Why so many Acorn's this year?

[The Count]

maybe the winter will be hard and many won`t make it to spring; therefore is nature`s way to survival...

 

[woodbooga]

The abundance of acorns is a phenomenon called a 'mast year' (mast being a synonym for nuts/seeds).

The average is something like one mast year per decade, tough it's not like clockwork.

Plant biologists aren't certain why the phenomenon occurs - or what causes it. Probably not weather since the event covers such a broad swath of geography. Also, acorn production is part of a 2-year cycle - and the nuts you see are therefore somewhat removed from the vagaries of weather.

One theory is that trees produce such a prolific amount of mast to overwhelm nut-gathering animals - making so many that they can't possibly eat them all, thereby increasing the likelihood of seedlings and keeping the circle of life unbroken.

 

[Mike PA]

Last year was a good nut year also. This year far exceeds last year's. I would think that part of the reason is we have had good weather the last two years with plenty of rain and very few gypsy moths. Most of the gyspy moths were killed off two springs ago with the moist spring we had.

My chestnut oaks have been amazing and the acorns are huge. Last year, the chestnut oak wasn't as prolfic as this year, but the red and whites were.

 

[treeclimber101]

i have been hanging out in the same woods for the last 6 or 7 years. I have picked up acorns and got like 20 each year. I wondered why there wasn't any squirrels. This summer there are like barrels of acorns off all the oak trees both white and red. Even mine at home have lots. Maybe it was the real bad winter last year? I don't know but i scooped up a mickey d's bag full to plant. I even imported a squirrel...bob

snow hooray

 

[mtfallsmikey]

The abundance of acorns is a phenomenon called a 'mast year' (mast being a synonym for nuts/seeds).

The average is something like one mast year per decade, tough it's not like clockwork.

Plant biologists aren't certain why the phenomenon occurs - or what causes it. Probably not weather since the event covers such a broad swath of geography. Also, acorn production is part of a 2-year cycle - and the nuts you see are therefore somewhat removed from the vagaries of weather.

One theory is that trees produce such a prolific amount of mast to overwhelm nut-gathering animals - making so many that they can't possibly eat them all, thereby increasing the likelihood of seedlings and keeping the circle of life unbroken.

I thought it was every other year, WB...

I miss the Bob Crane avatar...

 

[woodbooga]

I thought it was every other year, WB...

I miss the Bob Crane avatar...

I'm no expert, so I looked into it. Here's the abstract of a scholarly study looking at the masting habits of beech in southern Sweden. Seems that with changes in the climate, the frequency of these events has increased.

Bob Crane might make a comeback in a little while

Abstract

During the last two decades, an increase of the frequency of naturally regenerated beech seedlings has been reported. This may be due to an increased masting. In this investigation in southern Sweden, mast year frequency, mast crop size and the relationships between mast year and climatic variables were studied. Our analysis shows that while the average mast year interval was 4–6 years from the end of the seventeenth century up to the 1960s, the mean interval has decreased to 2.5 years during the most recent 30 years, and there have been two consecutive mast years on two occasions during this later period. Mast years have often followed years in which the temperature in July and September was higher than the 30-year mean. However, there were significant variations in the amounts of beechnuts produced between different mast years, and beechnut production increased with increasing site index. Climatic changes, especially increases in temperature, may have been responsible for the higher frequency of mast years, but increased atmospheric nitrogen deposition may also have been a contributory factor.

 

[mtfallsmikey]

Neither am I, WB.....here's a different take that 'splains why I said some oaks drop large numbers every other year..

http://www.wvmetronews.com/outdoors.cfm?func=displayfullstory&storyid=39817

 

[KD57]

Tons of acorns here too, also tons of squirrels.

 

[Bob Wright]

Well i shoveled up a big bag of them to plant. Looks like my little city lot will have lots of Oak trees. I already have 3 of them 35' high i planted 10 years ago or so...Bob

 

[boutselis]

I have family in New Hampshire and they were just talking about this. They have raked barrels of acorns from around the house and don't think they have ever seen anything like this before.

