Shortage of acorns

[WDH]

Not in oak.  He/She is just being difficult  :D. 

[cbla]

Lots of acorns up here on the Red Oaks.

[jrose1970]

Thank you all for your replies. It looks like it is not as bad as I was thinking.

[Weekend_Sawyer]

In Maryland I am having a bumper crop of chestnut oak acorns, the yard is filled with them. I made the mistake of parking my F350 under one and going away for a week and the hood is filled with little dents. ah well, the deer love them.

[DeerMeadowFarm]

Acorns as well as apples amounts are crazy this year. Acorns rain down on the ground like, well...rain! Apple trees that I haven't seen fruit on before since we bought the land are sagging with crop.

For me, being a deer hunter, I really don't like years like this. The deer don't seem to have to travel so much to feed....

[Ron Scott]

I hear the acorns falling while sitting in my tree stand.  ;)

[SwampDonkey]

We don't have much for oak to begin with. Maple and softwood up here will shade it out. That being said, I did save 3 or 4 red oak saplings from being severed with the brush saw on this new thinning block I started. It's real old abandoned farm land. I'd say they left here during WWI. I see rock piles and rail fence all the way around the farm. The field out front it over taken by apples and sumac. The white spruce, aspen and hardwoods are filling in. Tonnes of apples for the bear and deer.  ;D

[jrose1970]

That sounds like fun restoring an old working farm like that SwampDonkey.  I see fallow land all the time.
Apple trees are a tell-tell sign of an old farmstead.

[SwampDonkey]

It had been clearcut for the timber a few years ago. So in essence we are restoring the forest, so to speak. Spacing the new crop. ;D  Broke both handles on my saws today. :( Not to worry though, I fixed them up for tomorrow.

Found some more red oak saplings.

[WV Mountaineer]

It is spotty but, somewhat sparse here as far as acorns go here this year.  Last year was immense on all White oak and Red Oak species.   This is the third year we have had some.

WDH shared a fact most don't know about the maturity rate acorns of Red Oak family versus White Oak family. I enjoyed the link too.  Thanks for that.

The acorns seem to be falling later this year than they have in a long time.  In the past 5 years or so, just the opposite. They were falling in August, which wasn't the norm for here.  This year, the crops on the Red Oak are sparse enough they can't be seen from the ground.  So, until a couple weeks ago when they really started to fall, I assumed there weren't many anywhere.  I did find a few marking a property line about tree weeks ago and while cruising another tract not far from there.  So, I assumed my usual hunting area was just one of those places that didn't produce any.  But, I have found out that my regular hunting haunt has a lot more than I thought.  I visited Monday evening getting in an after work scouting/hunt in and, the Red Oaks were raining the nuts from trees that three weeks ago I assumed were bare as there was no sign of them.

So, around these parts, the Red Oaks once again have produced in areas and, decently good in some of those areas.  All White Oaks were a flop every where.  I suspect that there are more producing in the woods than most people think as the deer are off the grass every where and, have been for three weeks or so.  They are eating something and I'm betting it is Red Oak.  We don't have a lot of beech as our timber industry has been very active and, done well at keeping it in check in our stands with good non desirable species removal.  But, the grapes are thick every where.  Kinda ironic as the black berries and such didn't do well at all this year in these parts.  By the first of November, the grapes will be gone and, the acorns will be getting cleaned up though.  By Mid November, the hunting should be superb.  Deer will be on their feet looking to feel their bellies versus doing so in a .25 acre like last year.  God Bless 

[SwampDonkey]

We don't have a lot of beech as our timber industry has been very active and, done well at keeping it in check in our stands with good non desirable species removal. 

Depends on the approach to that. Up here, most on woodlots is harvested piecemeal for firewood and not a one time pass through. And that sets the scene for some mighty thick beech regen under your sugar maple canopy.



Aside from the birch standing there, the rest of the overstory is maple. Thick beech regen on a firewood lot.

[Ozarker]

Follow up: We're having a really good mast crop this year. The ground is thick with it, and it sounds like a small war with all the nuts hitting the metal roofs.

[ely]

best mast crop here in several years, more persimmons too , all with spoons in the seeds, may be a tough winter if it ever starts...calling for 91 on monday :embarassed:

[BenTN]

i  am just a few miles north of you Jrose and see the same thing here. just a few white oak acorns and no hickory or walnuts. i was hoping to bag a couple turkeys last weekend but they have moved to more fertile ground i guess.

[Al_Smith]

I haven't paid much attention this year .However as general rule some years produce more than others .

On my property I have white oak, red, pin and burr oaks .Some are eastern giants,3.5-4 feet in diameter and slightly over 100 feet tall .

[SwampDonkey]

Must be that good ole Ohio mud down there.  ;)