shag bark hickory

[thecfarm]

I have one shag bark hickory on my land. 
No idea where it came from.
I wanted to post the nuts are dropping from the tree.
I noticed a few last week, but there are many on the ground now.

[Magicman]

My Dad told me that there was once Shag Bark Hickory here in my area, but not anymore.  I don't know if he had any memory of it or if it's demise had been passed down to him.  ??

[Old Greenhorn]

We have a fair amount here. Great wood. Ray, you best gather up those nuts before the squirrels discover them! Around here it's hard to beat out the little critters for good nuts.
 Pull the hulls off when they crack. Let those dry, then dump them in a bucket of water. The sinkers are bad and the floaters can be eaten or used to make a butter/spread. I have a local acquaintance who makes butter. Says it's good stuff.

[WhitePineJunky]

We have a fair amount here. Great wood. Ray, you best gather up those nuts before the squirrels discover them! Around here it's hard to beat out the little critters for good nuts.
 Pull the hulls off when they crack. Let those dry, then dump them in a bucket of water. The sinkers are bad and the floaters can be eaten or used to make a butter/spread. I have a local acquaintance who makes butter. Says it's good stuff.

I thought it was the other way around the sinkers are good, if a hole is bored into the nut form insect air is allowed in and it becomes buoyant 

[Old Greenhorn]

Maybe I got it backwards? I thought the. Ug hole would let water in and they would sink?
 Maybe we need a third opinion? 😁

[beenthere]

We'll let OGH have the floaters. 

[beenthere]

The hole in the hickory nut is from a grub crawling out of the nut, not in. Fishermen like them for bait on their hooks. 

One can collect a bucket full of perfectly good looking hickory nuts, and the next day or two the grubs are crawling out leaving the hole. The nut meat has been consumed by the grub before crawling out, so the nut is lighter weight and floats. 

[WhitePineJunky]

Maybe I got it backwards? I thought the. Ug hole would let water in and they would sink?
 Maybe we need a third opinion? 😁

I would think the odd one might sink depending where the bore hole was orientated as it floated   

Ask me how I know this a couple years ago I collected so many acorns and floated them and was disappointed when they all sank except for 5/6, well guess I only have 5 good ones the rest were dumped for the deer   I found out later what I had done and won't make that mistake again 

[WhitePineJunky]

The hole in the hickory nut is from a grub crawling out of the nut, not in. Fishermen like them for bait on their hooks.

One can collect a bucket full of perfectly good looking hickory nuts, and the next day or two the grubs are crawling out leaving the hole. The nut meat has been consumed by the grub before crawling out, so the nut is lighter weight and floats. the 

Do you know the specific name to this creature ?  They must be laid there as eggs well before the acorn is formed ?

[Ljohnsaw]

I think the floater float because the bugs ate most of the nut making them lighter.

[WhitePineJunky]

I think the floater float because the bugs are most of the nut making them lighter.

I would think it's a combination of the two, lighter weight and air now inside the nut

[beenthere]

" The most common are closely related weevils collectively referred to as "nut weevils." Nut weevils attack the developing nuts on the tree during mid summer. The female adult weevil lays her eggs inside the immature nuts. The egg hatches into a creamy white, grub-like larva that feeds inside the nut until fall.

[SwampDonkey]

I checked on one of the oldest butternuts I planted, near the road. I don't see nuts this year. They are not usually ripe until mid September here. And I also have a lot of red squirrels, they love spruce cones. I have a lot of spruce. They also love butternuts.  Weevils hit the buds of butternut. I've never found a grub inside a butternut, but I have seen lots in hazelnuts and red oak.

[WhitePineJunky]

I checked on one of the oldest butternuts I planted, near the road. I don't see nuts this year. They are not usually ripe until mid September here. And I also have a lot of red squirrels, they love spruce cones. I have a lot of spruce. They also love butternuts.  Weevils hit the buds of butternut. I've never found a grub inside a butternut, but I have seen lots in hazelnuts and red oak.

I planted 2 butternuts last year one is doing well the other the top died but is still alive 

[SwampDonkey]

I saw a small black bear, probably 200 #'s, today not very far from the butternut tree. He was probably checking the red oak nearby, the bears tare the red oak all up after the acorns around here. Break off the branch tips and tops. Monkey bears they are. 

[Old Greenhorn]

Well I stand corrected and am glad for that.  Happy I asked for a 3rd opinion. I probably threw out a bunch of good nuts too.  It's nice to rely on friends to keep you straight and have friends that you CAN rely on to keep you straight. Don't want to mislead anybody in any event. 
 Honestly I just can't beat these DANG squirrels to enough nuts to get interested in making butter or anything. If you got, enjoy it. Either the weevils or the squirrels beat me to most of them.
 Anyway, it's a pretty tree and I sure would like to get some wood up drying from one, but we are 'saving those' for what, I am not clear on yet.  

[thecfarm]

As I posted I saw a few last week. I thought the squirrels got the rest.
Then I went past the tree yesterday and saw a few on the ground. As I picked up that few, I saw a few more and so and so on. Until that few turned into about 30.
One year I planted a bunch of them in plastic cups and put them in the wife's greenhouse along one wall on the floor. I went to check on them after a few days and they were all knocked over.  I thought the wife might of done it. I picked up one cup and no nut. None of the cups had and nuts in them!!!
A squirrel must of watched me plant them. 

[SwampDonkey]

Seems to be a few acorns this year on the red oaks in the yard. I cut some low limbs off one that hit me in the face when I mow, several nuts on them. They even looked fully developed, seems early. This is mid August. I heard a 'chatter box' down around where I tossed the limbs, he was probably salvaging them acorns. They've got nut radar and sonar ya know. 

[Magicman]

I know, not Hickory but:

I am gonna (and already) seriously miss the beautiful White Oak that always dropped it's big acorns each year.


It was on my neighbors property , had some root rot, and deemed to be removed.  Still sad.

[SwampDonkey]

I have one 40 year old white oak, but no other tree to cross with it to make acorns. The flowers of both sexes do not come out at the same time. I get duds that grow about pea size and drop off.

[thecfarm]

I picked up about 50 nuts today. 
Them squirrels are slow on the draw.

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, they'll just wait for you to plant them in the greenhouse and come by for a snack. 

[thecfarm]

[gspren]

I apologise in advance for posting this but as soon as I read about the sinkers and floaters it leaped into my mind from 50 years ago.

It's not the sinkers that stinkers
It's the floaters got odors

Now obviously I don't remember what they were taking about .

[thecfarm]

Jackpot!!!
I drove by the tree today and there were nuts on the ground.
And I do mean nuts.
270 of them!!!
Most times if I get 50, I think I am doing good.
Must be no squirrels around.