Plant your acorn as soon as possible after you collect it from Wytham Woods.
Fill a plant pot with peat-free compost, and dampen it. If you don’t have a plant pot you could use e.g. a large yoghurt pot, but make sure to add drainage holes. Push the acorn into the compost, making sure that the pointed end faces upwards. Cover it with 2-3cm more compost.
Find a cool location in which to keep your acorn pot. A garage or shed is ideal, or an unheated spare room. To protect your acorn from squirrels, mice and birds, you can place a plastic bag over the pot and tape it down – but make sure there are air holes. You could also surround them with wire mesh.
Over the winter, make sure the compost doesn’t dry out completely. Your acorn will be busy growing roots, but it’s only in spring (possibly as late as May) that you will be able to see your acorn sprout. At this stage, gently water your seedling once or twice a week to prevent the compost drying out. It’s best to water from below and let the compost soak it up through the drainage holes.
We are postponing the sapling planting this year (2024). We are receiving saplings grown at home and putting them in a nursery bed to grow stronger before planting. We want to make sure they are the best they can be against the elements, and currently they are a little too small to plant out this autumn.
Please continue to return them to the Sawmill Yard at the Conservators Office, where we will transfer them to a nursery bed, and please continue your ‘oakling’ updates via #WythamAcorn.
