Looks like cork oak, Q.suber, to me; but I don't know the European/Eurasian oaks.

you may also have Quercus dalechampii, based upon the picture you showed and the one one on google images, its a really close match. Anyways, I would do natural stratification. Just get a pot, fill it will soil, and let nature do the rest. Below zero temperatures should not be a problem. Germination should occur by April or May.

Generally the warm-climate oaks don't need stratification, but you'll want a much, much deeper pot than 15 cm. The cork oaks I remember in California started to come up in ~February if I remember correctly. A picture of the acorn would help ID a lot, but if the bark is thick and light-medium gray and very rough, with large limbs and evergreen it is Q suber, wonderful tree.

Dan

Thanks for the replies so far. I thought it was a cork oak myself (by google-ing it) but the trunk of the tree from which I collected the acorns didn't look as a cork oak. I assumed it could be a Mediterranean evergreen oak but the leaves of this one we're gone for the season so it's a kind of a puzzle really.

I have a picture of the acorns in the pot but do I need to host in on a website to attach it here as an url?

Additional dilemma that I'm having is whether I should cover the acorns with soil or move them apart a bit.

They've been sitting in the pot like this for 4 days now so I assume it wouldn't hurt them if I moved them at this point. All were sinkers except the smallest one which floated but I decided I'll take my chance with it.

The plan is to move them into bigger pots as soon as they sprout, hopefully this spring. My biggest concern is the freezing nights which in winter could go to -15 Celsius.

You need a hosting site like Flickr or Photobucket then you can link to the foto.

Dan

Here is the photo at last. It's only a link, I really don't know how to attach one here.

So, do I cover them with soil and can I move/disturb them to make more space for each one?

Here is a link that might be useful: Acorns in a pot

No pix of acorns with caps on, or original tree?

Dan

Unfortunately not but those few photos I found of the net that looked like the ones I have were without caps too...

The acorns need to stay outdoors for the winter. If frosts are expected and the acorns are up, then bring them indoors during those days.

One of the better ways is to keep them in the fridge under stratification and watch them by checking on them every two weeks until, if and when they germinate. After they germinate, allow the "tail" to grow to 3" and then with your fingers pinch off the bottom inch... then put them into your pots/larger pot. If won't harm the acorns to be kept outdoors after they've germinated and have been planted (squirrels do it all the time).

I'd recommend you cover the pot with hardware cloth and use pots/a pot that has a near a completely open bottom so the roots air-prune their-selves. Here are two photos. I'm growing oaks in an outdoor bed & the other photo is of oaks being grown in tree-band pots. Hardware cloth prevents rodents from eating your acorns. It's left on until the following fall... the seedlings emerge and grow thru a square on the hardware cloth and later after Fall leaf shed, the hardware cloth is removed and the seedlings are planted-out.

Good luck!

Dax

Fall "winter-sown" seedbed: next spring I'll surround the entire area with a fence so the rabbits/deer/etc don't chew off the tops of the emerged, seedlings:
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oaks being grown in containers and the flats are lifted off any surface for air-pruning. Eventually, after the "pinching-off" process of the radical bottom 1/3, these oaks will form a new, tap-root.
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I put them in a 5 gal. pot and push acorns halfway into the soil. Cover the upper half with mulch. Leave outside in the rain, etc. Water them whenever I water the other potted plants. Basically just trying to imitate nature. Germination usaually in April-May. Have had a few come up as late as June-July.

Yes, as with scotjute, IME with the warm-climate oaks you need deep soil and a fairly deep layer of leaf litter and keep moist. If we had oaks here and I wanted some, I'd do old 5-gal buckets 3/4 full and the rest leaf litter. I could then plant by cutting out the bottom and a slit in the side and pop the whole thing in the ground and remove bucket.

Dan

Alright, I've received a shipment from Sheffield Seed of White Oak and Gingko Biloba. Very prompt, I was pleasantly surprised!

Now the Gingko is alright but the White Oak has germinated and I don't have a clue what to do with it :O Few of the seeds that had sprouted and looked "still alive" I dumped in to a tray with wet paper towels on the window sill but I'm not sure it's the right thing to do.

The same ones had a black tip on the "sprout" thing so I'm not sure if they can develop. The others look like they've dried out. I don't know if I can save them.

Were the acorns sprouting when you got them? How long have you had them? What have you done with them since you've had them (and for how long)? What do you plan to do with them (pot them up, plant them outside, etc)?

Update on the Acorn Illyad :)

The "no refrigerator stratification" experiment worked. I stuck the acorns in a pot just slightly covered with soil for the whole winter. I kept them moist on days with softer temperatures and no water throughout January I think. I'd cover the pot in nylon cloth during rough minus 0'C nights. The first week of April I got the first sprouts.

Third week of April, out of 8 acorns I've had the luck to get 6 seedlings which have already grown their second pair of leaves. To be honest I've never transplanted a plant in my life but I guess I'll have to do it now.

Looking at the photo, what are your best suggestions on how to transplant without killing them in the process?

I want to move them to a bigger/deeper pot so I can plant them in the ground in autumn or next spring (is this possible?)

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Certainly, you can replant them. If you have a place picked out for them already (and it's safe from kids, predation, lawnmowers, etc), I'd go ahead and plant them in their permanent location now. You will definitely want to deal with their taproots, which will probably already have reached the bottom of the pot and be deformed.

Agreed to plant them out. No reason to pot up and then replant, unless you have several two-foot tall pots connected to irrigation and don't mind setting them back twice with the extra transplanting.

Dan