Late Dropping Shumard Oaks

[Fishman]

I got excited when I pulled in the hotel parking lot yesterday afternoon and saw the Shumard oaks lining the driveway. For some reason, my wife was not as excited as I was. I went out this morning and picked up a couple of hundred acorns off the tree and the ground. I will be growing them out this summer. I was surprised to see acorns still hanging on the tree on January 16. The Shumards that I usually collect acorns from drop their acorns from early to late October. If you have Shumard oaks around you, when do you see the acorns drop?

 

[Jon]

What area did you find them?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Fishman]

These trees are located at the Homewood Suites in Jackson, Mississippi about three hours north of me. They are landscaping trees, so no telling where they originally came from. I have seen quite a few Shumard oaks over the years, but I have never seen a Shumard "in the wild." They have always been landscaping trees either in parking lots or around buildings.

 

[weekender21]

Goldmine! Wish I had a few of those on our property!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[THE LLC]

Did you float-test them?

 

[Fishman]

Goldmine! Wish I had a few of those on our property!

That is why I did not understand my wife's lack of enthusiasm unless rolling her eyes can be considered enthusiasm.

 

[Fishman]

Did you float-test them?

I did float test them. I collected off of two of the eight trees that lined the driveway. Both trees looked like the heaviest producers and had acorns underneath like the photo. One tree only had a couple of hanging acorns while the other had several branches with acorns hanging. I picked up acorns off the ground from the first tree and picked the majority of the acorns from the second tree directly off the branches. I did pick up some larger acorns on the ground from the second tree. I kept the acorns in separate bags. It surprised me that when I did float test them that I only had one or two float from the hundred or so acorns I picked up off the ground. When float testing the acorns I picked off the second tree, I had 20-30 float from the hundred of so I picked. This was the opposite of what I expected as I figured that the acorns still hanging would be fresher and not dried out. I cracked a couple of the floaters open and they looked fine, but they did float so I threw them out.

 

[Turkish]

We have a handful of shumards on our place in NW Jefferson cty. Some drop in October, some in January. It’s strange. I sometimes wonder if I’m misidentifying the early droppers.

 

[Fishman]

Contact me if anyone wants any of these Shumard acorns. I can probably send 30 acorns to 2-3 people if there is interest. All you have to do is pay shipping.