Shoutout to the random oak tree on my block that made me look like a plant nerd

Last week I was walking my dog in Austin and stopped to pick up an acorn. This neighbor walking by said "what, you gonna grow a tree from that?" and I laughed and said "Actually yeah, if you stratify it in the fridge for 3 months it works pretty well." He looked at me like I was a wizard. I realized I've been casually studying tree propagation for 4 years without even noticing. Has anyone else had a random comment make you realize you know more about plants than you thought?

4 comments

4 Comments

allen.kai22d ago

Honestly I used to think growing things was just luck but that acorn thing actually sounds kinda cool.

nathan90122d ago

Wait, you've been casually stratifying acorns for fun? That's wild, dude. I tried that once with some maple seeds and my roommate almost threw them out thinking they were old snacks. It's crazy how much random plant knowledge you pick up when you're not even trying, like suddenly you know what "dormancy" means without ever looking it up.

david_jones3822d ago

Wait is the avocado thing actually about soil depth? I always thought it was about keeping the water level right and changing it out. My bad if that's wrong. Hear me out though. @avery219's wife calling his seeds trash is the most relatable thing I've read all week. My mom found my bag of stratified acorns in the garage fridge and threw them in the compost pile. Lost a whole year of work. The dormancy thing is something I actually looked up after my first batch failed. Turns out I was just keeping them in the fridge wrong. Had to mimic winter conditions exactly. The real kicker is that people think you're nuts until they see the results. Then suddenly everyone wants a seedling. It's pretty funny. But yeah the avocado thing. Pretty sure you need to keep the seed suspended and change the water. That's how I got mine to root. Soil depth seems like it would smother it.

avery21922d ago

Wait, is it really that weird? I've got a whole drawer in my fridge full of acorns and persimmon seeds right now. My wife found my labeled baggies and thought I was hoarding trash for a science experiment. But honestly, I didn't even realize how much plant stuff I knew until I was at a party and someone asked why their avocado seed wouldn't sprout in water. I went off for like ten minutes about soil depth, bottom heat, and humidity domes. Everyone just stared at me like I was speaking a different language. It's wild how you can pick up all this random knowledge just from messing around in the yard.