These latest frost's

[buckaroo]

You think it is enough to kill this years acorns?

 

[BSK]

Generally it takes an actual freeze (temperature 6 feet off the ground below 32 degrees) that lasts several hours to kill the oak blooms. A frost can occur at the ground's surface even when head-high air temperate is 35 or 36 degrees.

 

[buckaroo]

Thanks BSK.

 

[ROUGH COUNTRY HUNTER]

I think this weather has been normal.i don't think it will hurt anything

 

[woodsman87]

I think we are fine. I don't know where yall were, but It was just patchy at my place anyways. Creek bottoms was frosty and my truck was frosty.

I believe in April of 2007 or 2008, we had two or three consectutive nights if mid to upper 20s. All the trees were already about full green, and after those nights the tree leaves turned black, very strange looking. That was the only year that I remember not having a good acorn crop on my hunting spots.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

I think we will be okay. It did get down to 27 here for a short time but I dont think it persisted long enough. Im more versed on apple blooms though.

 

[Football Hunter]

I think we are fine. I don't know where yall were, but It was just patchy at my place anyways. Creek bottoms was frosty and my truck was frosty.

I believe in April of 2007 or 2008, we had two or three consectutive nights if mid to upper 20s. All the trees were already about full green, and after those nights the tree leaves turned black, very strange looking. That was the only year that I remember not having a good acorn crop on my hunting spots.

I remember the leaves turning black

 

[BSK]

I believe in April of 2007 or 2008, we had two or three consectutive nights if mid to upper 20s. All the trees were already about full green, and after those nights the tree leaves turned black, very strange looking. That was the only year that I remember not having a good acorn crop on my hunting spots.

It was the EHD year, 2007. It was a "Perfect Storm" of terrible conditions. First, we had an early spring, and trees were far advanced in leafing out and blooming. Then we had temps drop into the teens. The cold weather not only killed the oak blooms it killed most of the leaves, requiring the trees to put on a second set (and stressed some trees to the point of no return, killing them). Then we had the hottest August on record and one of the worst droughts on record from mid-July through most of October. And of course, the EHD outbreak (probably caused or at least greatly worsened by the drought).

The fawns from that summer have shown a tendency to underperform all their lives.

 

[BSK]

I think we will be okay. It did get down to 27 here for a short time but I dont think it persisted long enough. Im more versed on apple blooms though.

Those temps would worry me. But we have had a late spring, and I bet trees on the Plateau were not as advanced in blooming as they normally are at this time of year.

 

[timberjack86]

I think we are fine. I don't know where yall were, but It was just patchy at my place anyways. Creek bottoms was frosty and my truck was frosty.

I believe in April of 2007 or 2008, we had two or three consectutive nights if mid to upper 20s. All the trees were already about full green, and after those nights the tree leaves turned black, very strange looking. That was the only year that I remember not having a good acorn crop on my hunting spots.

I remember the leaves turning black

Yep I remember asking my dad if he had ever seen it before and he said no. He is 71.

 

[BSK]

That was the only year that I remember not having a good acorn crop on my hunting spots.

That's amazing woodsman87. Acorn production is far more spotty on my property. In fact, over the last 26 years, I have rated acorn production as "extremely poor" in 30% of years (3 out of every 10 years). "Moderate" or better acorn production only makes up 62% of years.

 

[Crosshairy]

I have a small hunting spot in Hardeman County like that - the acorn production is generally very resilient. I've always hypothesized that it was due to a variety of oak species at different age structures and different soil conditions that helped separate batches of trees to "step up" to the task of acorn production when others fell off.

In other words, some particular trees might not perform, but the 80-acre property in general virtually always had good acorn production on it somewhere. It just made picking a great spot in the hardwoods a new task every year.

Temperatures have been milder here around Memphis, so I don't anticipate any issues with crop/bloom damage based on what I've seen so far.

 

[farmin68]

That was the only year that I remember not having a good acorn crop on my hunting spots.

That's amazing woodsman87. Acorn production is far more spotty on my property. In fact, over the last 26 years, I have rated acorn production as "extremely poor" in 30% of years (3 out of every 10 years). "Moderate" or better acorn production only makes up 62% of years.