 

[GoRving]

Indicates a rough winter. Another good sign is how high in the trees the squirrels make their nests. High means rough winter.

 

[The Count]

those of you who can, gather as much as you can and use it for fuel or feed the pigs if you have it.

my great grandparents used to grind them and boil it with diverse green plants and feed the animals back when the communists took all the grains they have harvested...back there food was not only one room away.

 

[dingeryote]

Tons of acorns here too, also tons of squirrels.

The Squirrels I don't mind. WE have an "understanding" of sorts that seems to be working out well. They stay outta the hootch and barns, and they stay out of the stew pot. LOL!!
Smart critters.

The Chipmunks on the other hand, started breeding like mad last Spring.
Never seen 'em overpopulate like this, and they refuse to acknowledge the DMZ around buildings despite several polite reminders of thier place in the food chain. Might have to switch to fire shortly.
The little snots are packing Acorns into every nook and cranny in the wood piles and get downright grumpy about me trashing thier larder.

The resident deer herd is also looking at our woodlot like a buffet, so it's gonna be an interesting Bambi season.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

 

[KD57]

The Squirrels I don't mind. WE have an "understanding" of sorts that seems to be working out well. They stay outta the hootch and barns, and they stay out of the stew pot. LOL!!
Smart critters.

The Chipmunks on the other hand, started breeding like mad last Spring.
Never seen 'em overpopulate like this, and they refuse to acknowledge the DMZ around buildings despite several polite reminders of thier place in the food chain. Might have to switch to fire shortly.
The little snots are packing Acorns into every nook and cranny in the wood piles and get downright grumpy about me trashing thier larder.

The resident deer herd is also looking at our woodlot like a buffet, so it's gonna be an interesting Bambi season.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

My squirrels have not "learned" the rules yet. But they have learned to get up into a tree and get out of Dodge if they so much as see a shadow from me. So I changed tactics. I now sniper them from the garage window before they even know I am around.
The Starlings have learned to stay out of the barn tho, I no longer see them on my place, they fly around it now, lol.

 

[woodbooga]

Indicates a rough winter. Another good sign is how high in the trees the squirrels make their nests. High means rough winter.

Not necessarily a sign of a tough winter. It's rather a procreation strategy. Biologists call it something like 'predator saturation.' In this case, the predators are squirrels and other acorn eating critters. The trees make so damn many acorns (a good sized tree in a mast year can make 1,000 lbs of acorns) that there's no way they can all get eaten or stored in a single season.

I've heard the bit of lore about nest height, too. I've heard it said about hornet nests, too.

 

[mtfallsmikey]

2 yrs. ago....heavy mast production, light winter
Last yr....light mast production, heavy winter.

 

[The Count]

however must be a factor or a number of factors that work together resulting an increase yield. if that knowledge could be harvested and applied to other trees...
let me know if you figure it out.

one time, when I was little 9-10 i guess, we had an sour cherry in the garden; with big, rather sweet fruits;and for many years, the harvest was decreasing. one year it made around 10 sour cherries; I wanted to cut it down and I took an ax and cut 1/3 out of it and got tired and gave up.
an year passed by and the next year it made tons of cherries; but incredible small and damn sour we couldn`t eat.

I believe that the tree produced so many in order to have more seeds to increase the chances of having offsprings. in this case the ax was the factor.
I am sure that in the wild, some tels the oak to generate seeds...

 

[r&r]

Oaks will produce heavy acorn loads for a few years then light loads for a few years they go in cycles. I don't know if its a predictor of a hard winter or not since white oaks germinate in the fall i would expect a mild winter would be more favorable for survival.

 

[treeclimber101]

Oaks will produce heavy acorn loads for a few years then light loads for a few years they go in cycles. I don't know if its a predictor of a hard winter or not since white oaks germinate in the fall i would expect a mild winter would be more favorable for survival.

So what your saying is a heavy and large acorn cycle means a light winter , that makes more sense than a tree doing a squirrel a favor ...

 

[r&r]

So what your saying is a heavy and large acorn cycle means a light winter , that makes more sense than a tree doing a squirrel a favor ...

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.