30
Sept
Harrogate conservationist gives away 5,000 sprouting acorns
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Harrogate conservationist Keith Wilkinson is urging people to adopt an acorn to help produce the next generation of oak trees.
Mr Wilkinson, who founded Bilton Conservation Group and was awarded an MBE in 2013, has cultivated about 5,000 sprouting acorns, which he is giving away for free.
He said oak trees had produced their most abundant fruit for years in 2025 and now was a good time to pot and raise saplings or plant them in the wild.
He added the acorns were from healthy trees in Bilton and Knox and he could provide instructions for growing them in pots.
Mr Wilkinson estimates he has about 20,000 acorns to sort and has had to turn down offers of more.
He said:
The crop this year has been absolutely phenomenal, and I can’t remember one as good as this since about 2001.
Unfortunately, although North Yorkshire Council have had an acorn harvesting programme most years — inviting the public to contribute their seasonal crop to various growing-on projects across the county — there is no such programme this year.
This oak tree in Bilton is the progenitor of most of the acorns.
Mr Wilkinson is no stranger to getting people to grow mighty oaks. In October 1990 he took 3,000 acorns, plant pots and compost to the Great Yorkshire Showground and urged people to bring them back in three years to plant on in Knaresborough. Hundreds of them grew and one was the first to be planted in the new Knaresborough Forest Park.
Where should the acorns go? Mr Wilkinson said:
“I would not recommend growing one in a private garden unless the resident has a huge space but farmland, hedgerows, parks, large public open spaces, recently felled woodlands etc would be ideal.
Regarding maintenance, he said:
If they are to be raised in a pot for planting out in the wild, in say three to five years’ time, they need a deep pot, ideally six inches deep to accommodate the long root, decent compost and keep moist. Outside anywhere will do out of the harshest winds or excessive sunlight. They should take care of themselves, but a bit of fertiliser at the end of the first year would be helpful.
An ideal size for planting oak saplings into the wild, after three to five years, is when they have reached 90 centimetres cor more - this is the size we normally buy them in for planting in Bilton Fields/Nidd Gorge etc.
If they are to go straight into the wild now, poke a hole in soil about two inches deep, lie the sprouting acorn on its side carefully with the shoot pointing downwards — not vertical. Fill the hole with soil gently and let nature do its best. This will improve its overall prospects of success but drought, disease, predation by badgers, mice, jays will no doubt search some out and deplete significant numbers.
You can contact Mr Wilkinson by email at niddgorge@gmail.com
An acorn
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