At first glance, failure.

But, on closer examination, twenty-eight shagbark hickory nuts sprouted—about 80% of the nuts that sank, and 10% of those that floated. (Moral: sinking is better.)
The thing is, with hickories, like many other plants, it’s root before shoot. Although nothing much was visible above soil level, a number of thick, fibrous roots had broken through the bottom of the peat pots, worked their way around the wire mesh, penetrated the landscape cloth sub-layer, and dug into the fondament.
Hoping to do minimal damage, I extracted and re-potted them. But first, I had to make a pot. Hoping to emulate Possibility Place (the source of Arboretum trees) I decided that air pruning was necessary, so I built seedling troughs (long pots) with few drain holes and a couple of feet below the base so that the plants would be elevated from the soil below.
Maybe this will work. Question is, what then.