How does the acorn crop look in your area ?

[prohunter]

Whats the acorn crop look like in your neck of the woods?
And if you had to pick a kind of tree what would you pick?
Or would you go with fruit trees . I wish i had more to choose from on my land ,all we have are white oaks,ceder,and pines .
I'd like to plant more hardwoods ,i just want to know witch kind to go with.
thanks for your lookin and your help
Jim

[duckunder]

what I have found in the past is, they like the fruit tree's in August and then switch over to the acorns about first part of September... But this year the acorns are dropping already, so not sure what they are hitting now.... I've been hearing the acorns are green though, and I'm not sure they like them as much then.....  Anyway, in my area, the deer prefer the white oaks way more than the Reds, I've also been told the Red oak acorns are much more bitter and that's why the deer don't like them....

 The biggest problem with trying to grow new oaks is, the deer nibble them off in the winter as fast as they are growing, atleast they do by me...

[prohunter]

Duckunder, do u think i should put cages around the sapplings ? here in tn the acorns are not falling yet. but you think white oaks are what i should go with.

[duckunder]

maybe someone else will chime in, but yes, they love the white oaks over the Red Oaks.... Like I said, something about the red acorns being more bitter.... I have never tried biting into one, but I have friends that have, and they said the Reds are really bitter..

As far as planting them with cages....  I have never planted any, but have seen other guys do it, and they use some sort of plastic tubing, kind of like drain tile tubing... I think they sell it somewhere for actually planting trees, but I don't know where exactly... So anyway, they put this tube around it and drive a wood stake in the ground next to it and tie it to the tube....

[duckunder]

I should also note.... you are from TN ?  well then you don't get the hard winters that we get here in WI, so maybe you would not need to protect the tree's as much...  We get a foot of snow on the ground, and it seems like the deer walk around and nibble all the tops off the young tree's...  Most of the tree's still live after this, but they start growing outward instead of growing up towards the sky... Makes for some ugly tree's... But like I said, maybe down south the deer would not bother with the tree's like they do up here...  Maybe someone from down south will chime in to help out ?

[bowboxer]

i am in campbell county tennessee and the red oaks are loaded,white oaks are not.the fruit trees fruit is the size of a golf ball.i have not look at the chesnut oaks.

[prohunter]

Hey there bowboxer, the fruit tree are doing bad here also ,peaches dried up on the bone just the pit is remaining. and the apples turned into bee food ,i wish i had more white oaks that were mature .What do you think about persimon trees .
jim

[bowboxer]

i have know idea, but i can check them out.i will get back.

[bowboxer]

the persimmion trees are not doing good in my area.the polk stalks are doing good, they are a great food source in november.

[bowboxer]

me and my best friend went into the mountains looking for deer sign today.found a white oak that was so loaded that the branchs was leaning over.it was the only oak that we found like that.it is the only white oak for about 1/2 of a mile