Celebrating Sustainability at GCU—The Gould Acorns

The Gould Acorns: Take a Piece of GCU with You

Lakewood, N.J., April 22, 2016—On April 21, 2016, Beta Beta Beta, the biology honor society, held a fund-raiser to sell the GCU community their very own Gould Acorn oak tree. Senior biology major and Tri Beta President Rachel Kowal said that growing the oak tree seedlings is easy and anyone can do it.

So you want to grow your own Gould Acorn oak tree? Follow these steps:

Step 1: Collect acorns right after they fall to the ground in September or October.  You can collect them from the GCU campus if you want.

Step 2: Fill a large container with soil, wet soil until damp, and add the acorns on top, covering with a thin layer of the soil.

Step 3: Refrigerate the container. This will help the acorns establish their root systems.

Step 4: Once the weather warms up, fill the pots with fresh soil, carefully empty out the now-rooted acorns from the large container, and plant each acorn in its own pot with the top of the acorn on top of the soil.  Place the pots in a sunny location and keep the soil moist.

Step 5: Wait until the last frost to plant. Water when the soil starts to become dry.

Step 6: Enjoy the shade of your very own Gould Acorn oak tree. (Okay—the shade part might take a few years!)

GCU introduced the Gould Acorn tree sales several years ago, and staff members from the State of New Jersey’s Forest Resource Education Center in Jackson often come to campus in autumn to collect thousands of acorns. Those acorns are then planted and later provided as oak tree seedlings each spring to New Jersey residents, including the hundreds of elementary school students who visit the resource center each year.

Have your own Gould Acorn oak tree already? We want to know! Share your pictures with us and don’t forget to tag (#GCUPride) or tweet us your images @GeorgianCourt. Not on social media? Just send pictures to us at facebook@georgian.edu.

Founded in 1908 and sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy, Georgian Court University is South Jersey’s only Catholic university. GCU is a comprehensive, coeducational university with a strong liberal arts core and an historic, special concern for women. As a forward-thinking university that supports diversity and academic excellence, Georgian Court expands possibility for more than 2,300 students of all faiths and backgrounds in 30+ undergraduate majors and 10 graduate programs. The main campus is located at 900 Lakewood Avenue, Lakewood, New Jersey, on the picturesque former George Jay Gould estate, a National Historic Landmark. Georgian Court also serves students at New Jersey Coastal Communiversity in Wall and through multiple online certificate and degree programs.