What month do oaks and beeches produce nuts?

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Ognennyy
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What month do oaks and beeches produce nuts?

Unread postby Ognennyy » Mon Jun 04, 2018 2:08 pm

I was out in the woods today to prep a set near two mature, isolated beeches, located on a low deer density Adirondack NY ridge. I was pleasantly surprised to find three 20-30 year old red oaks nearby that I had never noticed before. I pulled out my binoculars and, laying on the ground, looked up for a while to see if I could see nuts growing on the beeches and oaks.

On the largest beech - probably 45 years old I would guess - I did see a few a few of those spiky brown little seed husks way up at the top. But strangely it looked like they all the husks were on branches that didn't have leafs on them. I know that beeches produce nuts every year so it got me to wondering; shouldn't beeches be producing nuts by now? If so, is the sparse number of husks that I saw and the fact that they were on leafs and branches that appear to have been abandoned by the tree, an indication that this tree will probably not produce many nuts this year?

I couldn't see any nuts at all on any of the red oaks. I remember last year all the red oaks outside my office building (granted 35 miles away from where I was prepping this stand, and 1700 feet lower in elevation) were dropping their nuts in late August. So I figured that means they should be at least growing and visible by now if they were going to grow at all this year. Is it reasonable to assume that they should be growing by now? I suppose it could be an off year for all three of those trees. Or they could still just not be mature yet.


Jdw
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Re: What month do oaks and beeches produce nuts?

Unread postby Jdw » Mon Jun 04, 2018 2:16 pm

I would suspect the hulls you saw were on dead branches that held on to the hulls when they died.
You will probably have an easier time looking for nuts in early August.
I have not had much luck seeing them this early.
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Ognennyy
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Re: What month do oaks and beeches produce nuts?

Unread postby Ognennyy » Tue Jun 05, 2018 11:32 pm

That's a little too late for my comfort. I don't want to go anywhere near my sets that close to the start of the season.

Good point though with the hulls on the dying branches, I never thought of that.

Surely the nuts must start forming before mid August since they start dropping 4 weeks after that. Up over the top of the ridge, on the other side about half a mile away there is a large stand of mature beech. I think what I'll do is throughout the early summer - as late as maybe mid July - just keep going back and looking at the trees near my set and those in the mature beech stand. I can also watch all the oaks at the office.

Basically all I want to see is what it looks like months ahead of time when a tree is about to have a bumper crop year, compared to the same or similar tree when it's about to have a normal mast year. I mean when they have bumper years I swear it sounds like it's raining when you go near the tree. The branches must be just laden with mast.
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brancher147
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Re: What month do oaks and beeches produce nuts?

Unread postby brancher147 » Wed Jun 06, 2018 12:24 am

As already said, the husks were old and on dead branches, probably due to beech bark disease. You should be able to see nuts on the trees in July or August. Red oaks take two years to mature, so if you had red oak acorns last year, you may not this year. But it depends on the tree, and many different variables. When I used to hunt ADK's beech nuts would fall before the bow opener mid September and acorns were a couple weeks later. But I was in Northern ADK's and didn't really have many oaks at all so did not monitor them very closely. But beech nuts will fall before acorns as a general rule.
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Ognennyy
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Re: What month do oaks and beeches produce nuts?

Unread postby Ognennyy » Wed Jun 06, 2018 3:21 am

brancher147 wrote:<snip>When I used to hunt ADK's beech nuts would fall before the bow opener mid September and acorns were a couple weeks later. But I was in Northern ADK's and didn't really have many oaks at all so did not monitor them very closely. But beech nuts will fall before acorns as a general rule.


They started in mid-September but do they not drop into October? I see a lot of activity around Adirondack beeches during October, even into November still sometimes. Are they just picking at what's left over, or do the beeches still drop into October?
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Re: What month do oaks and beeches produce nuts?

Unread postby jman22 » Wed Jun 06, 2018 3:34 am

I have a stand of beech on one of the properties I hunt. If the trees have a good nut producing year, they are almost always done dropping by Oct 1st, but some years there are still enough on the ground to get some deer coming to them into early October. I'm in CNY for reference.


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