Acorns

[BuckSutherland]

Got back from the hunting land yesterday in N MN. I have a massive crop of red oak acorns dropping. The deer are obliterating them every day, all day long. Acorns are very large this year too. I would guess there will be plenty of them laying around all the way until next spring with the amount that I have seen. This is year 3 without food plots for me, and right now I have several nice bucks that leave the property to feed in the alfalfa across the road at night and then they come back into mine during the day (exactly what I want). All I have left for "food plot" is a little bit of clover, and that is going completely untouched right now. I put a cam under one of the few big oaks I have left and the bucks seem to run the does and fawns off and hoard the acorns for themselves.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I have noticed overly large acorns this year as well. i had a few smack me in the head, and it hurt!

 

[BuckSutherland]

I have one decent 8pt for my area that runs the does/fawns off almost every morning and evening while he gets his acorn fix. He must grab a few mouthfuls on the way to the field in the evening and then a few more in the morning on his way back to bedding. I set this camera up 40 feet from the neighbors lawn and 30 feet from the center of the gravel road. I wanted a non-invasive camera that I could grab on my way to the stand. Its right along my path on the way to my stands. The biggest trees still look fully loaded with acorns.

 

[bwoods11]

Great acorn crop in MN this year!

 

[Hoytvectrix]

Got back from the hunting land yesterday in N MN. I have a massive crop of red oak acorns dropping. The deer are obliterating them every day, all day long. Acorns are very large this year too. I would guess there will be plenty of them laying around all the way until next spring with the amount that I have seen. This is year 3 without food plots for me, and right now I have several nice bucks that leave the property to feed in the alfalfa across the road at night and then they come back into mine during the day (exactly what I want). All I have left for "food plot" is a little bit of clover, and that is going completely untouched right now. I put a cam under one of the few big oaks I have left and the bucks seem to run the does and fawns off and hoard the acorns for themselves.

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I live in the Twin Cities but have property in Missouri. It seems like this year MN has way more white oak acorns than in previous years. Down in Missouri, we have almost zero acorns on our white oaks, but the red oaks are absolutely loaded.

 

[H20fwler]

Very thin crop here with the late freeze in May and the lack of rain through summer.

 

[Mortenson]

Thin crop here too. Then sadly we lost a few giants in the derecho storm last month. Possibly many, haven't been around the woods much yet.

 

[BuckSutherland]

Thin crop here too. Then sadly we lost a few giants in the derecho storm last month. Possibly many, haven't been around the woods much yet.

That just sucks when you lose the biggest ones in the woods. We have lost several the last few years. I wonder what made them so good up here this year? We had early spring, then pretty dry compared to the last few years all the way to August in many parts of the state and LOTS of heat. I think the news said we had 17 days over 90 degrees around Murderapolis. It seemed hotter than hell and many days you could bale hay all summer. More like it used to be 30 years ago.

 

[tullybonnie11]

I went and checked some source trees a half hour from my house today. Does anyone have advice as to when I can comfortably pick them off of the tree and not have picked them prematurely? The acorns look like they are sized appropriately but have not been dropping from the tree yet from what I see on the ground. I picked some English and Bur/English hybrid acorns last year on Columbus Day but missed my chance on other source trees. I'm thinking it's probably a couple of weeks away. The main trees in question are straight bur oaks. Will they be viable if I pick them a couple of weeks before they drop?

 

[White Oak]

I have a Sawtooth oak I noticed dropping yesterday in the driveway. Zone 7 Virginia

 

[BuckSutherland]

Some of the road oaks on my land are still holding a few. Lots of empty caps hanging on up there yet, but a fair amount of acorns too.