Nabbed some acorns this weekend

T-Max

T-Max

Well-Known Member
I visited a buddy near Coffeyville, KS this last weekend and grabbed a quite a few acorns. Curious as to your thoughts on their wildlife value. I grabbed:

3 SWO acorns: It was a young tree and out of the 5 it had, only 3 were sinkers
~50 Black Oak acorns
~50 Northern Red Oak acorns
~50 Post Oak acorns
~25 Black Jack Oak acorns
~10 Pin Oak acorns

I'm pretty excited about the SWO and Black/Northern Red (turns out my dad was wrong and about all we have on our place are bur oaks). I may try to get a Pin to grow in the yard. Do any of you know much about the Post or Black Jack? The bug has bitten me hard. All I see are free trees growing in other trees now... :D
 
The SWO are the only "white oak" you have there that I am aware of. You need to get them planted or stored as they will try to germinate yet this fall. The others are all "red oaks" and will need to stratify before they germinate. In general terms deer prefer white oak acorns over reds because of the lower tannin levels which makes them bitter. It's always good to have a mixture though because white oaks can produce every year while red every 2 years, so a mix of both tends to give you some insurance for mast production. I don;t have much experience with the post or blackjack oaks. Pin oaks are great for water fowl as the tree like the water and the small size is great for ducks and other birds.

You speak of your "bug" - I collected 1,000 acorns during my lunch break last week and about 300 floated. I planted, and broadcast roughly 700 acorns this weekend because they where all members of the white oak family. I still have my eye on some more as well, but not near as many. I figure its a game of volume - yes I can grow them at home and then transplant, but that is a lot of work and time. If I get even a small fraction of those I planted this weekend to grow I'm ahead of the game.

Hopefully things go well for you and you will have some trees growing soon.
 
Post oak is a white oak. Low on the pole for deer, though, in many minds.

I haven't heard of BlackJack Oak acorns being of much interest to deer either, although, they likely use them per local conditions.
 
shedder said:
I haven't heard of BlackJack Oak acorns being of much interest to deer either, although, they likely use them per local conditions.
Click to expand...

I have quite a few blackjack on my property. While they are a small tree and produce big acorns they are not preferred here. Every one of them do get eaten but they are they last acorn to go. After I get some trees producing something I may start thing some of them out to make room for more preferred trees such as chestnut and white oak.
 
Post oak and Blackjack acorns are both utilized by deer in our area. Crosstimbers area is mostly all post oak and blackjack and even other areas will have poor red and white oak production years and then post oaks and blackjacks shine. I know last year post oak acorns were of a great abundance around us and the deer were all over them. I did notice that we will have a post oak acorn crop on our place this year with spotty white oaks and lots of red oaks producing.

What is really odd on that 2 year projection for red oaks is we have some native Shumard oaks on the property that I work on and a few of these trees put acorns on heavily every single year. I had always heard it takes 2 years to make red oak acorns but that obviously is not true everywhere...
 
I'll probably do like j-bird says and just start pushing them in the ground everywhere. I will keep a good eye on the SWO. I want one so bad. Haha! I got the post oak and blackjack from some poor sites. I may concentrate them on the poorer sites on our place to see if I can spread things out a little. Maybe dad won't mind a few trees in the pasture if they are oaks instead of hedge and elm.
 
T-Max said:
I'll probably do like j-bird says and just start pushing them in the ground everywhere. I will keep a good eye on the SWO. I want one so bad. Haha! I got the post oak and blackjack from some poor sites. I may concentrate them on the poorer sites on our place to see if I can spread things out a little. Maybe dad won't mind a few trees in the pasture if they are oaks instead of hedge and elm.
Click to expand...

Look when your in shopping centers and strip malls and the like.....you will find oaks in strange places. That is where I found mine and I will be like the deer and return time and time again until they are gone! Any that you really want I would suggest to either pot or plant in a specific location and protect them as lots of critters will dig them up....and it's always the ones you really wish they wouldn't!
 
shedder said:
Post oak is a white oak. Low on the pole for deer, though, in many minds.

I haven't heard of BlackJack Oak acorns being of much interest to deer either, although, they likely use them per local conditions.
Click to expand...
See I learned something today!
 
OkieKubota said:
What is really odd on that 2 year projection for red oaks is we have some native Shumard oaks on the property that I work on and a few of these trees put acorns on heavily every single year. I had always heard it takes 2 years to make red oak acorns but that obviously is not true everywhere...
Click to expand...

The Red Oak group sets seed each year and drops seed the following year, as a rule.

