The Oak’s acorns were collected in September 2024 during our walking in the Leitha Mountains forest because there was an event of Waldtage 2024 where exhibitions on forest and nature protection open for families, together with walking parcours, and live-demonstrations of forest techniques and machines such as harvesting/thinning and on site timber debarking and cutting. Located on the boundary between Lower Austria and Burgenland, we saw more hardwood trees there such as Oak (Quercus). And there were hundreds of acorns spreading on the soil adjacent to the walk path. My reaction was arrived into the conclusion that it was just the right time, at the end of summer season, entering the autumn to collect the acorns. But I didn’t have any container or bag with me. So I just picked them up hand fully and kept in my jacket. My son repeated my act behind me.
Arriving at home, because I thought I had to do other things and had no time to directly sowing them with garden soil, I just poured the acorns into a clean glass container (ex yogurt), and just put it on my work desk, let still there on the corner next to my computer. Even sometimes I did not see it, because of some stack of books in front of it and drawing materials. But the slanting sun light very often come into my desk. After about 1 month, I thought I had to start doing something with my oak acorns, with little cleaning my desk. But then I saw this magic, they were germinated..by them self..!
Apparently the slanting sunlight and indoor temperature gave favourable heat inside the glass container, stimulating the moisture and persuade the fungi for the acorns to germinating.
(Completely stunning (still with my mouth opened)…remembering when three years ago I tried to put some oak acorn in the plant pot with the soil, watered it, visited them, watered again, but never happened..never pop up. And I finally just throw them. It was not works)
But then, I run to the garden and dig the soil as much as the empty pots I collected, poured into the plant pots.
But, it was beginning of autumn in October 2024, and it was already chilling outside. So, I was thinking, I did not want to make the acorns upset by using the chilled soil temperature from the garden. Therefore, after dig the soil from the garden, cleaned them from little debris, branches, and grass from lawn, I poured the soil and flat them on the table surface using plastic layers underneath. And then placed it inside drying room downstair, in front of the window next to the heating pipe line (which attached to the wall and make the room warm enough without directly heated the whole room). The watering can has been fully filled and be put next to the heater pipe line. I thought its all enough to create perfect temperature to culture the acorns plus the abundant sunlight from the window. I let the soil sit in the room for 2 days to reaching room temperature before using it for planting the acorns in the pot.
I got back to them, after 2 days, opened the glass container and took out one by one the acorns. They were 24 germinated acorns! And I got 1 bonus Walnut acorn that my son had found. Planting each germinated acorn in each pot with the room temperated soil and water that I have prepared before.
After wait and wait.., after 11 days, one shoot pop out.
It was a wow day for me! Seeing just one oak shoot pop out, such a beautiful day!
And then I waited again, after 22 days the next other three shoots pop out.
The first four shoots then now are growing into saplings about 4-6 cm from the surface soil.
Following the other shoots pop out! What another beautiful day!!
And now, I have already 12 small saplings of Oak from 24 acorns and 1 Walnut sapling on the way.