Nut tree observations

[THunter]

After walking and looking over all the nut-producing trees I have grown and planted at The Farm, I have come to the following conclusion. I have planted every kind of oak tree I could get my hands on, because I like diversity. I have chinkapins, dwarf chinkapins, sauls, chestnut, white, water, willow, bur, scarlet, southern and northern reds, post, etc. However, for the purpose of feeding deer (and after all that's the main reason I do any of this) going forward I am only going to bother propagating and growing sawtooth oaks and chinese chestnuts. I can take either from seed to nut producer in 5 years and I don't want to wait 50 to see my bur oaks make acorns. Just an observation from 15 years experience.

 

[wbpdeer]

After walking and looking over all the nut-producing trees I have grown and planted at The Farm, I have come to the following conclusion. I have planted every kind of oak tree I could get my hands on, because I like diversity. I have chinkapins, dwarf chinkapins, sauls, chestnut, white, water, willow, bur, scarlet, southern and northern reds, post, etc. However, for the purpose of feeding deer (and after all that's the main reason I do any of this) going forward I am only going to bother propagating and growing sawtooth oaks and chinese chestnuts. I can take either from seed to nut producer in 5 years and I don't want to wait 50 to see my bur oaks make acorns. Just an observation from 15 years experience.

That is music to my ears because I have two Chinese Chestnuts loaded in a family members yard. I am going to put at least 36 to 50 in root maker express trays.
Now I need to get a line on some sawtooth oaks seeds. How many chestnuts I stick will depend on what other preferred seeds I can obtain.

Thanks for sharing your valuable experience. Have your dwarf chinkapins been productive?

Wayne

 

[THunter]

My DCO's are only 2 years old. Just a FYI, you will see in another thread that I sell sawtooth acorns for $0.10 each in the fall---they are from my trees that started producing at 5 years.

 

[wbpdeer]

Never dealt with acorns but will be starting this winter. Do you have to float test or put them in the fridge for cold winter effect?

To do the math, 25 would be $2.50 plus shipping. Is my logic accurate or do you have a prepackage size? When you plant the Sawtooth - is there a minimum you need to plant together to get good pollination?

Wayne

 

[Jordan Selsor]

I enjoy growing an planting trees very much but have often find myself wondering why am I planting oak trees especially when I am surrounded by God knows how many thousands of acres of hardwood timber:confused: I am new at identifying trees but have spotted many of the varieties often talked about on this forum already fully mature on my place. I agree with you on your management choice and here is why; I like sawtooth b/c they often are the first to drop creating a hunting advantage in my mind although I haven't experienced this yet; just my strategy. This fills a void when there is no other native hard mast in my area (that I know of). Chestnuts are also a big part of my management strategy. I don't know if they are as attractive as this current fad makes them out to be but I know that no one else in my area has em. So I want em. I sure hope they live up to the hype. I have a third leaf Dunstan that already has 5 burrs on it so we shall see!
Tommy have you had your Chinese chestnuts long enough to see if deer prefer them as much as they say???? Good topic too by the way. Thanks for sharing your first hand knowledge and experience! Hope others chime in.

 

[huntall]

I also like the idea of diversity .I planted a bunch of kinds of oaks. Planting some to produce down the road and some to produce in about 5 years just makes since to me.

Even if sawtooth produce early ...I like them(and some don't like them for that)
Good draw for just before season or first of bow season.
I have a big orchard style planting of young Sawtooth ,but only 5 Dunstan.
I only have a couple big sawtooths that are producing, so looking forward to a couple more years when hopefully I have more acorns hitting the ground!
My young sawtooth are 4yr down to 1 yr old.

 

[THunter]

Never dealt with acorns but will be starting this winter. Do you have to float test or put them in the fridge for cold winter effect?

To do the math, 25 would be $2.50 plus shipping. Is my logic accurate or do you have a prepackage size? When you plant the Sawtooth - is there a minimum you need to plant together to get good pollination?

Wayne

Your math is right. All mine are float tested prior to shipping, but it is VERY rare to get a sawtooth acorn that isn't viable. It is best to refrigerate 60 days or so. I started with just one back in 1998 and it has never failed to produce once reaching bearing age.

 

[THunter]

Tommy have you had your Chinese chestnuts long enough to see if deer prefer them as much as they say???? Good topic too by the way. Thanks for sharing your first hand knowledge and experience! Hope others chime in.

Yes and yes. I also have deer walk by every oak type I have--including white--to get to sawtooth acorns. Haven't figured that one out yet, but I watch 'em do it every year. Maybe they have filled up on whites and just want variety (heck, even I eat salmon at a steakhouse every now and then). The only thing I've seen them ignore acorns for until they are gone is chestnuts.

 

[bigeight]

Yes and yes. I also have deer walk by every oak type I have--including white--to get to sawtooth acorns. Haven't figured that one out yet, but I watch 'em do it every year. Maybe they have filled up on whites and just want variety (heck, even I eat salmon at a steakhouse every now and then). The only thing I've seen them ignore acorns for until they are gone is chestnuts.

Same here. Must be a smell thing? I've been doing a lot of acorn/chestnut plantings the last few years with this being my first try at the sawtooth.
When I have had rodent damage by squirrels/chipmunks it has been on the Chestnuts first every time. No mater how you hide the trees amongst the oaks with acorns attached, they will always go after the chestnuts first. This year they went after the chestnuts like norm, then got a bunch of the Sawtooth before a few different acorn varieties even though there were 10x more acorns available and easier to get of the other varieties. I assume they must be a good attraction for a deer property by that test alone.
Animals must just know. Even before taking a bite :)

 

[Jordan Selsor]

Bigeight how old are your chestnuts?

 

[bigeight]

Bigeight how old are your chestnuts?

I think my oldest Dunstans are 5 yrs old. Probably 13-14' tall. They had burs their 3rd leaf that did not get pollinated, 4th leaf the flowers got zapped by frost, and this year they've got a handful of burs again. Not sure if they are pollinated or not yet :) growing good and survived last year's brutal winter. These are on really poor sandy soil.
Hopefully I'll be planting soon into some better soils :)

 

[bigeight]

 

[SD51555]

After driving around our area this past weekend and cleaning up brush in our plot we realized that all of our white oak was logged off before the dude before us lost his land to the bank. I kept saying to my brother that there are white oaks everywhere around us, but not on our property. Mystery solved. That's why we keep finding oak tops around the trails to make firewood from. Never put two and two together. Just focused on cutting and hauling.

That's why I put in some Bur Oak this year. I hope to live long enough to see them come outta the tube (ok that may be a bit dramatic). I'm not even seeing the regen of any white oak on our property. If I did, I'd be wild tubing like mad, but they don't seem to do well when the bare spots get five feet tall with ferns and grass in the summer.

 

[buckvelvet]

I have lots of small white oak seedlings in my woods where I cleared some trees. I know they are whites are most of my mature trees are white's and like 1 out of 10 is a red. Though some of the leaves are a bit different, how do you differentiate between diff types of white oak trees?

 

[SD51555]

SD,

I'd be looking closer in the fall after the frost kills the green vegetation. The white oak leaves should still be on the trees. They have a unique purplish tinted color that stands out-at least here in NH they do. Easier to find. Mark them then with flags and tube and cage when you can.

Our property was logged the same way with no mature white oak remaining. I find a few new young ones here and there each year. I keep hoping to find one mature one but, haven't yet.

Thanks for the input. I'll definitely give it a shot. If I can find a couple dozen good ones, it'd make for a nice day project to tube and clear out around them. I could also give them a gly burndown around memorial day to help keep some sunlight on them.