How to grow your own Sawtooth Oak and Chesnut seedlings 

Thanks! Still have the place on Sepulga River in Conecuh county. Bought land in NW Escambia county and have set up homestead. Videos to come

The sawtooth oaks are doing good, I transplanted them to 2 gallon trade pots last fall. The Chestnuts are growing much faster. And the persimmons are also. The persimmons took 2- 3 months to sprout after planting, so remember that if you ever plant seed. I thought the seeds were no good and planted sawtooths on top of them, eventually having two different sprouts in same pot, which I later separated.

@@backwoodshomestead482 Just a follow up. I soaked the 11 lbs. of sawtooth oak acorn in water over night (about 12 hours). I drained the water off and poured them out on newspapers on the garage floor over night to dry. I placed the 11 lbs. of acorns in a 5 gallon pail with a lid laying on top & stored them in my garage for about 10 (probably too long) which stays cool. When I opened up the pail, about 90% of the acorns had germinated & had well established roots. (many were about 4 inches long) I filled 6 racks of 98 Cone-tainers with the acorns. (MANY thanks for the tip on the Cone-tainers) It took me most of the day and I still had enough acorns left over that had germinated to plant 2 more racks of Cone-tainers!!!. Next time I will definitely be using the Black Gold potting soil. Lowes did not have any and all they had was tree & vegetable potting mix which was 90% shreaded wood. I'll never use it again. I'll let you know how the acorns do in a few weeks.

@@wrfarms9741 you should try some Dunstan Chesnuts. Those seedlings took off year two. I put them in nursery pots last fall. Bought the pots in bulk for 40 cents a piece. Sounds like you will have trees growing in no time

@@backwoodshomestead482 where did you buy those pots in bulk?!? Thanks for the info. Ordering cone tainers now

@@catchemalive try Grower’s Solutions, Greenhouse Megastore, Backstrap Farmer.

Some can stay in there until planting late spring. They’re tough, and can take late transplanting. Otherwise, move them when they are around 18” - 24” into a larger pot. Here in the deep south, I move them into 60% shade unless I can water them every other day or three.

I would recommend planting both sawtooth oaks and ‘Dunstan’ Chestnuts. The Dunstan is a hybrid between the American and Chinese varieties, and has retained full immunity to the blight which wiped out the American Chestnut from the Eastern US forests. Some of those American chestnuts are still sprouting from the extensive root systems 80 years later. They grow to different sizes and then the blight will girdle them again. They hardly ever grow to mast producing size, although in certain isolated pockets there are mature trees. There’s a non-profit that’s doing extensive breeding and having great luck so far with a hybrid that retains all the American chestnut traits but is blight resistant. That being said, the American variety takes much longer to bear. The Dunstan, as with the Sawtooth Oak, will take less than 10 years in most cases. Some bear in as little as 3-4 years. Since I am 64 y. O. I need a quick return’

@@backwoodshomestead482 thank you so much!

Hey Steve! I plan on having some for sale next year. I will either offer them at the farmers market or run a couple ads. Have had several inquiries of landowners wanting them. I have found that moths love the Chesnut seedlings. Have ordered some organic Monterey BT to combat them.

30-60 days