[flexj]

The one thing that makes or breaks my deer season is the acorn production. I hunt a thick oak forest in between miles of farmland. The deer love the acorns and will pounce them as soon as they hit the leaves. Last weekend I noticed that the acorn buds were falling off!! They looked like little mini acorns, only about 1/10 the size of a normal acorn. I don't konw what's going on, but I hope it is just a fluke deal with just a few trees. I noticed it with trees in the yard, and havent had a chance to check the trees in the woods. I havent ever noticed anything like this before, and we aren't really having an extremely dry summer or anything...could this be a disease, or something??

 

[Guest]

Did you have an odd late spring frost? It only takes one night to mess things up. To many acorns can be a problem for hunting deer as well.

 

[flexj]

I don't remember any late frosts. The only thing I can come up with that is "out of the ordinary" for this year is we had a really wet spring.

I think that in my situation there is no such thing as too many acorns, but I'm sure in some places it's different.

 

[joel the signman]

im hearing the acorns are dropping early in my upstate spot also.dont know whats causing it

 

[hoodlum38261]

I may be wrong but I thought acorns were similar to pecans. Because when my trees have a huge amount of pecans on it. It seems like the next year the trees don't produce as much. I haven't been able to check my oak trees recently. I'll make sure to check them out this weekend.

 

[flexj]

Well, it looks like some of the acorns stayed on the tree long enough to mature. There are full sized acorns now, but not as many as usual. For whatever reason half of the crop fell off as buds. I don't know what was going on with that, but the good thing is some are still there and that is my insurance of a decent deer (& turkey) season.

 

[muleskinner]

same thing in Ohio, not many acorns at all. If you find a white oak with good acorns this year you have hit the honey hole!

 

[Southern Man]

What type of acorns are you looking at? Some are naturally small. We have them from about pea size off of post oak to half a golf ball size off of sawtooth oaks. I'm with Ron, it only takes an odd weather pattern at a critical time to affect them. And that could be 2 years back. Trees seem like a delayed reaction to weather.

 

[WHITETAILFEVER]

Our oaks are dropping acorns also.i heard this last night at work is this true?an oak tree has to grow 27yrs before it produces acorns.has anybody ever heard of this??

 

[BruceBruce1959]

According to the experts.

Acorn Production ---- Oak trees can start producing acorns when they are 20 years old,
but sometimes can go all the way to 50 years for the first production.
By the time the tree is 70 to 80 years old it will produce thousands of acorns.

 

[WHITETAILFEVER]

WOW SO BASICALLY WHAT I HEARD IS TRUE.COOL THANKS BRUCE!! LEARN SOMETHING EVRY DAY:thumbup:

 

[L0ck.d0wn]

Acorn Rage is one way to go...thats what I use concidering not as many oaks in the swamp and fields I hunt....

 

[flexj]

We have several varieties of oaks, but the most prominent in this area are white oaks(small acorns), and burr oaks (very large acorns...like a golf ball). The burr oak acorns were not affected, but the small acorns of the white and pin oaks were...

 

[Southern Man]

I have a white oak in my front yard that's maybe 12 - 13 years old and I got the first acorns year before last. I was suprised. I didn't have a clue how long it took. I have a Pin Oak also thats quite a bit older and got the first acorns off it last year. Acorns usually start to drop here around Oct 1st. Last saturday a few of us went to some older folks homes to cut up limbs left from Ike and I seen them on the ground. I guess the hurricane shook em loose.

 

[Hunting Man]

Deer prefer the sweet white oaks over the more prominate red oak acorns. We have years where all you have is a small cap with veritually no nut, then same trees will produce 1.5" giant acorns the very next year. Seems like 50% of the acorns have that little hole in them indicating the worm has made a home. I tried a raw red oak acorn, pretty bitter!:yucky:

 

[flexj]

Yeah, they are bitter...but the deer sure seem to like em. Obviously there is some environmental factors involved with acorn production. Everything has to be just right to get that good crop I guess.

I sure do like those good years. It makes my deer and turkey hunting much better.