pot in front of even her sunniest window still made it grow stunted, with not very many leaves.
As soon as she put the pot out in the yard, in the full sun, it took off, and she eventually planted it in the ground, and AFAIK it’s still there.
The main reason we want to try and plant an oak tree is more symbolic than anything else. My wife and I have a venerable jungle in our home, we have plants we received when we were married more then 10 years ago. The house is just full of green. We want to grow something on our own that will surly outlast both of us. Kind of like the reversal for Shel Silversteins, ‘The Giving Tree’.
It appears we will have to start the tree this winter and then once it starts to grow plant it in full sun. It’ll be an ongoing process.
Wait: so the tree will be a needy creature who shakes you down for car keys, money, your clothing, your house, and eventually, you commit suicide for the tree so it’ll use you as fertilizer?
Take your acorns and put them in a sink full of cool water and discard any floaters (usually floaters = bad seed). Take the rest and put them into Ziploc baggies of moist peat. Put the bags of peat in the fridge for the winter (or at least a few months). After this time the radicle (first root) will be visible. The radicle will not emerge unless it is induced by a cold period. Put the plant in the ground (or pot) an inch or two deep in the soil (never had a problem just plopping into the ground any-which-way). With favorable conditions you should have a small tree about 2’ tall or so by next fall (be wary of renegade lawn mowers). If you put the tree in a pot and leave it outdoors the soil in the pot will freeze solid and thaw and freeze solid and thaw and over and over (at least in Chicago area) until the poor buggers die. Best way to grow it is in the ground. If you want try storing it in a basement or other cool dark area (but it prolly wont work). Remember both temperature and day length affect the buds of the plant, and if you don’t allow a regular dormancy period the tree will die. I have tried to grow deciduous trees indoors and have had no luck. Best way I have seen is to plant the tree outside and haul it inside every spring, obviously this gets difficult after a few years. If you find a working method let us know
