{"id":6546,"date":"2017-10-10T12:00:21","date_gmt":"2017-10-10T16:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=6546"},"modified":"2017-10-09T14:35:49","modified_gmt":"2017-10-09T18:35:49","slug":"nuts-about-acorns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2017\/10\/10\/nuts-about-acorns\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuts About Acorns"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Acorn germinating into soil<\/p><\/div>\n

Acorns are nuts that form on mature oak trees (Quercus spp.<\/em>). Acorns come in many shapes, sizes and colors, depending on the species. An acorn is a single nut encased in a hard shell by a cap (used to identify what oak species it is). For example, Northern Red Oak (Q. rubra<\/em>) tree produces egg-shaped acorns and are supported by shallow, saucer-shaped cup. White oak (Q. alba<\/em>) produce acorns that are stubby and covered with warty\u00a0cups.<\/p>\n

Some oak species produce acorns almost every year, while on others acorns two years to mature. Older mature oaks, usually past 20 years old, produce\u00a0many more\u00a0acorns, and 70 or 80 year old trees can potentially produce thousands of nuts.<\/p>\n

Many animal species rely on acorns as a food staple, such as squirrels, woodpeckers and deer (termed \u201cmast\u201d). Humans consume roasted acorns; right off the tree acorns are full of tannins, which can be toxic if eaten in high amounts. Acorns from the white oak group are low in tannin and have a nutty flavor when lightly roasted before grinding. Many acorns, cached away by squirrels and bluejays, will eventually germinate and become the next generation of oak forest.<\/p>\n

Within\u00a0its hard shell, an acorn contains one seed. The oak seed must not dry out or\u00a0it will not germinate. To prevent drying, tree growers will collect and store acorns in plastic bags in the refrigerator for planting late next spring. Acorns need 1,000 hours of dormancy in low temperatures (33-37 \u00ba F).\u00a0The larvae of some moths and weevils also live in acorns, consuming the kernel as\u00a0it develops. These pests\u00a0may consume more than 95% of all acorns in some years.<\/p>\n

Acorns are rich in large amounts of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, as well as the minerals such as calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium. Do not permit grazing animals to eat large amounts of acorns from specific Quercus<\/em> species,\u00a0especially red oak group and English oak (Q. robur<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Acorns of the white oak group typically start rooting as soon as they\u00a0come in contact with the soil (in the fall). For example, bur oak\u00a0(Q. macrocarpa<\/em>)\u00a0acorns\u00a0fall\u00a0from the tree\u00a0from\u00a0August\u00a0to\u00a0November. Germination usually occurs\u00a0rapidly\u00a0after seed fall, and\u00a0favors root growth\u00a0first. The\u00a0taproot penetrates deeply into the soil.\u00a0\u00a0Contrarily, acorns from the northern red oak group drop in late fall, remain dormant through winter, and germinate\u00a0in the spring.<\/p>\n

These oaks are designated as “State Trees”:<\/p>\n

White oak (Q. alba<\/em>) –\u00a0state tree of Connecticut, Illinois, and Maryland<\/p>\n

Live oak (Q. virginiana<\/em>) – Georgia state tree<\/p>\n

Northern Red oak (Q. rubra<\/em>) – New Jersey state tree<\/p>\n

Bur oak (Q. macrocarpa<\/em>) – Iowa state tree<\/p>\n

Scarlet oak (Q. coccinea<\/em>) – District of Columbia tree<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Acorns are nuts that form on mature oak trees (Quercus spp.). Acorns come in many shapes, sizes and colors, depending on the species. An acorn is a single nut encased in a hard shell by a cap (used to identify what oak species it is). For example, Northern Red Oak (Q. rubra) tree produces egg-shaped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,657,747,1166,749,778,806,1144,1384,853,623,551,627,1084,791,843,1059,729,777,1210,630,705,1002,646,767,7,819,455],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6546"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6546"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10085,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6546\/revisions\/10085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}