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Now that you mention it, Kit, my oaks are dropping more acorns lately!

The acorn drop seems inconsistent around town. Some trees dropped a lot, and others not at all. The valley oaks in Libbey Park near the Bowl were heavily laden, as was the live oak near the USPS loading dock on Signal St. Other valley oaks nearby did not produce a single acorn, however.

The valley oak at my place produced lots of small acorns, and in fact many of the acorns I've seen this year were small. The live oak on the Aliso St. side of Offices at the Pew produced enough acorns to form a mulch beneath the tree, and everywhere I've hiked this Fall the live oaks have produced a bumper crop of smaller-than-usual acorns. (I wonder if acorn size fits into these predictions?)

I've been paying attention to the acorn/rain correlation for the past 10 years ever since it was pointed out to me by a local farmer, and have noticed that heavy acorn drop in Fall usually does equate to heavy rainfall during our ostensible rainy season. It's not scientific, but so far it has been a pretty accurate indicator. That said, I'm not willing to make any cash wagers.

Thanks for the comments...phalarope, I too noticed a lot of very small acorns earlier in the year, around October. I'm no expert, but I doubt they would be viable except maybe in ideal propagating conditions. More recently the acorns I've seen are normal-sized, but not especially numerous.

Kit,

We have a heavy set of Coast Live Oak acorns this year, and I’ve noticed the same pattern throughout much of the valley. But I’m not convinced it means we’ll have a wet winter.

I remember one fall when I was very young (a long time ago) – I was showing my Mom a full wheelbarrow of acorns we had gathered. After asking us what we intended to do with them, she mentioned that it looks like we’re in for a wet winter. I asked why, and she said that lots of acorns means we will have a rainy season, or so she had been told. In essence, the oaks are anticipating a wet winter.

I’ve been watching acorn crops in Ojai for over 40 years now, and to be honest, their correlation to wet winters is hit-and-miss. And as we found out last winter, an El Niño pattern (albeit weak) is no guarantee of a rainy winter, either.

As for our recent light rain, I’m not sure why the forecasters held onto their call for 3 inches of rain for so long. The models had clearly shifted the storm’s course such that we were outside of the decent PVA-zone (positive vorticity advection). But armchair quarterbacking (and forecasting) is easy, and predicting our winter rains is almost always tricky – there are so many variables for the models to handle. I think that’s why I haven’t given any public forecasts since grad school.

I’d like to think that acorn yields (or the Farmer’s Almanac) could be used to predict long-term weather, but I don’t think they do. All we can hope for is that the upper air patterns will change and set up a deep, wide trough off our coast, and then pump lots of moisture our way.

I’m frequently asked if I think the upcoming season will be wet, dry, hot, cold… All I can do is shrug my shoulders, and offer my best SWAG. Either that or I flip a coin.

Camille

Thanks Camille...your modesty in the face of the meteorological complexity assures me that you know exactly what you're talking about.

Thank you, Camille, for a most enlightening Post.

"I hope you will let us all know what the oaks have been doing in your neighborhood in the comments section below."

Hi Kit, I was just thinking, did you send your article and everyone's comments to Tom Bostrom and the Ojai Tree Committee? Would be good to know what they have observed.

Good idea, Suza...I'm off to a conference now, but will pick up on your suggestion next week. Thanks for the idea.

Where are the Oak Whisperers of Ojai when we need them? The two giant oaks that rule my back yard have been dropping acorns for the past two months in a mad dance to remind the new sky or what a proper sky is suppose to do....... Bags and bags and bags of acorns.....and the sky doesn't seem to listen........It just continues in its blueness and forgets to drop anything. Now, who is confused? Isn't it time that we have a Rain Dance?

Have you ever simmered shelled & halved valley oak acorns in a big pot on the stove? They smell really good.

My dog has been dodging acorns the entire fall ! Lots of acorns here.

There could be a number of things at play concerning the abundant acorn numbers. In the spring time when the oak blossoms are blooming it is possible that on some years inclemet weather prevents adequate pollination from insects. This last year we had no rain and none of the sage in the foothills was blooming so it is possible that the bees came to the oak trees since a tree can get deep water and it is not effected by lack of rainfall. In years when the springtime is rainy insects cannot get out to pollinate so on those years not very many acorns are produced. However I'm not sure wheather oak trees are wind pollinated or insect pollinated or maybe a combination of the two. The other thing is that honeybees are not native to North America, so what happened before 1600, before the Spanish brought honeybees to California? There are other native bees around but not in the numbers like honeybees. There is a bee that lives in the ground that I have observed but I have no idea if they visit the oak trees. It is possible they have been effected by the introduction of the argentine ants that were not here before. It is estimated that there is one giant argentent ant colony that streaches from Mexico to Canada.

Brian, thank you, that is so interesting! I don't know enough to comment but this makes me more observant and aware of bees...

Lots of acorns here!

Three blocks up from our new "mall", we have 4 live oaks and one valley oak. All are blanketing the ground so abundantly with acorns, that I feel we may be having a "mast" year.

Below is an exerpt from an article on mast years by Greg Prince, Collegian Staff Writer at Penn State.

"A mast year occurs when the number of nuts that trees produce in a given year is exponentially higher than the average, said Marc Abrams, professor of forest ecology and physiology.

'The trees produce a super abundance of nuts,' Abrams said. 'This swamps out predators ... and naturally ensures a crop of seedlings.'

Mast years occur every four to seven years, but their timing is still a mystery, Abrams said. Researchers are unsure if it is caused by trees' biological clocks or if it is a response to environmental cues, he said.

This massive seed formation generally seems to occur on a year prior to favorable growing conditions and when there is room for new growth, Henry Gerhold, professor of forest genetics said. However, some believe that there is a major tie-in with weather patterns, Gerhold said.

'If heavy seed crops happened every year, it would take a lot of energy,' he said.

'[Mast years] occur throughout the range of the species, which means not every tree will have a big seed crop, but over the geographic area, there will be an abundance of seeds,' Gerhold said."

this is all very interesting. i have been wondering about this topic for some time. my animals and i have been pelted by the acorns of our valley oak for months.
my mom said she read an article in the ny times that said the trees all over the country are dropping acorns, some in wet areas some in dry.

keep us posted..thanks for the topic

I walked the Oso Ridge Trail and Wills Canyon (Ventura River Preserve) today, and looked hard for acorns but did not see even one. There were no remnants of acorns under or near the trees, not even 2 inches down in the leaf litter. (The oaks in the higher river bottom were similarly barren.) I found one scrub oak near the top of Oso Ridge that had a few persistent acorn caps still clinging to its twigs, but they were dark and weathered and were probably last year's. I saw one gray squirrel in Wills Canyon, and heard neither the calls nor the pecking of any woodpeckers. I did not have time to walk Rice Canyon, but will check it out next week.

The Oak Tree we have is a Valley Oak.