Acorn production and rain

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justin84
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Acorn production and rain

Unread postby justin84 » Tue Jul 25, 2017 3:51 am

I didn't find anything with a search and I'm curious, does the amount of spring/summer rain have an impact on acorn production?


Hatchetman
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Re: Acorn production and rain

Unread postby Hatchetman » Tue Jul 25, 2017 5:34 am

A couple years back,I read a thesis a college kid wrote on this very subject.
I thought his findings made sense.
As I remember it in a nutshell,

Acorn production is primarily driven by how dry the weather is through the roughly week long, pollination period in spring.
In my neck of the woods that's about the last week in April.
If it's rainy and damp for that week the pollen will not be carried well and acorns wont grow.

I was surprised at how rainy our spring was this year that we have any at all.
I see the red oaks by me have about 1/4 of what you'd see on a bumper crop year, so there is some.
Burr oaks I'm not sure on yet.
We don't have many highland whites around by me and the one we have never seem to have acorns.
JoeRE
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Re: Acorn production and rain

Unread postby JoeRE » Tue Jul 25, 2017 5:57 am

I think Hatchetman is correct on the pollination and wet weather.

Oaks bloomed here right when it went from wet weather to a stretch of dry weather, so we have a good crop of reds. Very few whites.

Oaks tend to produce more the year AFTER extreme weather. Particularly droughts. We had a bad drought in 2012 and in 2013 there were the most acorns in a decade at least.
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justin84
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Re: Acorn production and rain

Unread postby justin84 » Tue Jul 25, 2017 6:42 am

Interesting, thanks for sharing!
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Eddiegomes83
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Re: Acorn production and rain

Unread postby Eddiegomes83 » Tue Jul 25, 2017 8:24 am

Not sure if it is true or not but i usually look for oaks with the most pollen and check then later to see if they have acorns. They usually do but that may just be a coincidence. I noticed here in florida that not all oaks will produce. With that said the last 5 years has produced so much it is hard to get the deer oin a particular pattern cause food is everywhere
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Tjterry
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Re: Acorn production and rain

Unread postby Tjterry » Tue Jul 25, 2017 9:40 am

I really wish I knew more about this. Most of my spots live and die by the acorn crop. I need to do some reading.


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