treeclimber101
UNCLE BUCK
I'm don't think the tree knows what kind of winter it will be. If anything I'd have to agree with the squirrel theory more. Overwhelm the wildlife hoping they would leave some uneaten acorns to reproduce.
The only thing I'm sure about is they cycles a couple years of heavy acorn production then a couple years of light production then heavy again and so on.
Its also seemed that even with the heavy snow that spring came a bit earlier this year, possibly lengthening the cycle ..I have a about 15 mature white and red oak behind my house and about 5 or 6 smaller less than 5 years old and have seen huge acorns on the younger trees and relatively small on the larger ..