# rookie white oak questions



## 4nolz (Aug 11, 2012)

I finally have access to a hunting property with white oaks-the only I have ever seen in Florida.These are white oaks not swamp chestnuts.

A couple questions
1.Do they make an acorn every year
2.How early can I see them on the nut bearing trees (can I see them now)
3.When do they drop (in north florida south georgia)-will they be dropping in early bow season?

any free advice? Thanks in advance!


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## Apex Predator (Aug 11, 2012)

A little north of you Mike, but mine only drop every second or third year.  The swamp chestnuts drop during (mid-late Sept) bow season well, with the other white oaks towards the end of bow season (early Oct).  It varies by property location and rainfall though.  Everything else is 2-3 weeks early this year, so hopefully acorns will be too!


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## Skyjacker (Aug 11, 2012)

In Camden County they drop in late October early November.


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## 4nolz (Aug 11, 2012)

Can you see them now? I looked for a short while today and didnt see any


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## robert carter (Aug 11, 2012)

You can see them now. I checked some at Fort Stewart Thursday that were loaded. Up here they drop mid to late October. At Stewart they drop a a few weeks earlier.
  I`ve never seen a white oak drop two years in a row. RC


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## Bowyer29 (Aug 11, 2012)

The white oak in my yard and one in the middle of Roswell drop every year. To bad I cannot hunt either place


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## Chris Horsman (Aug 12, 2012)

As I understand it they drop every other year and yes you should be able to see them by now. 
But, yeah there`s always one, do you get male and female oaks and do only the females produce acorns?


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## Rare Breed (Aug 12, 2012)

Find the one acorn tree they are feeding on and you will have a gold mine! You'll know it when you see it, the leaves will all be disturbed and you will find multiple piles of deer droppings. Hunt the down wind side. Don't stop looking till you find the one there eating.


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## gtfisherman (Aug 12, 2012)

Last year with the heavy winds we had they were down early. But we had a HEAVY crop. 

I look for them to drop naturally by first of Oct or at least start the process before gun season comes in. But even now squirrels are knocking them down up here.


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## Nastytater (Aug 12, 2012)

My yard is loaded with white oaks.  They drop here also every year. But,the years that we have a drought are the years they produce the most. I've always herd that the trees on the top of a ridge,will be the first to start dropping. I haven't really took that line for truth cause i've never really had time to watch so closely. But, then again. I am further up in Georgia and far away from florida.


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## dm/wolfskin (Aug 13, 2012)

"Flowering and Fruiting- White oak flowers in the spring at about the same time leaves appear. The time may vary from late March to late May depending upon latitude. It is monoecious; flowers of both sexes are present on the same tree. The yellowish staminate flowers appear first and are home in 5- to 8-cm (2- to 3-in) catkins. The reddish pistillate flowers appear 5 to 10 days later either singly or in pairs on short stalks. Female flowers that are not fertilized abscise during the development period. High abscission rates are common and may be related to weather conditions during the period of pollination, ovule development, and fertilization (44). Ripe anthers open and close with changes in relative humidity. Normally, pollen dissemination is completed within 3 days but periods of wet weather delay pollen shedding. Dry winds and freezing weather are also detrimental to flower development and pollen shedding (28). Acorn crops are good in years when the weather is warm for 10 days during flowering and then cool for 13 to 20 days afterward. The acorn crop has been poor in years when cool periods preceded warm periods at the time of flowering (36).

Acorn maturity is reached approximately 120 days after pollination. Acorn drop follows 25 days later and is complete within a month. Physiological maturity, as indicated by normal germination, is reached when acorns change color from green to light brown (4). Acorns germinate almost immediately after falling to the ground in September or October.

Seed Production and Dissemination- White oak can produce seeds prolifically, but good acorn crops are irregular and occur only every 4 to 10 years. Sometimes several years may pass without a crop. Acorn yields range from 0 to 500,000 acorns per hectare (202,000/acre) (7,22,28). This great variation in acorn production exists not only among isolated stands of oaks but also among individual trees within stands and from year to year.

Trees normally bear seeds between the ages of 50 and 200 years, sometimes older; however, opengrown trees may produce seeds as early as 20 years. Individual white oak trees tend to have either very good or very poor seed crops and are noticeably consistent in seed production from year to year (20,28,36,40). A recent study (13) showed that white oak flower production varies not only annually but also among trees within a given year and that much of the variation in acorn production can be related to flower abundance at the time of pollination. More than 23,000 acorns were produced during a good seed year by an individual white oak tree growing in Virginia; it was 69 years old, 63.5 cm (25 in) in d.b.h., and 21 in (69 ft) tall, and had a crown area of 145 m² (1,560 ft²) . Average production in good years for individual forest-grown trees, however, is probably no more than 10,000 acorns.

Several studies have shown that only a small portion of the total mature acorn crop (sometimes only 18 percent) is sound and fully developed; the remainder is damaged or destroyed by animals and insects (15,28,40). However, some damaged acorns germinate if the embryo is not damaged. Light acorn crops are often completely destroyed by animals and insects, so seedlings are produced only during heavy crop years.

Seeds are disseminated by rodents (chiefly squirrels and mice), gravity, and wind. The area seeded by individual trees is small and therefore widespread reproduction depends on adequate distribution of seedbearing trees."


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## dm/wolfskin (Aug 13, 2012)

Acorn Germination
Authored By: H. M. Rauscher, R. Rogers

Acorns of oaks belonging to the white oak group develop, mature, drop, and germinate in the same growing season.  On the other hand acorns from the red oak groups require two years from flower formation to maturity.  Red oak acorns fall to the ground in the fall, overwinter, and then germinate in the spring. 

Acorn production is generally highly erratic from year to year, and losses due to insects, birds, and mammals can be very high. Once acorns are on the ground, deterioration can be quite rapid, usually due to desiccation but also to excessive heat or cold. Sound, undamaged acorns have a germinative capacity between 75 and 95 percent (USDA 1974). But for germination to occur, the moisture content of acorns must not drop below 30 to 50 percent for white oaks and 20 to 30 percent for red oaks (Korstian 1927). Those acorns not covered by litter or soil are very susceptible to drying. Therefore, a fairly good percentage of those acorns which mature and escape predation probably fail to produce seedlings. (Beck 1993). Also, on bottomland sites flood waters can wash a site virtually clean of acorns. In any event, it is extremely rare for acorns to survive past the first growing season after dispersal (Hodges and Gardiner, 1993).

Despite these losses, acorn production over time generally provides sufficient acorns so that germination per se is seldom a limiting factor for seedling establishment on most sites. Burial by rodents and birds and coverage by sediment and debris help assure favorable conditions for acorn germination (Darley-Hill and Johnson 1981, Crow 1988, Deen and Hodges 1990). On upland and bottomland sites containing mature oaks, it is not uncommon to find 12,000 or more new germinants per hectare beneath an existing stand, even in deep shade (Hodges unpublished, Carvell and Tryon 1961, Beck and Hooper 1986, Merritt and Pope 1991). However, on mesic upland and floodplain sites, few of these seedlings will survive to the second growing season (Hodges and Gardiner, 1993). Beck and Hooper (1986) documented an oak regeneration failure that occurred even though more than 5,000 oak seedlings per acre were present at the time of overstory removal (Lorimer 1993).


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## sawtooth (Aug 16, 2012)

DAng! good job Mike------ are there any more Questions concerning the White oak????


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