How do I decide what to cut?

[firefighterjake]

Backwoods, Something is wrong with that tree!! It is a bumper crop of acorns here. You could roller skate on them. I take out the popular and sasafras trees first.

Same here . . . I have never seen so many acorns until this year . . . and I've seen it in other places as well . . . like you said they're so thick you can't step anywhere without stepping on at least one of them.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Let us not forget we are in a different area!

As for that one white oak, we have lived on this property for almost 40 years and I've never seen an acorn on that particular tree. Others, yes and some years it is difficult to walk in our driveway because it is like walking on marbles.

This year, the red oaks do indeed have a bumper crop. Not so for the white oaks. There were a few but very few. Let's also not forget it takes 2 years to form a red oak acorn but one year for the whites. We had a terribly dry year this year so it is no surprise with the lack of white oak acorns. The dry weather also forced the red oaks to begin dropping lots and lots and lots of acorns way back in July.

Naturally, the deer much prefer the white oak acorns so they are a bit out of luck this fall.


Here is one thing thought which has always puzzled me. They will leave the red oak acorns until last and then eat them sparringly (too much tannin). However, they do like the pin oak acorns. Why? A pin oak is in the red oak family.

 

[spur0701]

I remember reading somewhere (I think it was Guns, Germs, and Steel) that there have been a lot of attempts to domesticate different types of Oaks for acorn production that way corn and apples and other crops have been domesticated.......but when an Oak was found that produced sweet acorns (low tannin) and in large yeilds for some reaon (can't remember) efforts failed....my mother-in-law is Korean and makes a nuch of different stuff with acorn meal she buys from the international supermarket....and there's another Korean woman dwon the street that picks 'en up off her deck and make stuff out of 'em.......

 

[Bspring]

This post has been very helpfull to me also. I am in a simular situation. Most of my trees are 8 to 12 inches and consist of Virgina Pine, Sweet Gum, Yellow Poplar. Oak trees are starting to come up but they are still really small. Of my three main types of trees which should be cut first if I am just wanting to thin it out some for better growth. I have tried our forester but the one in my county reitred and I can not get the next closest one to return my calls.