Early producing oaks?

I did manage to get a few of them going.. these two were Schuettes I believe from Kelly Tree Farm maybe. I had purchased some from Morse but they were small and didn’t grow in my climate/soil


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I planted some hybrids from Morse’s Nursery 10 years ago. They started producing a small amount of acorns on some of the trees a few years ago. Not a huge draw yet, but some deer activity around them. I also have one plain bur oak in the yard that’s the same age. It gets full sun and some fertilizer. It has also produced early. If they get some protection (tubes in my case) and good sunlight, I think you will see acorns earlier than most people think. I have a few acres of trees planted in a crp contract that’s every other row conifers and hardwoods. It will be interesting to see how these oaks do. Right now the rabbits, mice and voles have been hard on the oaks. Apples have been a better investment, so far though. I’m getting more tonnage out of them and deer seem to have a sweet tooth.

Pic of those hybrids Fall ‘20


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This one looks to be a little different variety. Has more of a shaggy bark


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sounds like you would be best off planting a mixture of different trees that would be suitable to your climate and then baby them as much as possible and take what you get. A diverse mix could also be good for a more drawn out acorn drop for hunting as well. Like was mentioned...some soft mast may not be a bad addition as well.

Did I miss it, or has nobody brought up Dwarf Chinkapin Oaks or Chinkapins? I have both native so I don't plant them but it seems that habitat guys like them for early production. I've also heard that Burr can produce at a young age if they are well taken care of. Once again, another that I haven't planted personally so take it with a grain of salt.

Like a Xmas basket, I'd plant both fruits and nuts with both a short-run and long-run view. Starting with fruits, I'd be sure to include all of the big 3... P's .... pears (Kieffer good to hardiness zone 4, Bartlett and Bosc are very big in MI), plums (browse and fruit) and persimmons (only females produce fruit so best option is grafted trees (hearty to zone 5) from nursery with one/couple of male trees in your persimmon grove for pollination IF you don't buy self-fruiting persimmon trees).I'm not a Paw-Paw fan but I don't live in Indiana (they are native to IN).
There are several varieties of late dropping apples (including crabs); you need to contact some nursery personnel (or research older threads on this site) to identify apple trees appropriate for your location. I'll give you some info sites to review. Both white oak and red oak trees are great habitat trees (I try to plant 10 whites for every red; Northern red Oaks might be a good choice for your area). Among white oaks, Bur Oaks are great habitat trees; however, I'd be sure to plant several English Oaks (good to zone 4) since they consistently throw a lot of acorns. Swamp White Oaks are another great habitat tree (and one of the prettiest oaks) that are good to hardiness zone 4; my experience with SWO's saw acorn production (very few nuts) in as few as 6-7 years for some of the trees. There are multiple claims that hybrids will drop acorns later in the year and have superior rapid growth. I have no experience in that regard; my approach is to monitor the production/drop timing of white oak trees I locate and start seedlings/direct-seeded trees from acorns I gather. I'm not a fan of regular White Oak trees since they seem to drop very early in the fall in my area; maybe it's different in your area. I've planted Chinkapin White Oaks (their size makes them OK for turkeys); but not DCO's (I prefer oak trees that get large and ultmiately throw a lot of acorns (volume producers). Just some suggestions; hope it helps.

It seems to take forever for a tree to grow when planted at all in timber but I did hear the saying that the only thing produced when planting a tree in the timber was sweat.I do like to plant about 20 feet on the east side of the timber and I usually get good growth.I had some burs produce before sawtooths and some after planted less than 100 yards apart on same day.I will spade and move around 50 oaks here shortly.What soil do you grow the swamp white oaks in?I have one and the tree has really grown but no production yet.

The property where I planted the greatest number of swamp WOs is the largest corn-producing county in IL with extremely rich loamy soils. With adequate water, the elimination of competition, protection, and a little fertilizer boost, all trtees do very well in this environment.

Chip/others in northern MI ... you may be familiar with these sites; otherwise, they may offer useful info.

https://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/2015/08/how_do_you_like_these_apples.html .... maturity times on MI apples ... very useful
ttps://www.canr.msu.edu/news/planting_fruit_trees .... MSU - full of useful info*
https://www.acnursery.com/ .... scroll to bottom of page and click on maturity table ....
https://www.michigan-sportsman.com/...est-apple-trees-to-get-for-deer.371850/page-2

Chipdasqrrl said:

Other than sawtooths, what other oaks produce within 15-20 years (full sun)? I plan on planting sawtooths, but I'm also looking for something that will drop in mid to late October in Northern Michigan.


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Chip,

I planted bur oak acorns and had some of those trees produce in 15 years. And that is without any protection or attention, just planted the acorns in the fall and let nature take it's course. I would expect with weed control, mulch & fertilizer that you could do a couple years better than that.

I am in N. Michigan, as well, in Otsego County.

I wonder if acorns from the faster producers will produce faster. My neighborhood has a long creek planted alternating burr and red oak. I believe they were planted about the time, maybe 10-15 yrs ago. The red oak are larger some have large quantities of acorns on the ground. The burrs fluctuate more on size and volume. Some no acorns some more than others. I found a smaller one that produced acorns maybe 6" diameter vs afew 8-10" that had none. I collected those hoping they produce faster. For quantity at least I think at least in central tx the red oak produce more faster. I'm planting both, actually looking for chinkapin as a 3rd to go with my existing live oaks.