NFT: BBI Arborists: Those F@#%ing Acorns

lots of acorns means a cold, snowy winter.

.

Well that would be true for last year then.

Are leaves falling earlier this year than others?

though I have a few more oak trees then that. I've lived in the same house for 15+ years. In 2 or 3 of those years I've gotten so many acorns I rake them in piles and scoop them up with a grain shovel. I can fill huge trash cans with them except then they weigh to much to easily move around.

I know this sounds like a joke but it's not. It's kind of crazy.

and there is a huge oak tree right outside the front window...I've never seen so many acorns!

They are bouncing off the vehicles, they bounce off my head when I go out front, and they cover the walkway/paving stones even though I sweep them constantly.

Oh, and don't get me started on the freakin' squirrels!

[quote}So what does trigger a mast year? Scientists have proposed a range of explanations—from environmental triggers to chemical signaling to pollen availability—but our understanding is hazy and the fact is that we simply don’t know yet.

Boom and bust cycles of acorn production do have an evolutionary benefit for oak trees through “predator satiation.” The idea goes like this: in a mast year, predators (chipmunks, squirrels, turkeys, blue jays, deer, bear, etc.) can’t eat all the acorns, leaving some nuts for growing into future oak trees. Years of lean acorn production keep predator populations low, so there are fewer animals to eat all the seeds in a mast year. Ultimately, a higher proportion of nuts overall escape the jaws of hungry animals.

Whatever the reasons and mechanisms behind acorn cycles, mast years do have ecological consequences for years to come. More acorns, for example, may mean more deer and mice. Unhappily, more deer and mice may mean more ticks and, possibly, more incidences of Lyme disease.

Many animals depend upon the highly-nutritious acorn for survival. Oak trees, meanwhile, depend upon boom and bust cycles, and a few uneaten acorns, for theirs.[/quote]


acorns! - ( New Window )

the spring conditions, and effect on flowering/ pollinating conditions. summer growing conditions obviously will affect whether fruits/nuts flourish, but you gotta get the bun in the oven before it can bake. some trees are more sensitive than others to short term weather cycles.

Pro Life, you can't respond here? :)

on his lawn. For the last 30 autumns that tree has put leaves on my lawn 6-8 weeks after all the other trees have lost their leaves. Some day I'm gonna take a bucket of gasoline and set fire to that tree. So don't expect any sympathy from me about your stupid acorns. ;-)

for the launcher...

(hope the link works... I'm playin around on an asus transformer tablet...)

NO animals were hurt during this experiment... (calm down U U you people!!)

http://www.downvids.net/squirrel-launcher--557535.html

Cut & Copy this if I still dont get it right below...

The Passenger Pigeon used to roost en masse in selected groves of trees. Those flocks could be in the hundreds of millions, even billions, of birds. The trees adapted with seasons of "mast fruit," when they'd put out a bunch of extra nuts to attract the pigeons.

When pigeons roosted in an area, they'd leave droppings as much as a foot thick on the ground. Gross? Sure. But great fertilizer for the trees.

So while the pigeons are extinct, mast fruit lives on.

The walnuts from our tree are big enough to dent your car and thick enough on the ground that it's like walking on roller skates. Nearly broke my ankles three times last Fall.

...that has been blasting me with acorns since I moved here 10 years ago. basically buries my lawn under a layer of acorns.

I read that if you soak them or boil them for long enough, the tannins come out so that they are edible for humans, or alternatively you can use them for your smoker.

they love acorns.

How do I get sap off my cars? I have these large evergreen trees and they drop pine cones and tree sap all the fuck over. What is a dude to do?

some years my backyard is like walking on marbles with all the acorns and then other years there are practically none.

the worst thing for me is the squirrels, they dig up the grass collecting the acorns.

There is a term for abundant years, they're called "mast" years and no one really knows why it fluctuates from year to year (at least that I've heard of)