| Ryan H |
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Reply with quote | #13 |
I was just responding to Michelle's question about bee pollination. While the decline in honeybee populations is a major concern, I wouldn't tie the lack of acorns this year to that. Bee's may feed on the pollen from oak flowers and help pollination, but oaks rely mainly on wind for pollination. This can be seen from the oak flowers, the flowers are not particularly showy, and the male catkins hang down so the wind will catch the pollen spreading it to the female flowers. Trees that rely on pollination by bees, like apples, cherries, etc. usually have showy flowers to attract the bees.
In Minnesota we had some acorns this year, but it didn't really seem like a whole lot compared to some years. I couldn't find any swamp white oak acorns this year, and last year I collected quite a few from fairly young trees.
I can't tell you why there were no acorns in your region(s) this year. I just know that the scientific literature says that oaks have good seed years with light crops or no crops in some years. So one year without acorns isn't a cause for concern. If you start to see irregularities over several years then there might be something more to it. It is a good question though, why some years have no acorns. How are the trees cued into each other that all the trees in local region may have a bumper crop or next to nothing? Is it weather related? I don't have an answer for that. It is interesting to watch the phenology from year to year. Last year we were in a drought in central Minnesota and a lot of the oaks near me aborted some of their acorns early before they were fully ripe. |
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| JudyG |
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Reply with quote | #14 |
I am delighted to have found this discussion. I am visiting my brother in Manchester, Connecticut and every year he comments on having to deal with literally collecting barrels of acorns from a large old oak tree that overhangs sidewalks thus making walking dangerously slippery. This year, NO acorns at all. He is mystified. It has not been a dry summer nor does he recall a spring frost, so we wonder, why no acorns? Is this a phenomena others are seeing as well?
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| G Hamlett |
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Reply with quote | #15 |
Here is Southern Virginia, we have a good crop of "acorns". I was enterening a church last week to attend a funeral and the lawn was covered with acorns almost like a carpet. My neighbor across the street from me has several oaks and acorns are everywhere. Must be related to the weather. |
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| MenzRoom |
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Reply with quote | #16 |
We have limited or no acorns in our area also, AS EXPECTED. We were hit with a major (50 year record) April 2007 freeze here in the southern part of Missouri (as was a lot of the mid-west and other areas in the eastern half of the US). In our area, we did not have any apples or peaches in 2007. A lot of other fruit and nut trees lost all blooms in 2007 and did not produce. My brother-in-law, a horticulturist and co-owner of a fruit orchard, mentioned to me in 2007 that OAK TREES are one of few trees that set the fruit or nut buds a year in advance. He said that we would have acorns in 2007, but not in 2008 since the buds in 2007 for 2008 would have been destroyed by the record April 2007 freeze. He was right! MenzRoom |
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| Patricia Phillips |
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Reply with quote | #17 |
Lincoln, Nebraska..NO acorns . My Oak is about 50 yrs old and has always reproduced. Looked around town and in the parks. NO acorns. Has freaked me out. Our spring was cold, but have never not seen ZERO acorns. Remember to feed your squirrels !! Looks like it is all over the country. Cold weather snaps here and there, too much or too little rainfall cant explain NO acorns anywhere. Nov 30, 2008
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| Katrina |
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Reply with quote | #18 |
There are no acorns on the east coast from New York to Georgia and as far west as Kansas and Missouri. Although there are some patches throughout with acorns, most counties are reporting NONE. It cannot possibly be related to weather since it was so different for each state this past spring.
Personally, I think it is the same thing that is causing colony collapse disorder in bee hives. There is a lot of bad info out there blaming it on mites, viruses, etc., but the real truth is that scientists still have no clue as to why the colonies are collapsing.
I think we need to look to the skies. Our air is so unbelievably polluted with all types of noxious chemicals. It eventually works its way into the water and soil. We are killing the planet. Bottom line.
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| Judy |
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Reply with quote | #19 |
This is one of the few forums that doesn't seem to have been overrun by disinformation agents yet. All of the people claiming to have acorns are lying. There are no acorns anywhere. Every single forum on this topic has assorted comments about an abundance of acorns in one place or another, but if you pay attention and go to many different sites, you'll find that almost every single claim has an opposite claim from the same area stating that there are no acorns there. I've read comments from virtually every part of the country, except maybe California, that have said they had no acorns. I read one comment from Germany saying there were no acorns there. This is the first time I've read that there are none in Great Britain.
Someone always tries to bring in some crap about the "mast" years and cycles of blah blah blah, which is completely irrelevant to the topic. We aren't talking about one tree, or a stand of trees, and whether it's a mast year or not, we're talking about 10s of thousands of oaks of 20 different species extending over thousands of miles dropping NO ACORNS AT ALL. GET REAL.
It really is something horrendous and undoubtedly horrible. This is the big one. You are a witness to it yourself. Don't believe the liars.
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| Kim |
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Reply with quote | #20 |
My California Live Oak has no acorns this year either. Very unusual. We usually have the yard covered with acorns. I have a very healthy bee hive doing well in the same vicinity so its not due to lack of pollination and we rarely have anything close to freezing here in Southern California. There are lots of oaks in our area and I will be scouting for acorns!
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| treeboy |
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Reply with quote | #21 |
Here in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan the oak trees had an average crop of acorns... At least all the mature Bur Oaks did, the dominant oak here. One Scarlet oak I know of had the most abundant crop on it I have ever seen.
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| Eman |
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Reply with quote | #22 |
Here in Wilmington Delaware we have no acorns from any kind of Oak. At my home I have setup feeders for the squirrels and I am reaching out to the state park management to see if they are going to be supplementing the missing crop of acorns with anything to help sustain the critters areound here.
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| Jim Kohut |
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Reply with quote | #23 |
This discussion, for all of its many merits, confounds my sense of better judgment a little.
There are numerous reasons why various trees set heavier fruit yields in some years than others, but few of these reasons are nefarious in their origins. I don't suspect any government conspiracy, I can't lay the blame on global warming with any credibility, and I'm not aware of an embargo by the North American squirrel population. I believe that no ill omens are portended by this mystery, and that armageddon is not nigh because the nation's oak trees no longer produce acorns.
Sorry to sound facetious, but individual plants go through phases of productive years followed by unproductive ones. And I wouldn't be surprised if there was some climatic influence that's hampering overall acorn production across North America as a statistical whole - but not with any permanent consequence. Plus, I have to suspect that it's only the people who are NOT finding acorns on their trees that are posting their concerns to this forum and not those who are buried under copious quantities of acorns to their hearts' satisfaction.
I have faith - the acorns shall return and triumph once again!
Jim K.
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