Early producing oaks?

Chipdasqrrl

Chipdasqrrl

Active Member
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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Only thing I know in my area that I have seen produce at the age you are asking about is a chinkapin oak.....but they drop early in the season, are a white oak and pretty small acorns but a bunch of them and pretty reliable from year to year for me. Mine are working on dropping right now......so they do not fit the niche your looking for regarding drop time. As much as you may be looking for something specific....if you find something perfectly suited to your climate and soil of the location and the like you may be able to plant nearly any oak best suited for your conditions and start to get acorns in that time frame if your baby it..... just a thought.
 
I am not sure how it would do in Michigan, but water oak (Quercus nigra) drops in October and November in the south. Everything I have read says it produces acorns in 20 years, but the water oaks I have planted or have planted themselves have all produced acorns between 10-15 years. They produce acorns pretty much every year.
 
I have some 17 Y/O reds and blacks that have been making acorns for few years now. They are in full sun with no nearby competition.
 
I've had young red oaks produce acorns in the 12-14 year range in Central MN. Grown from bare root seedlings with tree tubes. Within two years tops were out of 4' tubes. I fenced to give them a fighting chase to get out of the deer browse zone.
I am a huge supporter of tree tubes. Feels like I have experienced 5-10 year fast forward using the tubes with the oaks. I just started adding white oaks to my mix over the past 3-4 years, and the white oaks were out of 5' tubes within 2 years. I am hoping to have similar acorn development; another 10-12 years of crossing my fingers.
 
Unfortunately, the Concordia oaks (English Oaks) are not hardy enough for Zone 3. I was looking for a new variety to add to my mix. I did see that the Northeast part of the country considers this variety invasive??
 
Most of the hybrid oaks from Morse Nurseries claim to produce acorns in less than 10 years, some as early as 4.
 
I've never heard of early producing white oaks. Any acorns on your hybrids from Morse?

Anyone else have luck with early production from hybrid oaks? Several species available from Nativnurseries as well.


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Truth is, back when I planted these trees I was ignorant about setting up a property for deer hunting, but I was gung-ho and eager to do some habitat work. I knew deer liked white oak acorns so why not plant a lot of them? I created a habitat plan and got approved for cost sharing through the Wildlife Habitat Improvement Program (WHIP) which helped a lot with the cost, but if I had it to do over, I would plant fewer oaks and do it more strategically. Maybe in twenty or thirty years, if I have hundreds of oaks producing acres of acorns I will attract every deer in the county and look like a genius.
 
Well it's good to know in advance they aren't magic trees.

Thanks to this site and a few books I've definitely been thinking strategically for my plantings that produce hard and soft mast during the season. Trying to get access to low impact stand sites on our new mountain property will be the hard part.

Thanks for the info.


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Thanks for the link Shedder. I'm planting a few SWO this week. Hopefully they'll do well on my property.

Also picked up a few WO acorns from my parents house. The trees are raining down big acorns right now, I couldn't resist. I'll direct seed them just for fun.


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I purchased several hybrid white oaks years ago.. can’t remember exactly when, but probably around 2011. Didn’t have a whole lot of luck with them down in East Texas. Hot, humid summers and native browse grows like a jungle. I tried to keep competition around them down but got busy with other projects and eventually nature took its course and the native stuff out competed
 
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