What affect will hurricane have on acorns?

[charger295]

Well guys, I'm sitting up here in NE Louisiana watching the wind and rain...wondering about how this hurricane is going to affect the acorn crop this year.  I hunt about an hour south of my home toward central LA, and am sure a lot of the acorns have blown off the trees by now.  The area I hunt has some high spots and some hardwood bottms that are lower with creeks going through.  What are your thoughts on whether the acorns will be rotted by the late October opening date?  Also, I'm thinking this may increase the need to utilize feeders. 

[DeerCamp]

Well first off, I hope you and everyone there will be safe. 2nd Im not to sure if they will rot, we havent had any problems like this in Michigan.  Do you remember what it was like for the other hurricanes? Try talking to older hunters that remember. Like I said I havent been through a hurricane so I dont know what it will do to the acorns. Thats my best advice for ya. Good luck this season and stay safe down there.

[passin through]

Charger---- welcome to the board!  Good to see another LA hunter joining up.  I hunt/live in north Union Parish.  In answer to your question....who knows?  I think the drought we had through July is going to hurt us a bit more both on acorns and horns.  My trail camera pics are showing a slight but noticble difference in  horn length/mass by guesstimated age class vs last year when we had all that rain in july.  I don't know how plentiful the acorns will be but there seems to to be a good number of them...I just don't know if they make anywhere near the size they usually do .    Right now we still have lots of wind & rain but not as bad as last night....I'm gonna try to walk the woods a bit saturday in some areas where we still have oaks on our lease to see what the blow down looks like.  Knock on wood but when Katrina and Rita hit we had a great year buck wise...and they ate acorns through november and on.... whenever they could find em'

  I now one thing though, old Gustavo has messed up my Dove field unless I want to dove hunt wearing waders[:D]

[Panman1949]

Might try your DNR if they are not under water.  Hope things are not too bad down there.  Had 8 feet of water here last Aug. and that is no fun!  (Findlay, Ohio)  Good luck guys!! Panman

[charger295]

Hey passin through,
Good to know you're in the same area.  I had just moved back home to LA before Katrina after several years and didn't have a lot of time to scout, etc.  Hopefully, Gustav won't affect things any more than the others as you said.  I, too, want to get down to the lease and check some things out this weekend.  Take care and I hope you have a great season.

[danesdad]

I'll bet there will be more acorns on the ground earlier than if there was no hurricane.  I doubt they'd rot, I just think the deer will eat them earlier and faster, if you have a good population there.  Hope you are all safe and you hunting stand is above water come opening day.

[Sailfish]

I just read an article on acorns and the ones deer prefer. It all has to do with the tannic acid levels (deer prefer the less tannic ones).
But here is the list in order of most favorite to least (might help when deciding to set up our stands):
 
White oak
Water oak
Red oak
Black oak
Burr oak
 
and lastly, what we have loads of
Live oak.
 
 
 

[passin through]

Hey Charger--- I hit the woods hard this weekend and looking at the blown down limbs it looks like we are going to have a bumper crop of acorns this year.  I did not see any on the ground ---- looking at the limbs i think, up here at least, they weren't close enough to ready to really get blown off yet---- Maybe the drought in July stunted them?  Holding my breath to see what Ike is going to do in the gulf this weekend-----

[burnnurse1]

Well charger and PT I think we've dodged another bullet with Ike. Feel for those in south Texas though[:o]. The sad thing is we are just now getting into the peak hurricane season. PT I was glad to hear about what  your acorn crop looks like. Figure mine should look the same since you're right up the road. The storms, and refugees that got sent up to our hospital, have kept me out of the woods for the past week. Hope to make it out this weekend to start disking.

[charger295]

Hey passin through and burnnurse1,
I did get down to the lease last Saturday, and my worst fear was realized when I found my tripod stand laying on it's back.  Good news though, it's not torn to pieces.  There are small pine saplings behind it and it fell on top of those, so the top, cover, frame, tarp, and netting are all still in place.  Will be a task to get it upright again.
I'm glad to hear your news about the acorn crop not being far enough along so that a lot fell to the ground.  We may be okay after all...if as you said Ike passes us by this weekend.
Good luck this hunting season!