Are you ready for autumn? Learn how to dry acorns for your fall projects! Prevent worms and find out how to preserve the acorns for decor.
When fall comes around, I’m ready to go outside and start harvesting natural materials for craft projects. One of my favorite things to find are those big, fat acorns that come from majestic oak trees. In fact, one year I painted them (in my article how to paint acorns for fall).
But what I didn’t realize is that you have to dry them or there will be beasties – i.e. weevil larvae – that will crawl out of them. I’m going to show you how to dry acorns for craft projects so that you never have to be grossed out by acorn beasties again.
What I didn’t know – the reason that the acorns you collect on the ground are the worm-y ones is because the squirrels leave them behind. Of course they do.
Squirrels are smart and can figure out to how to eat from the most complicated bird feeder. So they’re going to leave the nasty worm nuts behind.
The good news is the weevil larvae can’t hurt you. They don’t bite and they won’t ruin anything in your home if one gets out. However, you don’t want to have to deal with them, so you’ll want to dry them first before crafting with them. Learn how to dry acorns for acorn crafts below!
How to Preserve Acorns
Gather These Supplies
- Acorns
- Oven
- Cookie sheet
- Bowl of water or colander
- Mild soap (like dish soap)
Wash Them Off
After harvesting your acorns, put them in a bowl of water to soak or a colander and rinse them. Add a little bit of dishwashing liquid.
You might want to use an old toothbrush to scrub off any debris, if you have one. Otherwise soaking them in a bowl will remove most of the dirt.
Let Dry
Spread them on a towel to dry for at least an hour. If any of the nuts look gross after washing and drying, throw them away.
You might see some acorns with small holes. This is a sign that something has gotten into the nut, but drying the acorns will kill them so don’t worry!
Bake the Acorns
Preheat your oven to the lowest setting F or C – mine is 200ºF so that’s what I did. Lay the acorns in a single layer on a cookie sheet. You’ll want to use a cookie sheet with a lip so none of the nuts roll off.
Place the acorns in the oven on the cookie sheet and leave the door cracked slightly so that moisture can escape.
Check Every 30 Minutes
Check on the acorns every 30 minutes and roll them around a bit. If you see any acorns starting to brown too much, turn the oven off and leave the acorns in there. They will still “cook.”
You’ll want to leave the acorns in the oven for about 1.5 – 2 hours.
Remove and Cool
Remove the nuts from the oven and let cool. Throw away any that burned. Now you know how to dry acorns and you can use them in all of your craft projects!
Preserve if Desired
Now if you want to preserve the acorns, you can take an extra step. However, you don’t *have* to do this as they will last a long time just being dried out.
However, if you want to make sure they last for years and years and never fall apart, I recommend giving them a quick spray with a clear acrylic sealer. Blast them, let dry, turn them over, and repeat.
That’s about all you need to do! They are ready to display “as is,” or you can use them in any fall projects.
Do you have any questions, thoughts, tips or tricks? Leave me a comment!
Great tutorial for saving these for fall crafts! Thanks for sharing!
My experience with drying acorns was a nightmare- it was easier and cheaper for me to buy a big bag of fake ones — they look very real!
LC I’m sorry you had that experience! That’s actually a great option as well.
This is perfect timing for me, thanks! I will check out the painting part next.
When I was a child, I wanted to make an ornament.
But the acorns which I got were worm‐eaten!!
However now, I know how to use acorns for making something.
I’ll make an ornament with acorns!!!
I love that idea Runa! Please share in the Facebook group!
I’ll definitely try this out. I lost my dad recently and his memorial tree is an oak tree, I really want to make a necklace out of one of the acorns it will grow
That’s a great idea! I’m so sorry for your loss. It will be a wonderful memorial to him!
@Jod, Why not string them for a Garland you can hang during Thanksgiving and Christmas time? A part of him will be with you at the Holidays.
This is a great idea!! I love to repurpose and use natural things to my designs!! thank you for sharing>
Thank you for reading!
I wish there were a way to preserve acorns to keep that bright green color.
I agree! I’m not aware of a way :/
after drying and you spray with acrylic can you still paint after ?
Yes! You can use acrylic (craft) paint and chalk paint easily.
Do I need to put the brown acorns “I think they are dried” in the oven?
If you think they are already dried and the bugs are gone, no . . . but there’s no guarantee that there aren’t additional beasties in there. It depends on how long you’ve had them inside.
I love the picture of the turquoise acorns n the glass vase….just the color I need to accent my living room and I already have the glass vase. Thanks so much for the tip. When I think of acorns I always have thought to leave them natural but this is amazingly clever.
Glad you like it! Thank you Jean!
Love painted acorns! I used nail polish on some, and just acrylic paint covered in Mod Podge for others. I used this drying technique and it definitely worked! Thanks for sharing!
Oooh nail polish is a smart idea! I didn’t think of that!
Thanks for the ideas, Amy. Question: there’s not many acorns in Florida … can this process be done with moss? There’s many trees here with natural moss … that would be a savings! Thanks for your help.
Can’t wait to try my hand @ “painting Acorns”! Just love the idea of spraying with Shellac.
You will love the results!
thank you for this!! i was planning on making an acorn necklace that my friend suggested we should do together so this is very helpful 🙂 have a great day everyone!
Acorn necklace is a great idea! Have fun!
Great help
Maybe silly question but I’ve started collecting them for crafts this year some directly off the tree others from the ground. I’m having problems keeping the “hats” on. Is there anyway to aide in preventing them from falling off?
Kim yes I have seen that happen and had one or two do it myself. You can glue them down with craft glue I would think. If that doesn’t hold, E-6000 will. I don’t know that there’s anyway you can prevent them from doing it. You kind of have to wait until they do and then fix it.
Amy Hi ,
GOD Gave me an Acron that is very Special to me. As most Acorn Come out of the shell i placed a small drop of crazy glue & placed it back in the shell.
I want to Preserve this Acorn Forever , Cani just spray acrylic over it , Or does it need to be Dried in the Oven? Also if it does need to be dried , what will happen to the acorn with that drop of crazy glue i placed?
Thank You for your help & may GOD continue to bless you always.
Hi Alexander! You don’t *have* to dry acorns in the oven, it’s simply to get out any beasties that might be inside. So you are fine without drying. And yes you can spray acrylic over it! Enjoy.
I read about a crafter using her hot car to dry things and this might work great for acorns too! I am always finding little treasures, and stowing them in those pockets on my car doors to dry for a while. Plus time it right and you are conserving energy.
That’s actually a super smart tip! I’d imagine in Arizona or someplace like that it gets pretty dang hot. 😀
I’m so late to this posting but hopefully you still might see my question. My daughters and I collected small green acorns to put in clear containers for home accents. Reading the posts I guess we can’t do that without them turning brown, moldy, or buggy. Is there any way that we can preserve these cute little guys to keep them as is ? I’d appreciate any help from out there. Thanks bunches !!!
Thanks, your instructions worked great.