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| My interest in acorns and oaks is highly influenced by the oak nuts ability to nourish squirrels. When the acorn crop is light it has great ramifications in terms of squirrels removing fruit from my orchard and the many home orchards I manage.
In recent years the crop has had a very biennial tilt which is understandable, given that about ten years ago we had a very hard freeze after oaks had leafed out. The following fall there were no nuts and the fall after that a huge crop. This seemed to create a boom and bust cycle in rodent populations. What intrigues me is that, after a very light crop last fall, there are almost no acorns this one, so I have been fighting squirrels from spring to this moment. I can't understand why there would be two short crops in a row. We did have very hard late frosts this year (actually a very early spring followed with more normal weather) but as far as I know the oaks had not yet leafed out when the frosts occurred, and I believe they flowered normally this spring. Given that mulberries and chestnuts also had very light crops, I guess the issue is weather related but wondered if any of you have any insights. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Harvestman, not sure what your overall weather pattern has been for the last two years, but I'm sure it has to do with an envirnonmental stress. It can be different stresses in different years with the same result. My northern red oak seemed to be a prolific producer year after year until the stress of the last two summers. Alternating mast years didn't seem to apply. The only reason I miss the (often giant) mess is that it gives my retriever exercise chasing and catching squirrels. There was a brief discussion earlier. Link below. hortster |
Here is a link that might be useful: Previous discussion
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- Posted by mccommas z5CT (johnray67@hotmail.com) on Sat, Oct 20, 12 at 20:50
| If you dump corn or sunflower seed in those areas, the little critters might leave you apples alone. |
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- Posted by harvestman 6 (My Page) on Sun, Oct 21, 12 at 9:49
| Horster, thank you for the link. I didn't know red oaks require that extra year- very interesting. We had extremely hard frosts after a long period of warmth this year. It caused a very light fruit crop and I suppose may have burned the tiny acorns even if trees hadn't begun to leaf out- or any of a number a freakish weather issues in last couple years. MC, I've not heard of that method being successful- could just bring more squirrels to vicinity but I might try it to lure squirrels to easy shooting site. |
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Sun, Oct 21, 12 at 12:49
| we have had two bad summers.. and i am drowning in acorns.. with 12 year old trees ... and the mature ones ... one thought comes to mind. . the orchards are sprayed??? ... how does timing of orchard sprays affect nut fertilization???? mind you.. total WAG .... just crossed my mind ken |
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