Are acorns really abundant this year?

[Brian Elfert]

I'm in Minneapolis, MN. Are acorns really abundant this year? I'm sitting in my house and I keep hearing acorns hit the roof every 20 to 30 seconds. I never remember hearing so many falling acorns.

My driveway is just covered in acorns. It seems like in other years the animals would make off with most of the acorns, but they are mostly just sitting there this year.

[Kevin Bourque]

We had the same thing happen with our hickory trees last year. We were up to our butts in nuts.

[Michael Weber]

I find that there are more "nuts" around in every season

[Chris Damm]

Some years there are more acorns than others because acorns take between about 6 and 24 months to mature. Around here that is what some people say is a sign of a hard winter when the amount of acorns has nothing to do with the weather.

[Bob Rufener]

I live in SE Wisconsin. Because of crazy weather last year with a late freeze, blistering hot summer and severe drought, my oaks didn't have an acorn on them. None this year either. Don't know why as other years there was an abundance of them. I'd frequently see deer out on the lawn in mid day eating acorns. I went to a meeting last night and when I got home about 9:00, I found 4 deer laying on my front lawn showing up in my headlights. I drove into the garage and only one got up. All 4 appeared to be this years fawns as they were all small. I think I know what ate the leaves off of the green beans and beets in our garden...

[Dave Anderson NH]

We already have a heavy falling of acorns this year in southern NH. It's always an aggravation to rake them off the lawn so we don't slip or trip over them. We just took down a 70 foot red oak which had limbs hanging over the second floor roof. This means we won't have to listen to the acorns falling on the roof or the air conditioner any more.

[John Shuk]

I have noticed that they are markedly larger this year than usual. I don't even usually notice the acorns on my white oaks but this year they are flush with them.
Maybe the 17 year cicadas are responsible.

[Jason Roehl]

I've noticed a lot of fruit and nut bearing trees are producing plentiful amounts this year. I suspect it is due to the drought last year--they trees "know" they're in trouble, so they produce seed to reproduce. Several years ago, a tree-trimmer friend of mine stopped by and told me how to prune a crabapple tree in my front yard. I did what he suggested, and a couple months later it was loaded with tiny crabapples--which I had never seen on the tree, nor had my neighbor, who has lived here much longer than I. It was loaded again this year, without any pruning.

[Kevin Bourque]

My apple tree had been producing a bumper crop for the last 3 years, but not this year. The apples on the tree now are small and wormy. Same with my neighbors who have almost no apples at all on their trees.

[Larry Frank]

I have a lot of acorns this year but they seem to be small. The spring was good for the little fuzz like flowers that were on the tree and a lot of them became acorns. I have both pin oaks and red oaks. However, it has been very dry the last half of the summer and I think that is why mine are small.

A year ago in my area, we had a very warm spring with a late hard freeze and that prevented the flowers from becoming acorns. It is kind of like the apple crop a year ago when the late freeze killed 90% of the apple crop.

[Brian Elfert]

It seems like folks have confirmed there are a lot of acorns this year. My co-worker said he picked up six big trash cans full of acorns this past weekend.

[Myk Rian]

My apple tree had been producing a bumper crop for the last 3 years, but not this year. The apples on the tree now are small and wormy. Same with my neighbors who have almost no apples at all on their trees.

Same in this neighborhood.
Thousands of apples, but they're small, and not ripening. Next door neighbor had half the tree break off because of all the weight of the apples.

[Joe Tilson]

We have had in years past Pecans fall like rain on a windy evening. We may have this happen again this year, because they are crowding the culls off the pods. The ground is littered with waste nuts. Squirrels are very happy, happy, happy.

[Ryan Mooney]

I'd rather have the Pecans I think but no such luck here.

Acorns aren't that crazy this side of the mountains, a good crop but not ridiculous. The elm trees on the other hand went bonzai this spring and filled the gutters to overflowing. It was like an elm blizzard at our house.

[Jim Rimmer]

We had a bumper crop of acorns in South Texas last year.