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Index of Subjects There was a pretty good crop of acorns in the southwest this year. I was relieved, as they had also produced a good crop last year, and of course, they do not produce big crops of acorns every year. It's typical to have large acorn crops only at 3-4 year intervals. Otherwise, the poor trees would be "working for the squirrels" with little benefit for the trees on the reproductive front. Why was I relieved? Well the beech nut crop last year was also impressive. Between the bounty of acorns and beech nuts, the wildlife had a feast. It was incredible. As one may have expected there were a number of reports this spring-summer of bears with 3 cubs, likely owing to the good fall food supply. With the demise of apple crops, blueberries, etc this year, owing to the late spring freeze, I wondered how the wildlife would find sufficient food. So much of the forest has been clearcut as well, leaving less food and shelter. (Yes, clearcuts provide some food but the natural vegetation of NS would typically provide more wild foods from intact, standing, diverse forests, especially from older age classes. After all, a beech tree doesn't get around to producing many beech nuts until @ 60-80 years of age. These days we are clearcutting 35-50 year old stands, so the food source is removed.) Perhaps, however, your oak tree took more of a freeze than tees located further to the southwest, and so did not produce acorns. It would be interesting to link acorn crops or absence of acorns to locations hit hardest by last spring's freeze. Donna On 2018-11-07 5:48 PM, Judy Tufts wrote: > Are there others noticing a dearth of Red Oak acorns this fall? Just about > all our Red Oaks have dropped their leaves due to strong winds and rain, > especially in the last week, earlier than usual, but where are the acorns... > > > Last year we had a bumper crop. Would the sharp freeze we had in early June > have had an impact on the oaks developing their fruit? Sadly I remember > many trees in our backyard dropping branch 'tips' shortly after the early > June freeze, and not just oaks. Maples and poplars took quite a beating too. > > > > A friend mentioned her English or White Oaks have produced an abundance of > acorns this year. Maybe location and variety of oak trees have played a > part in supply of acorns? > > > > Cheers, > > > > Judy Tufts > > > > > > > > > > Judy Tufts > > Wolfville > > <<<<<<<< > > > > > --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus
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