Float testing acorns

[sghoghunter]

Over the past month I’ve been collecting the chestnuts here at the house and I’ve picked up some sawtooths off the side of the road and was given a few pin oaks. Well last night I filled a pan with water and dumped everything in the water and was surprised. All the chestnuts except one floated and only a handful of the sawtooths floated and no pin oaks. What’s the chances of all the chestnuts being bad even though there wasn’t any worm holes in any of them? I separated them into two different containers and put the ones that floated in the fridge too just to see

 

[buckmanmike]

I'm not sure of the reasoning why the float test says no good on chestnuts. Plant the one good one and 10 bad, see if they germinate.
Maybe the last 6 weeks or so of dry weather effected the chestnut more than other oaks.

 

[buckmanmike]

Were the caps off all the acorns?

 

[sghoghunter]

Were the caps off all the acorns?

Yes sir.

 

[2dye4]

If they float they are no good. I’ve tested before.

 

[1eyefishing]

Chestnut oak acorns ≠ chestnuts.

 

[sghoghunter]

If they float they are no good. I’ve tested before.

Not saying it’s not true or not but I hand picked all these nuts and looked at every one and didn’t see any worm holes. Also if I chuck them there’s 100% they won’t grow. I put everything that floated in a container by itself so around January we’ll see if any sprouts

 

[Stump06]

I picked up 3/4s of a 5 gallon bucket of chestnut oaks. Put them in a cooler to float test and a little less than half floated. I didn't want to thrown them out so I took 2 tubs and put the floaters in one and the sinkers in the other. So we'll see what they do soon!

 

[2dye4]

Not saying it’s not true or not but I hand picked all these nuts and looked at every one and didn’t see any worm holes. Also if I chuck them there’s 100% they won’t grow. I put everything that floated in a container by itself so around January we’ll see if any sprouts

I think the late freeze we had affected a lot of trees. I have white oak and saw tooth that usually produce mass crops, but all the ones that looked mature were hollow. Deer won’t even touch them. My saw tooth’s didn’t produce the first acorn.