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Acorns
- Thread starter TNTreeman
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My food plots are in horrible condition. I planted 22 September and have been praying for rain ever since. 0.61" total so far, which germinated most of the seed, but I doubt if the plants grow this fall. So I spent several hours scouting my Carroll County farm for food sources yesterday afternoon.
Our oaks have almost zero acorns this fall. I did find three white oak trees with acorns falling. All three trees now have stands nearby.
My chestnut trees produced more nuts than any other year. Almost every one of the chestnuts have been eaten.
My sawtooth trees produced a lot of acorns. Deer are hitting these two food sources heavily.
I also found several persimmon trees with a lot of fruit on them.
Our Hickory and Black Walnut trees produced a few very small nuts.
Even the squirrels will be stressed this winter. Is La Nina the cause of the 2022 drought? We received less than an inch of rain in May & September combined. I will be so happy to see this pattern end!
Our oaks have almost zero acorns this fall. I did find three white oak trees with acorns falling. All three trees now have stands nearby.
My chestnut trees produced more nuts than any other year. Almost every one of the chestnuts have been eaten.
My sawtooth trees produced a lot of acorns. Deer are hitting these two food sources heavily.
I also found several persimmon trees with a lot of fruit on them.
Our Hickory and Black Walnut trees produced a few very small nuts.
Even the squirrels will be stressed this winter. Is La Nina the cause of the 2022 drought? We received less than an inch of rain in May & September combined. I will be so happy to see this pattern end!
I planted a good sized corn field July 4. It did great. I like to hunt it starting in ML into rifle. I planted some wheat and oats a month ago that never materialized. My acorns are decent but I'm thinking they will hit my corn hard for lack of browse and no green fields for lack of rain. Mother Nature is a fickle mistress.
Hard to take a step in the woods in SE TN without crunching one or two.
None in Hickman county according to a buddy on our lease.
BSK
Well-Known Member
Yes, but not because of a single year La Nina, but a three-year repeat. Also remember that heat breeds drought and drought breeds heat. It's a feedback loop.
I walked half a mile spot checking known trees for acorns this afternoon, very few acorns on the ground. Sawtooth Oaks we planted already dropped, didn't find any chinquepins (don't ask me to spell it, I'm gonna start calling them Asian pins and yall can figure it out), one big white oak that is barely starting to drop. I ended up over a persimmon in some standing browse. We will see how it goes.
North Williamson County
North Williamson County
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RobDooley
Well-Known Member
BSK
Well-Known Member
None on my area Humphreys, but a client across the river in Benton County said they have some Mountain Chesnut and Swamp Chestnut producing on the bluff face nearest the lake, and down in the lake bottomlands.
Headhunter
Well-Known Member
My buddy hunts a place near Waverly, he said he had never seen that many acorns, he said he is having a hard time because of the bumper acorn crop.
TheLBLman
Well-Known Member
I remain hopeful there will be a bit of an "October Surprise" regarding the acorn crop in Stewart Co.
Can't tell you how many times I've thought there were very few, only to have more than imagined magically start falling in late October. In poor acorn years (and it is that in most my areas now), I love to just be in the woods on those late October days when the wind is a bit breezier today than it was yesterday ---- just listening for falling acorns, as sometimes this can be the best way to find a "hot" spot.
Windy afternoons are also a good opportunity to do a combination "still hunt - scouting", as the wind can camouflage both your movement and your sound. Many times when the wind begins increasing a bit in the afternoon, acorns may start raining down from an isolated tree off your regular beaten path, and bedded will just get up and run to it. This can be a fun & productive thing to be doing from mid-day to mid-afternoon, especially if you can carry & place a portable stand to hunt a newly found "hot spot" for late afternoon (and often again the next day).
Can't tell you how many times I've thought there were very few, only to have more than imagined magically start falling in late October. In poor acorn years (and it is that in most my areas now), I love to just be in the woods on those late October days when the wind is a bit breezier today than it was yesterday ---- just listening for falling acorns, as sometimes this can be the best way to find a "hot" spot.
Windy afternoons are also a good opportunity to do a combination "still hunt - scouting", as the wind can camouflage both your movement and your sound. Many times when the wind begins increasing a bit in the afternoon, acorns may start raining down from an isolated tree off your regular beaten path, and bedded will just get up and run to it. This can be a fun & productive thing to be doing from mid-day to mid-afternoon, especially if you can carry & place a portable stand to hunt a newly found "hot spot" for late afternoon (and often again the next day).
BSK
Well-Known Member
I plan on doing some serious ATV scouting next time I'm on my place, looking for an isolated tree here or there dropping acorns. Last year, the acorns didn't start raining out of the trees until the first week of MZ season.
TheLBLman
Well-Known Member
BSK
Well-Known Member
Great analogy!
RS
Well-Known Member
We just finished up having some more timber cut on our farm in Humphreys Co. I plan to walk around some Saturday and look at some of the tops to see what we have. With the severe drought we had this summer, I can't imagine finding much in the woods. Earlier, I did find a couple of scattered oaks in, and around the edges of my food plots that had acorns.