BSK, during those 26 years, how many have you rated good, very good, or excellent?

 

[woodsman87]

That was the only year that I remember not having a good acorn crop on my hunting spots.

That's amazing woodsman87. Acorn production is far more spotty on my property. In fact, over the last 26 years, I have rated acorn production as "extremely poor" in 30% of years (3 out of every 10 years). "Moderate" or better acorn production only makes up 62% of years.

I don't take notes of it at all like you do, so I know it has to vary some every year. I have noticed that some times these trees over here don't have acorns, while a ridge over does have acorns. These past two falls, 2012 and 2011 both had lots of acorns on all trees. Seemed like before that it was random and spotty. It probably varies more than I think.

But that fall of 2007 was the only year that I remember having zero acorns in my place in Giles, Lincoln, and North Alabama spots.

 

[BSK]

That was the only year that I remember not having a good acorn crop on my hunting spots.

That's amazing woodsman87. Acorn production is far more spotty on my property. In fact, over the last 26 years, I have rated acorn production as "extremely poor" in 30% of years (3 out of every 10 years). "Moderate" or better acorn production only makes up 62% of years.

BSK, during those 26 years, how many have you rated good, very good, or excellent?

farmin68,

I use a numeric scale from 0 to 10 for rating each fall season's acorn crop. This numeric scale is not necessarily "percent of trees producing," or an exact measure of the number of acorns produced per tree, but more a system of evaluating how many acorns are available across an entire property. A rating of zero means virtually no acorns are present. A rating of 10 means the maximum number of acorns possible were produced. (an overabundance of acorns everywhere on the property).

Here are the "Acorn Index" ratings for my property over the last 26 years. Interestingly, the same rating system used on other properties, even in the same county, do not match. Acorn production--even across very short geographic distances--can be highly variable:



I would break these numbers down by the categories of:

0-2: very poor (8 of 26 years)
3-4: poor (2 of 26 years)
5: moderate (2 of 26 years)
6-7: good (5 of 26 years)
8-10 very good (8 of 26 years)

That would mean 10 of 26 years (38%) have experienced poor to very poor acorn production, while 13 of 26 years (50%) have experienced good to very good acorn production.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

Another frost advisory for us tonight.

 

[BSK]

Personally, I'm worried about something I'm seeing in the long-range forecasts for next Thursday and Friday. Could be very bad (freeze for much of the Southeast). I hope the computer forecast models are exaggerating the low temps.

 

[woodsman87]

Personally, I'm worried about something I'm seeing in the long-range forecasts for next Thursday and Friday. Could be very bad (freeze for much of the Southeast). I hope the computer forecast models are exaggerating the low temps.

I hope they are wrong too. For the acorns sake and my garden, and pretty much everything else.

Would you rather have a poor acorn crop, a good acorn crop, or just an average acorn crop. I understand that deer are easier to kill with fewer acorns, but I am more concerned about the overall health of the deer heard and turkey population. I always want good acorn crops, even if it makes my hunting tougher.

I hear people complain every fall about "too many acorns, they aint hittin the food plots and are hard to pinpoint." I understand their thinking, but I consider myself not only a hunter, but a wildlife conservationist and I would rather my deer and turkeys have enough to eat and be harder to hunt than them not have anything to eat and suffer throught it.

 

[BSK]

I prefer a moderate acorn crop--enough acorns for wildlife to feed on, but not acorns everywhere. I prefer good acorn production to be scattered in different areas, producing more predictable feeding locations that require some movement. Bumper acorn crops are great for the wildlife but terrible for hunting. Nothing worse than deer having plenty of food over every square foot of ground, especially in thick cover (they never need to come out during daylight).

Because of the way my personal property is oriented (primarily in a large block of hardwoods, but surrounded within a mile in all directions of big agriculture), bumper acorn crops produce the highest hunting season buck populations (the big acorn crops draw deer out of the bottomland ag fields), but the poorest hunting results (little daylight movement by bucks). Poor acorn crops produce the lowest buck populations (deer stay in the ag fields) but the highest sighting and harvest rates (deer have to move greater distances to find food).

