Baby Chinquapins (updated 5/27)

Back at the end of March, I received a packet of Ozark Chinquapin nuts in the mail from the Ozark Chinquapin Foundation.  This post tells about the process of planting those little sprouted nuts.

On April 6, I made this note:

Something tore into both of my cages in the Barber field and ate the chinquapin nuts.  :(  I could still see the shoot on one of them, but without the nut, I don't know if it will survive.  No sign of any of the remaining four but at least it doesn't look like anything has been digging in those cages.

Then on April 10, this exciting note:

The "south" chinquapin in my yard has come up!  I drove a t-post in the ground beside it and put up a tall cage to protect it from deer browsing.

Baby Ozark Chinquapin on April 10, 2023.

And surprise of all surprises, a few days later when I walked down to the Barber field to check on the chinquapins there, I discovered that one of them had come up, even after having had its little nut stolen.  Later though, when I walked down to check on it again, it was gone, but the other one had since come up!

There's no sign of any of the other three.

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Baby Ozark Chinquapin on May 6, 2023.

Before the little plant in the Barber field gets much bigger, it needs a cage to protect it from the deer.  I have bought some hardware cloth and plan to build a cage out of that.

Lessons learned for next time (and I hope there is a next time, since I have already paid my 2023 membership dues for OCF):  

• In areas like the Barber field where there is high potential for the nut to be stolen, be sure to put a very secure cage around the nut at the time it is planted.  The cage probably needs to be buried a few inches into the ground around the nut to try to deter anything from digging under.
  
  
• In areas where the ground is extremely rocky like the area behind the barn, try to break up the rocks in the planting hole so the nut's taproot has an easier path down deeper into the soil.
  
  
• If the nuts come pre-sprouted, handle them very, very carefully!  The taproot on the last nut was broken about an inch from the end.  I'm not sure if it was broken in the mail, or if I broke it when I was getting another nut out of the package. 

I still hope that the nuts behind the barn will sprout eventually, since I seem to remember that in a video of a tour of one of the test plots Steve Bost mentioned that the nuts there had sprouted over an extended period of time, not all in the same general timeframe.

As of now, I have had a 50% success rate in nuts coming up.  I hope that I can do better if I get another chance.

Update:  On or around Wednesday, May 17, I was shocked and delighted to discover that the second chinquapin planted in my yard had come up -- it was the one with the broken taproot!  It may not survive, but at least it's trying! 

The second baby Ozark Chinquapin planted in my yard has come up!

Update:  This afternoon (May 24) RAF, Mo and I walked down to the Barber woods to water the Ozark Chinquapin there.  It has died.  

Update: This morning (May 27) I carried some water to the little tree with the broken taproot.  It looks like something dug it up and ate the nut.  It is dead.