I posted in early April about my Oak tree seedlings project in 2018.  Our non-spring long winter has finally broke on April 21st so now my project moves forward.  The featured image shows my seedlings as of April 23rd outside on our deck.  I am starting the process of hardening off the seedlings by putting them outside in the shade/indirect sun.  I take them in during the evening as it still is getting close to freezing at nights.

The picture above shows the cool color variability of the small oak leaves.  I have planted red oak, swamp oak, pinnacle oak, and some hybrid white oak.  So lot’s of different growth rates, leaf forms, etc..  The only thing I can’t get to grow are the Shagbark Hickory nuts.

The plan after hardening off is to plant a few in the woods with tree tubes and transplant the rest into 10 or 12 inch fabric root pruning bags.  I am thinking I will grow the trees in the bags for a couple years before transplanting or maybe even selling trees.  I also am going to plant another 4 trays of acorns that have been in the frig all winter/spring to compare with seedlings planted in Feb/Mar.  We will see how that goes.