Sweet It Is Bebbs Oak Acorns-Scions

currently unavailable Low tannin acorn selection-high yields on a bur oak type of tree.

From a 2nd generation cross, ‘Sweet it Is’ is a very low tannin bur oak type acorn. The original tree was discovered by a wetland near Plainwell, MI. The small acorns are completely enclosed in the cap. On good years the branches are completely covered with acorns. They ripen in early September. A small amount of astringency is found in this selection enough that usually one washing is enough to remove the tannins. 

While growing a lot of seedlings from a what appeared to be a hybrid white oak cross, I found a few that fruited very nicely in 4 years from seed. These were trees that had very heavy bearing. This is good in terms of yields in the year it bears but it also creates a situation for the tree where it will need 1-2 years off to regain its energy to do that feat again. In this case, the yields are so high it overwhelms the trees ability to reproduce itself on a yearly basis. I am currently working on a fertilizer program that will prevent this from happening. The idea is to stop or slow this process down to the point it is not an all or nothing type of crop. Of course this is common with oaks where you have abundance of acorns and then none for a year. 

"Sweet It Is" represents both a cultivar and a seed source for additional low tannin high production oak trees. From seed, it is likely to take a larger grow out to find the best selections for reliability in production as well as finding clean weevil free acorns that can be used for flour. The genetics in this individual is unique in this way that a new generation of oaks could be generated just from this tree alone as it would take only a few years to have fruiting trees from seed unlike other species or hybrids which take long to fruit from seed.