baby oaks

I have baby oaks I grew from acorns planted in Feb. I am in FL and can only get them out in sun 9am-2pm. I put them out early 1hr or so at a time 3-4 days a week. They stay out on my porch in shade the rest of the time. I have good drainage holes in the bottoms and water when tops are dry but they seem to be turning brown. If I don't put them in sun, the little buds don't seem to grow. What am I doing wrong. My father has one in AL he gives full sun to daily inside a window and says it is 5" and lots of leaves. These are what mine look like, see pic. Do I need fertelizer? They were planted with Miracle Grow potting soil, the good stuff. Please help, I want to save these babies! Thanks

Here is the pic.

If they are turning brown with edges of leaves are drying, low humidity is a possible problem. I would keep them under a 2 litre soda bottle with bottom cut off when outside to ensure the humidity stays high to prevent the leaves from drying. Keeping them covered when inside would help until the seedlings recover from the stress of low humidity if that is your problem.

I believe your oaks will be fine. Overall they look good to me. What kind are they?
I wouldn't worry about their shade or sun exposure just now. I have many small seedling oaks in my house under lights and they are doing fine. I probably won't bother even putting them outside until I'm pretty sure the last frost has passed.
It may not make a difference one way or another. Other than Osmocote in my potting mix I don't fertilize mine.

When you've had things growing indoors and you want to put them outside, you need to expose them to sunlight really gradually (whatever lighting you have for them indoors whether it's sunlight through a window or artificial lights is not nearly as intense as real sunlight). I would wait until you can keep them outdoors all the time, start them in a shady area for a day or two, then gradually expose them to increasing amounts of sun. One hour of sun 3-4 times a week doesn't seem like that much, but for little seedlings that aren't used to sunlight, it could cause them to sunburn which would eventually result in brown spots like what you're seeing.

That being said, oaks are much tougher than many other types of seedlings. Even if the leaves burn a bit the plant itself should still be fine. But I wouldn't want my baby oak leaves to burn either.
Just saying, it's not a matter of life and death either way. Don't sweat it. :-)

Thank everyone for your replies! I was worried this was the end of them. It has been pretty dry the past month but the humidity is picking up now. I do spray them with a water bottle and filtered water or rain water. I think they are red oak, I got them in CT this past fall. I will try the bottle trick. Thanks.

Sorry, this is probably too late, but you probably don't want to have the bottle over your plant when it is in the sun- unless you want steamed oak leaves for dinner...

Steamed oaks my rear end smarty butt. You wouldn't be very smart to set plants in stress in full sun. You put them in the shade. Probably too late for a brain transplant. I would bother you with and explanation, you wouldn't understand.

I noticed the seedlings were in dixie cups. Oaks have long taproots if they don't do better you might check on that.
good luck
Vickie

Whoa! My appologies. I wasn't intending to sound rude.
j.

I thought you were making a joke.
No problem here.
Vickie