Do you mean the Shumards are setting and dropping in the same year?
 
T-Max said:
I visited a buddy near Coffeyville, KS this last weekend and grabbed a quite a few acorns. Curious as to your thoughts on their wildlife value. I grabbed:

3 SWO acorns: It was a young tree and out of the 5 it had, only 3 were sinkers
~50 Black Oak acorns
~50 Northern Red Oak acorns
~50 Post Oak acorns
~25 Black Jack Oak acorns
~10 Pin Oak acorns

I'm pretty excited about the SWO and Black/Northern Red (turns out my dad was wrong and about all we have on our place are bur oaks). I may try to get a Pin to grow in the yard. Do any of you know much about the Post or Black Jack? The bug has bitten me hard. All I see are free trees growing in other trees now... :D
Click to expand...
Blackjack and Post Oak are very very slow growing. I tubed some a few yrs back that were 12" and they are still no where near out of the top of the 48" tube. One of my places is loaded with them and the deer do eat them but they would rather eat something else if available. I am also in the crosstimbers area so they are abundant. I have quite a few that are 50ft plus tall which is full grown for them and I can't imagine their age. We cut one down to hang a stand that was just a tad larger (diameter) than a 32oz plastic drink cup and it was well over 30yrs old. The young ones by my garden sucking water and fertilizer may grow 8" a year with perfect conditions. Grand kids would have some really hot burning fire wood that is also great for a smoker 50 years from now though lol. I tried planting them at first wanting to go the native route and quickly learned burs, saws, swo, chinkapins, and other hybrid varieties will get me there in my lifetime, the Blackjack and Post Oak will not. The bug is addictive trust me. I started off last yr and ended up growing 500+ trees. It's good fun though and I will plant trees until my body fails!
 
OkieKubota said:
Post oak and Blackjack acorns are both utilized by deer in our area. Crosstimbers area is mostly all post oak and blackjack and even other areas will have poor red and white oak production years and then post oaks and blackjacks shine. I know last year post oak acorns were of a great abundance around us and the deer were all over them. I did notice that we will have a post oak acorn crop on our place this year with spotty white oaks and lots of red oaks producing.

What is really odd on that 2 year projection for red oaks is we have some native Shumard oaks on the property that I work on and a few of these trees put acorns on heavily every single year. I had always heard it takes 2 years to make red oak acorns but that obviously is not true everywhere...
Click to expand...

Reds will drop every year, but the acorns are pollinated one year and then mature the next. Cycle just keeps repeating that way every year.
 
Last edited:
letemgrow said:
Reds will drop every year, but the acorns are pollinated one year and then mature the next. Cycle just keeps repeating that way every year.
Click to expand...
So you are saying the tree will drop acorns every single year because that is what I am saying? We have certain Shumards that produce and drop acorns every single year...
 
OkieKubota said:
So you are saying the tree will drop acorns every single year because that is what I am saying? We have certain Shumards that produce and drop acorns every single year...
Click to expand...

Yes they can drop every year depending on pollination, what drop one year was pollinated the previous year. Reds r doing both in the same year, pollinating next years and growing this years acorns.


Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum
 
letemgrow said:
Yes they can drop every year depending on pollination, what drop one year was pollinated the previous year. Reds r doing both in the same year, pollinating next years and growing this years acorns.


Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum
Click to expand...
We are on a different page... the acorns all drop off the tree this year...every single one. The tree grows all new acorns over the summer and then in the fall every single one drops again...

I had always heard in the past a single red oak tree can only drop acorns once every 2 years if conditions are right. These drop every single year, every single acorn...
 
OkieKubota said:
We are on a different page... the acorns all drop off the tree this year...every single one. The tree grows all new acorns over the summer and then in the fall every single one drops again...

I had always heard in the past a single red oak tree can only drop acorns once every 2 years if conditions are right. These drop every single year, every single acorn...
Click to expand...

7de990497a5cfe15db804a7f55f9ce34.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum
 
OkieKubota said:
I see what you are saying but I scour these trees for acorns after season and there aren't even acorn buds. They form, mature, drop in the same year from the same limb or so it seems...
Click to expand...

The acorns should be on the previous years twig or flush. If they are on this years then maybe you have something unusual.
 
OkieKubota said:
I see what you are saying but I scour these trees for acorns after season and there aren't even acorn buds. They form, mature, drop in the same year from the same limb or so it seems...
Click to expand...

I've tried to find the next years acorns and never been able to see anything either...yet the following year they still produce acorns.


Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum
 
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