When I watered my spider plant tonight I found

[GoddessOfGuinness]

...a foot-high weed growing in the pot.

So I pulled it up, very gently to avoid damaging the spider plant's roots, and discovered the weed had sprouted from an acorn. I looked up the leaf in our tree guide, and identified it as a chinkapin oak. The acorn must have been in the potting soil when I bought it.

I decided to repot the seedling, but I'm not sure it will survive. It's the dead of winter, and the poor thing has sprouted leaves.

Any brilliant suggestions regarding its care?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear GoddessOfGuinness!

Wow, a little oak tree...

Do you have any Rootone or some such to minimize the shock of transplantation?

If you do, shake some of that onto the roots before you replant the poor thing...

Oh never mind...you already planted it!

In that case: I'd probably take it to my local nursery for really expert advice!

Good luck, and I hope it makes it!

:hug:

[EstimatedProphet]

2. Pot it in another pot.

Keep the roots moist for now, and tomorrow get another pot and potting soil and put it in that one.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

3. I already repotted it...using the same soil it sprouted in.

I'm wondering if it will matter if it loses its leaves...since it's winter anyway.

[EstimatedProphet]

4. If it had leaves, and now it loses them, it's not a good thing.

[zanne]

10. Could you use a different potting soil? nt

[GoddessOfGuinness]

11. I imagine I could, but since I had some of the same, I figured it

would be a gentler transfer...

[marzipanni]

5. Scrub jays are always planting acorns, nuts, and pine seeds in our outdoor plant pots!

A pine tree sprout is cute, it looks like a little green parasol framework. We have also had several oak, pecan, almond, and black walnut trees grow from our lawn and at the edges of our yard, planted by the jays hiding their food for future use. I see them tucking seeds into gaps in the craggy bark of the tree outside my kitchen window.
The two smallest oak trees in our yard (near Sacramento, Calif.)have just lost their few leaves and look like foot tall sticks. Your little oak might do just fine if its tap root has enough room to grow.

[Stuart G]

6. Once in the new pot, don't over water, just let it grow.

If it doesn't make it, that is ok.. There are plenty more where that came from..

[GoddessOfGuinness]

7. That's true...

I sometimes tell my plants, "Now...Grow or die." :-)

[GoddessOfGuinness]

8. It's possible that the acorn was dropped in the pot

when I had it outside this summer. It sure is confused now!

[Whoa_Nelly]

9. Keep it near or right at the same place in your home where you found it

It may have sprouted during winter because the temp and light conditions were just right in that for it in that area.
The spider plant may have fostered the seed by by creating a pH condition to the potted soil as the chinkapin oak grows in an alkaline soil.

Here's some good info about the chinkapin oak, and a bit down the page is the pH factor, moisture condition needed, and more.

Good luck! :hi:

http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=QUMU

[GoddessOfGuinness]

12. Good idea...

I'll move it higher on the window... Thanks! :hi: