Emory Oak

I have been trying for about a year now to source emory oak acorns and the 2 sites offering them never have any in stock , i have been thinking that these my be available from mexican sources ,but lacking any grasp of the language ,i am putting this request out for any one with info on obtaining some , thanks

Darn, I wish you would have posted this 6 weeks ago. I work on a property with hundreds of HUGE Emory Oaks everyday. I have some that have been in the fridge for a couple of months I can send you.
I’ll look tomorrow to see if any are still hanging on the trees. The green ones sprout immediately.

Thanks they would really be appreciated , i cant accept them for free , so please factor in postage and costs , they will hopefully be part of a little food forest  " Menge a Trois " wild style experiment  i have started to plant up  , got some portuguese and spannish holm oaks of the rotundifolia type --these are sweet acorns ---edible from the tree taste wise---mostly !---some trees are noted for this but i wasnt able to harvest them my self so i have done a random sample taste on the 80 or so seeds i got (about 50 are up )---i ate 10%---8 of them ---and it was half were lip smacking sweetish to half were lip puckering damn --reach for the beer to wash away the bitter. The 2nd partner to this are some burr oak --macrocarpa ---planted out 15 and 10 are up---only tasted one ---bland to mild---and reading up on the emory (the 3 rd )its also supposed to be  edible from the tree . Further reading up on acorn eating /processing ---it does involve cooking to unlock their nutrition and leach out/ switch off the tannins . So if nature goes all wild and gets its thing on ---these 3 might do some gene swopping sharing ---and i just might live long enough to do a taster of some hybrids. Planting out numbers is to hopefully  get a decent population of savoury surviours  established and provide us with the staple part of the diet as i try to become more self reliant and tread more carbon lightly.

I think you'll be pleased with Emory oaks once you get them established. I used to go foraging for bellotas in the summers, usually right before the rains arrived. They usually produce good-tasting and decent size acorns that you can eat without blanching (but toasting makes them even better).

The trees themselves are super hardy. In drought years they will drop most of their leaves in spring and only green up with the monsoon. They also resprout from stumps after fire.

Bad news Tony. I gave the acorns in the fridge the float test and only 2 sank. I couldn’t find any on the trees either. I can grab a bunch off the ground and test them over the weekend.

Thanks , i will try any thing you manage to get , my portuguese acorns were already sprouting when i got them in the post, and then the burr acorns i got only 2 or 3 sank the rest floated and i really didnt hold out any hope , but two thirds of them came up ---to my surprise--as i was about to call it a fail ---and only by going on holiday did i forget to turf them out---came back and some were just up. Heres one grown this season and they do take off and get going quicker than the local sessile and pedunctile oak acorns i set out---the rotundifolias are slow growers but steady and for me a real novelty to look at with their spikey leaves --they were also not badly attacked by leaf hoppers or slugs .The burr oaks i had to do routine patrols and pull off small black catterpillars and squish leaf hoppers , and had to do beer trap for slugs--its just at first coming up the buggers like to strip away the stems soft green layers ,then as they start to put on a darker more bark like layer they get left alone.This year i overcrowded my small greenhouse  and had to plant out a lot of the seeds/acorns outdoors, i use plastic milk cartons--free--and  2nd purpose before they ultimately have to go off for recycling--and being hdpe one of the few that can be---lowers my guilt level . Start by cutting off the top and make 4 holes in the base fill with potting mix ,plant in seed ,a label stick and after clearing away a bit of grass weeds put them down in place , i then place two tires around a batch of 8 or so and a piece of bird mesh on top held down by a tire wall cut out . I prefer to get them going in the greenhouse then place outside in this arrangement , rats are a problem in the greenhouse for robbing seeds /nuts so i constantly have traps and baits down , outside its voles --they mowdown the saplings--dont eat them --just cut them down.

You’ve inspired me. I have a Bur Oak in a tree pot I’m gonna stick in the ground tomorrow near the Texas Live Oaks.

what i have found out ,if i let the saplings grow on in the milk carton ---just as the main roots tap root hits the bottom ---which you can just glimpse through the semi translucent plastic--i can then dig out a divot of soil the size of the carton ---cut the bottom off the carton and bury it --sapling and all to its proper level---no disturbance of the roots ---and remove the carton in later months---just pull it up a bit and cut it free. Also i have found that placing sprouting acorns /nuts /seeds in these cartons ---above the ground ---around an existing well established sapling ---within a couple of weeks the potting soil in them is full of mycorrhizae filament growth---but watch out for slugs ---i place beer traps tucked in under the tire walls and when i have to ---spring traps to catch voles--as well ---piece of bird mesh across the top held down by a tire wall cut out ---i also usually drill out a few holes in the tire walls to stop a pool of water building up---handy thing for this are those battery powered drills

I planted and inoculated it with a couple of tabs. Root hadn’t hit the bottom of the tall tree pot and it came out pretty easy.
I wish it was moist enough out here to have slugs. Varmints and birds will pull saplings so I used a tree tube as usual. I don’t know how it’ll do, but it’s been a tough little tree so far.

Phil , if you have acorns to process --enjoy baking/cooking and like the portuguese pastel de nata  , check out the site were a baker in Elvas has combined the two to make an acorn based custard filling for his own twist on this national sweet dish .

Thanks for the tip, Tony. We have one royal oak that is a prolific producer, so next March I will give this a try. I'm planting several more varieties this year...but no Emory since I haven't found any in the country. Maybe I will try importing some acorns next year. I have a healthy Arizona cypress, so I bet they'd grow here.

Tony, won’t be long...

thanks , its been an odd past couple of months and planting out my saplings grown from seeds and nuts has kept me grounded and busy,till later ,cheers,tony

Tony, PM me your address. The Acorn Woodpeckers are already starting to snatch them up.