I went to the hunt lease here on saturday to snoop around a 200 acre woodlot looking for squirrel, turkey and deer sign for the upcoming seasons. I was unable to spot any white oaks, big or small, on the whole tract that were bearing acorns. I thought that a late frost was the usual explanation, but we had a mild early spring. We had lots of rain too until lately. The crop was really small last year. What is going on? Why?

N.S Oaks are peculiar trees. They will have good acorn production and then all of a sudden dry up for perhaps 2 to 3 years. It could be a soil issue. Oaks need certain minerals from the soil to produce acorns. I will have to do some checking ( it's been a while since I worked with trees or studied them ) but there is a certain blend of fertilizer you can pour around the base and next year the acorns will be in full force.
I will find what you need and give you a shout.

Flowering and Fruiting- White oak flowers in the spring at about the same time leaves appear. The time may vary from late March to late May depending upon latitude. It is monoecious; flowers of both sexes are present on the same tree. The yellowish staminate flowers appear first and are home in 5- to 8-cm (2- to 3-in) catkins. The reddish pistillate flowers appear 5 to 10 days later either singly or in pairs on short stalks. Female flowers that are not fertilized abscise during the development period. High abscission rates are common and may be related to weather conditions during the period of pollination, ovule development, and fertilization (44). Ripe anthers open and close with changes in relative humidity. Normally, pollen dissemination is completed within 3 days but periods of wet weather delay pollen shedding. Dry winds and freezing weather are also detrimental to flower development and pollen shedding (28). Acorn crops are good in years when the weather is warm for 10 days during flowering and then cool for 13 to 20 days afterward. The acorn crop has been poor in years when cool periods preceded warm periods at the time of flowering (36).

Acorn maturity is reached approximately 120 days after pollination. Acorn drop follows 25 days later and is complete within a month. Physiological maturity, as indicated by normal germination, is reached when acorns change color from green to light brown (4). Acorns germinate almost immediately after falling to the ground in September or October.

Copied this, Mabey it will help.
Gene

Ned,I'd worry more about a heavy crop than a light one,heavy nut/fruit production is a sign the plant is under stress and is trying to promote it's own existance through seed production.This has been a funky year on the east coast,,,low temps. lots of rain early on,then straight to summer,,,If the trees seem healthy,,aside from nut production,,,sleep easy,,and count on your bait stations being a bit more productive,due to that lack of acorns.Clay

I don't get around in the woods very well anymore.(Bum leg and lazy ass.)
There is a patch of woods I frequent and there is a Hollow that has lots of springs running thru it.It has a good crop of Hickory and Oak.And ramps and morrels out the wahzoo.
Elsewhere it has been so dry around here that most of the mast is small.
Squill and turkey are kicking, alive and well.

Thanks Invader, I' going to copy those timeframes down and learn them. A lot of land is turning into pulpwood factories and that kills the hunting after a couple of years, so mixed hardwoods is hard to find. I just hate to buy & bait corn and have the expense of doing it if you can have acorns rain down naturally. The weather is funky too. The white oaks in my yard has a few oakberries but they are dropping green and I have a tree or two to take down that died of drought. Why can't those liberals get that global warming stuff for us in the winter?

In parts of Texas nothing but pine. Timber companys cut the hell out of everything and plant pine. I don't know of any criter that lives off pine. I was always told a pine forest
is a dead forest.
Gene

quote:

Originally posted by invader66:
In parts of Texas nothing but pine. Timber companys cut the hell out of everything and plant pine. I don't know of any criter that lives off pine. I was always told a pine forest
is a dead forest.
Gene

Spruce Grouse sir, and they taste like it!! derf

quote:

Originally posted by derf:


Spruce Grouse sir, and they taste like it!! derf

Don't see many of them in south east Texas. I will however, remember to take them off the camp
menu if I am ever lucky enough to hunt up in your neck of the woods.
Gene

I always fertilize my favorite white oaks twice a year - spring and fall to bring deer in consistently. Walk in a circle about as wide as the canopy of the tree and just drop 10.10.10 by the handfull. You will see an improvement in the acorn yield, but even so the trees do not yield every 3rd or 4th year.

Invader that happens in my part of N.C. It is all you can do now to find a good tract of hardwoods anymore. The stinking plywood mills have bought all the hardwoods and sold it to the lumber mills and replanted pines everywhere.
I used to work at saw mills that cut only hardwood and realize now after the logging moved to my neck of the woods ( cutdown now ) that it hurts the animal population. it drives them out into other locations and then they begin to stress their food source and as they say only the strong survive which makes heards become very small and reduces fawn survival ratios.

Man! I've seen some of those 50-100 acre logging operations cutting 3 ft. thick white oaks for PALLET wood and leave hundreds of cords of oak trimmings rot. I wish WTF(wild turkey federation) would take that on.