Shortage of acorns

[jrose1970]

Hello everyone,
  The other day I heard a couple of folks at the Co-op talking about the shortage of acorns. I saw a few acorns early on in August but nothing since.   :-[   This will be a hard year for squirrels and deer in Tennessee.
What is your take in other areas?

[Ozarker]

Having a good mast crop in the Ozarks. Acorns started falling in August, which is unusual, and they've been falling since, but there are still a lot on the trees.

[timberking]

Looks pretty good down here.  Been off last couple of years.

[jrose1970]

That's good fellows.  I hope it will be a good year.
We had a lot of rain this summer, but I guess the last frost had a lot to do with it.
Thanks for your response!

[Ozarker]

We, too, had a lot of rain, up until the past month and a half. Gettin' pretty dry now. That ought to change any day. I don't recollect just when our last frost was.

[WDH]

Acorns on red oaks take two years to form and mature.  Acorns in white oaks form and mature in a single year. 

[John Mc]

Acorn production tends to be cyclical. Somehow, most of the trees in an area coordinate this. It's part of their reproductive strategy: after a couple of slow years, the ranks of animals who eat acorns will have been thinned out (some die off, and females tend to have smaller litters). When the boom years come, the trees have a much better chance of having some acorns survive and sprout.

[Ljohnsaw]

We are in the 4th year of our drought out here and the oak trees have gone crazy this year with acorns!  The last few years were sparse.  The weatherman is predicting a heavy winter this year - maybe the trees are watching the News, too, and figure there will be enough water for the babies to sprout  :D

[John Mc]

I may be wrong, but I believe stress can also trigger more nut/fruit production.

[WV Sawmiller]

    Looking good in our area of southern WV. Last year we had biggest crop I have ever seen. Was good for the wildlife as we had over a month the ground was completely covered in snow but the deer and turkeys were in great shape and came through it with big flocks of turkeys and huge number of fawns so far. Bow season starts Saturday and I have high hopes.

   We also have a good crop of beech mast, walnuts, hickory nuts and the grapes are heavily loaded.

   Hunting is actually easier in lean years as we can bait on private land and the scarcity naturally concentrates the game. Oh well, so we work a little harder, no big deal especially when they are this plentiful.

[WDH]

If you would like some info on oak acorn production, this is an interesting article.

http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/other/oak_sym/oak_symposium_proceedings_044.pdf

[Ozarker]

Thanks for that link, WDH. There are things in that paper about which I always wondered.  ???

[jrose1970]

I haven't read the article but I will. Thanks.
The old timers said that when we had chestnuts, the chestnuts would have a bumper crop on the opposite years from acorns. That way the wildlife did not suffer. We are limping along with only one giant producer (oak) now.
This is off topic, but I would say the loss of the chestnut was one of the worst blows in history to wildlife.

[John Mc]

I had always thought chestnuts were a steadier producer of nuts than Oaks, but perhaps it's Beech I'm thinking of?

[tlbrooks]

no acorns in southwest va where ive been. ive been in low country and high country and not seen very many.we do have a good crop of paw paws seems like.iv eaten so many im about sick of them.

[ScottInCabot]

Plenty of acorns in central Arkansas.

If we could only teach wildlife to eat chiggers.............





Scott in Cabot

[petefrom bearswamp]

Lots of mast here this yr.
Cherry trees loaded as heavy as I have ever seen.
The Beech on our Adirondack property only produce every few years then the deer really fatten up good.
Dont know about this year yet.
Oak is also heavy with acorns.

[jrose1970]

Now that's something I want to learn more about is Paw-paws. We have three or four patches, but I've never seen a paw-paw on them. What's your secret, tlbrooks?  I think Beech, Chinkepin (not sure of spelling. ) and Chestnut are pretty close kin.

[tlbrooks]

I don't know why some trees or patches have a few or no paw paws while other trees seem loaded. some trees that are say 8 to 10 inches thick at base seem to have the most. ive found trees at the edge of woods the most productive and along railroad tracks . ive stopped at 2 patches today in tn and found nice trees with no paw paws at all on them.

[low_48]

Great acorn production on our urban red oak, squirrels have the tree pretty well stripped. I am really grateful that we have an off year with the honey locust. I've had years where I have to rake up 10-15, garbage cans full of seed pods. It doesn't look like there will even be 1/4 of one can this year. I'm thrilled!

[coxy]

lots of them hear to along with cherries beechnuts and apples the berry bushes was loaded to this year

[jrose1970]

I have seen a lot of "hickernuts" . I guess ol' adjidumos (Hiawatha's squirrel) is going to have to sharpen his teethe.

[clww]

I've seen lots of acorns and other mast crops up in the mountains at the cabin. Here around the house at The Beach, lots more on our oak tree in the front yard, although these seemed to appear later this year.
I have a question: which tree produces the nuts/acorns, the male or the female tree?

[WDH]

Oaks are monoecious.  They have both male and female flowers on the same plant. 

[clww]

Was thinking we had one of each. One oak has never produced any acorns. Both trees were planted at the same time and are very close in overall dimensions.