Updated 07 Oct 2015

Acorn time

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Acorn time.

October is the time to pick acorns

Its acorn time again! Like little brown apples they drop into my hand with just a touch. I slip them into a bag. 2013 has been a good year for acorns. Half the oaks in my plantation have a crop, and easily reached. Different trees ripen at different times in October. The deer fence did its job. With no deer, loaded branches like crinolines touch the ground. Only the tops of the trees are out of my reach. Those acorns will supply the wildlife. The oaks are 13 years old, there are 250 of them, all children of the Major Oak in Sherwood Forest. I usually collect about 500 acorns on each visit. Back home, put them into a bucket of water. The floaters are thrown out for the birds. The sinkers put into a mesh bag and mixed with sawdust from a pet shop. Dampen the sawdust, and put the bags into an old fridge in the garage. Acorns need winter cold to germinate. Eight bags of acorns and sawdust and the fridge is full. Roots should start to grow in December. Then put the growing acorns into plant pots, or straight into the ground. My plantation is full of oaks, so I'm going to try planting an oak hedge 400 yards long!

Crop for 2013 | Germinating acorns

A rare sight, 1000 acorns (maturing from right to left) picked from 15 year old trees in the Dorset Plantation that are children of the Major Oak in Sherwood Forest. Most of the brown acorns have already dropped out of their cups, green acorns are still fixed firmly. Many acorns are penetrated by Gall wasps. Older oaks are too high to reach the acorns. These acorns were re-distributed between 250 Plantation oaks to produce a new generation of England's finest tree.

Compiled, hand coded and copyright © 2013, John Palmer, All Rights Reserved.