WilcoKen
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This is me as well. Been dry since early June. The hurricane rain was sucked up in just a few days. Ground is very dry here. Pretty sure it will flood in Dec or Jan though.
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acorn drop timing
- Thread starter BSK
- Start date
Harold Money jr
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Here in Meigs county, they are apparently still on the Chestnut oak acorns. I put a "rut movement" cell cam out in a pinch point. The area has 1 white oak and several chestnut oaks. They should have been done with the chestnut acorns weeks ago but, they're hitting em hard and the white oak hasn't dropped much if any. Btw saw 3 big rubs, those are the first real rubs I've found. I've found over 10 scrapes do things are changing.
BSK
Well-Known Member
Is that White Oak carrying acorns?
Harold Money jr
Well-Known Member
BSK,
I honestly didn't have my glasses or more importantly no binocs so I didn't try to look. There are white oaks on the woods edge that are loaded here. I took a chance last evening to hunt a couple white oaks that deer usually prefer on my farm and there was no acorns in the trees or on the ground and there had been none. I'd grade the chestnut oak production as a C- mainly for much smaller than normal acorns. The white oaks are extremely spotty, some with a lot and others apparently none.
I honestly didn't have my glasses or more importantly no binocs so I didn't try to look. There are white oaks on the woods edge that are loaded here. I took a chance last evening to hunt a couple white oaks that deer usually prefer on my farm and there was no acorns in the trees or on the ground and there had been none. I'd grade the chestnut oak production as a C- mainly for much smaller than normal acorns. The white oaks are extremely spotty, some with a lot and others apparently none.
BSK
Well-Known Member
I'm just hoping there might be some Whites still hanging on to their acorns and they have yet to start falling.
Family has land north of you on Kentucky Lake. About five miles from Richland Creek. South of Tennessee Ridge. After you gave your acorn report I wasn't very hopefully for our crop. We have to have acorns. Well it was a bit better than I expected but pretty bad. I can't identify different oaks but one certain type of Oak was producing. Other than that it its looks to be a bad year.
BSK
Well-Known Member
If you get a chance, take a close-up picture of the acorns on the ground. I would be curious what specie they are.
MidTennFisher
Well-Known Member
Seeing the same thing in upstate SC. I was wondering if the hurricane had something to do with it. We got battered pretty good, lots of trees down. I thought maybe most of the acorns got blown off the trees from the storm then covered in leaf litter, also from the storm, and that's why I'm not seeing many. But even checking creek bottoms I'm not finding a single one. It's weird. Last year was a ridiculous acorn crop. So far nothing here.
I haven't been out to look, but I'm guessing we must have some acorns because there aren't any deer using my food plot. I got it in at perfect timing the day before the rains from the first hurricane, and then got 5" of slow rain/drizzle with Helene. My wheat is over a foot tall and my clover is struggling to keep up. Camera has shown a doe with her two fawns and that is it for the last three weeks. I'd like to mow it down, but no rain in the forecast makes me want to wait.
One of my friends killed a doe this morning that was coming to white oaks on our place in Henry county. Several deer hitting that small grove of trees, including a pretty good buck.
Our place was heavily timbered back in 2015, and what whites are left are dropping a few but not pouring like last year. Reds are steadily dropping as well
Our place was heavily timbered back in 2015, and what whites are left are dropping a few but not pouring like last year. Reds are steadily dropping as well
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Yellow acorns are probably dropping in some areas now. 
PickettSFHunter
Well-Known Member
This is what I've noticed….. under the mountain in my county- acorns are 95% rotten inside. On the mountain- pretty good crop.
Swampster
Well-Known Member
All my nut trees, oak, pecan, and hickory were very sparse this year. I wondered if those -17 degree temps had an impact? In my bottoms, even now the soil has some surface moisture where it is covered by leaves so I don't think it is the drought. What produced appears to have been eaten by the squirrels. Persimmons actually look fairly good though.
BSK
Well-Known Member
If deer aren't in your plots now, they are surely finding something else.
BSK
Well-Known Member
I don't think the height of the plants is what is keeping deer away. I think a more palatable food source is keeping them away.
Southern Sportsman
Well-Known Member
One of the main farms I hunt is in the river bottoms in Obion County. It has a lot of swamp chestnut oaks, and I can't find a mature tree that isn't loaded. In one area with a good cluster of trees, so many acorns have dropped that they are rolling across each other like marbles and piling up in low spots.
This pic was a few weeks ago. I was in there this weekend to check a camera and you cant stand anywhere for long without getting hit with falling acorns.
All-you-can-eat bonanza.
The only "down side," (first world problem may be a better term) is that there are so many acorns everywhere, the deer don't need to come to any particular spot to eat them.
This pic was a few weeks ago. I was in there this weekend to check a camera and you cant stand anywhere for long without getting hit with falling acorns.
All-you-can-eat bonanza.
The only "down side," (first world problem may be a better term) is that there are so many acorns everywhere, the deer don't need to come to any particular spot to eat them.
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BSK
Well-Known Member
My fear is the adjoining bottomlands have Swamp White and Swamp Chestnut Oak acorns on the ground. That will draw all the deer out of the hills (my place) and down into the bottoms, just like the severe drought year of 2022.