 

[woodsman87]

I prefer a moderate acorn crop--enough acorns for wildlife to feed on, but not acorns everywhere. I prefer good acorn production to be scattered in different areas, producing more predictable feeding locations that require some movement. Bumper acorn crops are great for the wildlife but terrible for hunting. Nothing worse than deer having plenty of food over every square foot of ground, especially in thick cover (they never need to come out during daylight).

Because of the way my personal property is oriented (primarily in a large block of hardwoods, but surrounded within a mile in all directions of big agriculture), bumper acorn crops produce the highest hunting season buck populations (the big acorn crops draw deer out of the bottomland ag fields), but the poorest hunting results (little daylight movement by bucks). Poor acorn crops produce the lowest buck populations (deer stay in the ag fields) but the highest sighting and harvest rates (deer have to move greater distances to find food).

Yes I prefer a moderate acorn crop too. I like for them to have acorns to eat because it is high in energy and good for them, but I also want to see them in my food plots and fields that I have planted for them. I like to be able to pinpoint what white/red oaks they are feeding under the most during the early fall so I can hunt them or the funnels on the way to them. This year for me was very tough, all trees had acorns and it was hard to kill a deer. I have honestly still seen (on last saturday) red oak acorns that appear to be eadible, not rotten or germinated. The white oaks have been long gone.

 

[Football Hunter]

Personally, I'm worried about something I'm seeing in the long-range forecasts for next Thursday and Friday. Could be very bad (freeze for much of the Southeast). I hope the computer forecast models are exaggerating the low temps.

I sure hope that is wrong!

 

[Football Hunter]

TWC is showing mid 40s for lows next week thru sat,hope they are right.

 

[BSK]

I have honestly still seen (on last saturday) red oak acorns that appear to be eadible, not rotten or germinated. The white oaks have been long gone.

Just wait. Those red oak acorns probably will germinate (if squirrels get around to burying them). That is what is so great about a good red oak acorn crop. Red oak acorns do not germinate until mid to late spring, hence are attractive and available to deer through the winter. White oak acorns on the other hand, although highly attractive and nutritious to deer in October and November, usually go to root or rot by early December, removing them as a food source before winter.

 

[BSK]

TWC is showing mid 40s for lows next week thru sat,hope they are right.

The model runs that look so bad just came out this morning. The huge southward dip in the jet stream forecast in this morning's model run was not forecast in previous runs. I hope this morning's run was just an anomaly.

 

[Boone 58]

Generally it takes an actual freeze (temperature 6 feet off the ground below 32 degrees) that lasts several hours to kill the oak blooms. A frost can occur at the ground's surface even when head-high air temperate is 35 or 36 degrees.

Our light frosts of sat morn were very mild .......here in Lawrence county......dont think we suffered any damage whatsoever. Just a light coat across roof tops, i had none on the windshields of the cars. Time will tell but as of today i believe we are in good shape in southern tn.

 

[Bone Collector]

Personally, I'm worried about something I'm seeing in the long-range forecasts for next Thursday and Friday. Could be very bad (freeze for much of the Southeast). I hope the computer forecast models are exaggerating the low temps.

I sure hope that is wrong!

Accuweather is still showing 38 as an over night low on Friday May 3rd and 40 on May 2nd. I don't think that will effect the acorns, but I have been waiting to put my garden in, and It looks like I will continue to wait.....

 

[jmb4wd]

Im ready to get some corn in the ground! Hope we get away from these freezing temps, and frost!

 

[Football Hunter]

Personally, I'm worried about something I'm seeing in the long-range forecasts for next Thursday and Friday. Could be very bad (freeze for much of the Southeast). I hope the computer forecast models are exaggerating the low temps.

I sure hope that is wrong!

Accuweather is still showing 38 as an over night low on Friday May 3rd and 40 on May 2nd. I don't think that will effect the acorns, but I have been waiting to put my garden in, and It looks like I will continue to wait.....

sounds good

 

[Bone Collector]

Now they have changed it to 49 Friday night and 48 Saturday night. I hope that holds. I would like to get my garden in and not have to worry about it.

 

[BSK]

Yup, weather late this week doesn't look as bad as the earlier forecasts made it out to be. That's a good thing.