Agroforestry Spring Plantings

This spring, the Breadtree Farms team began planting our red oak breeding orchard. This orchard will ultimately hold almost 1,200 trees, 640 of which were planted this spring. This orchard is a testing ground for red oak genetics where the Breadtree team can identify and crossbreed the trees with the greatest potential growth, productivity and resilience in today’s northeastern bio-region. They are searching for a few special individual trees who will one day seed thousands of acres throughout New England, and beyond.

The first step in that process was gathering the exceptional acorn specimens which would seed the orchard this first year. According to Breadtree, this involved: “spending a surprising amount of last year swerving off the road to observe precocious and heavy bearing red oaks. This resulted in our team selecting 26 outstanding red oaks whose acorns/seedlings are being planted on-site this year.”

Planting an acorn in the ground is an act of hope and patience. But—we may not have to be quite as patient as you’d think. The common knowledge is that red oaks do not produce until they are 20-30 years old. But the Breadtree team has already identified 8 specimens who are producing 50-150 lbs (per tree!) in a heavy bearing year, at only 10-15 years old. Sounds like some mighty precocious acorns to me!

We’ll have to wait and see what takes root here in the red oak breeding orchard in the years to come. Whatever the results, we are heartened to have these acorns in the ground. Let the germination begin.

Question for the audience: What do you think—should we do a 10-year time-lapse photo series?