TIL a single oak tree can drop over 10,000 acorns in a mast year

I was reading through some old forestry studies last night looking up why my client's oak keeps making such a mess of their lawn. I mean I knew oaks had big years but I had no idea it could hit those numbers. Found this paper from a guy at Purdue who tracked one tree for like 15 years and some seasons it dropped almost nothing. Then boom one fall it was over 12,000 acorns. That explains why I spent six hours raking that one property in November. Makes me wonder if there's a way to predict the big mast years ahead of time so I can schedule clients better. Anyone else ever try to track acorn production cycles or do you just deal with it when it hits?

2 comments

2 Comments

miles27712d agoMost Upvoted

HOLD ON, wait, you're telling me ONE tree drops TWELVE THOUSAND acorns in a single season?!

the_riley12d ago

@miles277 are we sure about that number though? Like did someone actually sit there and count all twelve thousand acorns from one tree? I know oak trees are crazy productive but that seems wild even for them.