Bad year for acorns around here...

[roundball]

Went to a place I have to hunt to put up a ladder stand in a different location for November...(one just like Daniel used)...got it up OK, but for some reason it seemed easier a few years ago...LOL
Anyhow, on the edge of an Oak flat and I bet I didn't see 100 acorns.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Acorns and hickory nuts are doing well up here this year. And the apples are the most plentiful I have ever seen. Wild apple trees are bowed over with fruit. I've never seen the like. Old scrub trees that might have a dozen in years past have hundreds.

The deer are looser that geese!

 

[Spikebuck]

The acorn crop here is tremendous. Last year it was extremely dry from late winter through fall and acorns were almost non-existent...deer were demolishing food plots really early. This year, hardly touching them yet.

Here's a product that will make putting those ladder stands up and down a lot easier by yourself. https://treestandup.com/viewit.php
No idea why the composite are more than the steel. They only had steel a couple years ago when I bought mine and they work great.

Hopefully your ladder stands also have the long straps or ropes that are pre-attached at platform and you can cross behind the tree and tie off tight to hold it in place until you get the main ratchet straps secured.

 

[roundball]

The acorn crop

Just a side note, from everything I've read, acorn crop cycles are not like most routine crops...ie: some species don't produce the same annually...and most crops are actually pre-ordained by weather the year or two before, not the actual same year a crop may or may not be good.

Hopefully your ladder stands also have the long straps or ropes that are pre-attached at platform and you can cross behind the tree and tie off tight to hold it in place until you get the main ratchet straps secured.

If you look close, you'll see them...I replaced the ones that came with it, with larger diameter, stronger ropes.
I'm very conscious about safety...for example, the top structure is strapped on solid with 3 ratchet straps and a locked steel cable...the only way the stand is coming down unexpectedly is if the tree comes down, LOL

 

[Vaino]

Have been hunting squirrels for 70 yrs and never figured out the reasons for the greatly varying acorn crop. I know some oaks produce acorns every other year but don't know how the weather affects acorn production.

Also hunted deer in the same woods as when squirrel hunting and w/o acorns, don't see any deer.

White oaks produce the favorite acorn of deer....they're sweet and even palatable to humans. But unlike the various red oak species, they're very scarce. The red oaks' acorns are very bitter and induce puckering when tasted, especially so w/ scrub oak.

Here in the North, acorns are a late winter/early spring survival food for deer....before the grasses and plants sprout. Acorns are also a high protein food to fatten up the deer for the coming winter.......Fred

 

[Patocazador]

No acorns around here (Central Fla.) this year. We usually have them raining down but not in 2013.

 

[Blackbruin]

Here in northcentral pa we have had apples like you describe stumpkiller, so many I knocked alot off of the trees early because it was dangerously close to snapping the branches up high! As far as acorns, no whites this year, very very little. The black oaks down in the guts have some, lots of deer,turkey,bear sign in those guts. Nothing on top of the ridges, a tiny bit here and there on the lower shelves. As long as those spots i scouted are still producing, will be good hot spots, leaves less options for feeding. Big woods deer, farm ground very far away. Have early doe only muzzleloader her come october 19th, gonna have to have my .54 bark at them big ground squirrels!

 

[vthunter52]

Here in the Champlain valley, the acorns crop is moderate, more on the white oaks than the reds. The apple and choke cherry are really heavy, and already are being gobbled up. The hickory nuts, in contrast to the acorn crop is out of bounds, already collected 3 bushels for consumption and plenty left for the game

 

[wattlebuster]

We have a bumper crop this yr. Sounds like its raining in the woods now :thumbsup:

 

[wvbuckbuster]

Our nut crop is spotty. Couple of areas I hunt have large numbers of Hickory and Beech with very few White Oak but no Red Oak. Two friends have found large amout of all the above in their areas. Riding the rails along the New River I haven't seen any acrons but could be highter up off the river. We had scattered late frost this spring that could've added to the problem. Dan.

 

[bpd303]

Same here in NW Arkansas. The acorns are usually the size of grapes, but this year they are as big as golf balls and the ground is covered with them. Even the squirrels who usually raid our bird feeder are ignoring it now, too busy gathering acorns.

 

[Spikebuck]

but don't know how the weather affects acorn production.

My understanding from foresters is that there are two weather-related incidences that greatly affect an acorn crop (assuming its a year the trees would be scheduled to produce).

1) Late spring freezes will affect oaks in low lying areas and reduce acorn production.

2) Summer drought will affect oaks in high areas and reduce acorn production.

So, if you have had a late spring freeze and no drought...look for acorn crops on ridges. If spring was normal and you had summer drought...look for acorn crops in low areas near water. If both occurred, you're screwed!

 

[Spikebuck]

[the only way the stand is coming down unexpectedly is if the tree comes down, LOL

Don't LOL too soon! I had a ladder stand in a big healthy pine for years. Checked it out mid-summer and either a small tornado or a high velocity straight line wind went through and took down about 20 pines in that group...including the one with my stand in it, which was taken out by the roots! :shocked2: Glad I wasn't sitting in it when that happened. The good news was, since the tree was so big and didn't snap in half like several of it's family, the stand was completely intact and undamaged...just unstrapped it and carried it away!

 

[Hoyt]

Acorns are kinda scarce where I'm hunting. I've found one spot..a white oak and red oak bench where they are really coming down..and the deer are pouring in there..or were.

I've been hunting it with my recurve and pretty much got them run out now. Had 5 bucks under my tree one afternoon and was surrounded by at least 20 or so bucks, does, yearlings another morning when a bobcat came trotting through and ran them all off. Two other morning the deer came in from downwind and smelled me.

Only ran across one other place where the acorns are falling good and will hunt it next.

 

[VEARL]

Haven't seen an acorn in years around here. Last crop of them was 4 yrs ago.
I do plant a food plot and use feeders to help feed the deer on the hunting land. Seems like we have neighboring deer herds coming to feed on our plots and at the feeders.
Think I just might limit out with 6 deer this year.

 

[cynthialee]

When the groves and wild trees in an area all produce bountiful harvests out of the blue it is a sure sign of a brutal winter coming up.
There are bountiful harvests from trees being reported everywhere.
This is the gods providing warning and resource for the coming harsh winter.

Put in an extra few cords of wood and increase the pantry in case there are some snowed in days this go around.

 

[bpd303]

Excellent advice...if the moisture we have received so far indicates anything, the snow is going to get deep this winter.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Excellent advice...if the moisture we have received so far indicates anything, the snow is going to get deep this winter.

You may now leave Arkansas for suggesting that. :shocked2: :wink:

 

[Cowboy2]

I've seen exactly one in Osceola County so far. Seems odd given the two mild winters in a row, and coming off a moderately wet summer.

 

[Moose Guide]

I saw my first grizzly bears of the fall this morning, our huckle berry crop is so thick, the bears ignored our small salmon run. Our only wild nuts are hazel nuts.