Last autumn I stored several acorns in a 5-inch pot that was filled with potting soil and covered. I took the cover off 2 days ago to discover 7 saplings between 3 and 7 inches long. They are too big for the pot I was storing them in. Are they safe to transplant at this stage? What size pot should I transplant them in? How do I safely move them without damaging them?
My oak experience isn’t with burr, but they have relatively fragile taproots at that stage of development. I have successfully extracted some from a similar situation by sssssllllloooowwwwwwllllyyyyyy submerging the pot in a 5 gallon bucket until the potting mix and saplings floated themselves out of the pot, allowing me to separate them.
@LibertyLizard might be able to offer better advice than I can, they’ve been doing some oak transplanting as well.