Sunday, July 27, 2025, 12:09AM | 
MENU
Advertisement

Why the oak trees are going nuts

Why the oak trees are going nuts

If an acorn falls in a forest, does it make a sound? Who cares? When it falls in the urban forest, however, it can drive you nuts.

Ask Karen Stewart, who has spent the fall crushing acorns with her car, slipping on them on her patio and generally feeling under siege from the seven old white oaks that tower above her Arlington, Va., rambler.

As if exacting some terrible revenge against humankind, the seven giants are raining nuts night and day on her roof, her skylights, her gutters, even on her dog, Cleo. Untold thousands have fallen in the past month.

Advertisement

"The first week it started, the dog barked every time an acorn hit the house, until she got used to it," said Ms. Stewart, whose husband, Doug, and two teenagers, James and Victoria, have yet to get used to it.

Outside, they get beaned by the acorns; inside, the nuts can be heard popping as they hit the roof.

"Last night, they woke me up six times," said Ms. Stewart, who has learned to discern the percussive nuances of the seeds. There's the metallic sound of a nut ricocheting off the gutters, the drumming on her low bedroom roof and the crack when one nut falls onto another and sends both shooting off, like pool balls. The family gathers them on weekends, including those loading up the gutters.

The Stewarts are not enduring this alone. This is one of those years when certain species of oak are producing a bumper crop across large geographic areas. Horticulturists call it masting and are seeing it in the mid-Atlantic in a group of closely related oaks, especially white oaks, chestnut oaks, swamp white oaks and post oaks.

Advertisement

"In the chestnut oaks, we are having a huge crop," said Joan Feely, curator of native plants at the National Arboretum.

Scientists generally believe that the phenomenon is a key survival strategy for oaks and that it may take several years for an oak to build up enough nutrient reserves to seed heavily. The irregular cycles thwart pests and predators by producing an occasional crop too large for them to consume.

Ms. Feely said that when her gardeners were trying to collect acorns to grow in a non-masting year, not one fallen nut was viable. Hundreds lay on the ground, and they had either been partially eaten by animals or infested with pests. Ms. Feely had to bring in a cherry picker to reach acorns still in the tree canopy.

Another theory is that the oaks may be seeding heavily because of prior stress from pests or drought, and masting is used as one factor in assessing a tree's health, said Eric Wiseman, a professor of urban forestry at Virginia Tech.

Mr. Wiseman said he has also seen masting in other types of trees this year in southwest Virginia, including hickory, walnut and beech.

Whatever the origins of the phenomenon, it is likely to lead to a fat and happy winter for all manner of foragers, including squirrels, chipmunks, deer, bears, turkeys, geese and crows. The windfall is good for critters but tough for folks enjoying their gardens in the fall.

"If you're sitting in the garden, all you hear is the thundering roar of acorns pummeling the car roofs, the fences and just about everything," said Ann McMurray, who lives with her husband, Chris, and their two children in the Jefferson Park neighborhood of Alexandria, Va.

In 20 years there, she said, "I think this is the most we have ever had."

In the Blue Ridge, staff and volunteers with the Virginia Department of Forestry have already picked up about six tons of acorns.

"We can get several hundred pounds in a day with three or four people," said Dwight Stallard, the department's nursery manager.

Their secret -- are you listening, Karen Stewart? -- is the Bag-A-Nut harvester. This is like a push mower, except it has a drum full of rubber stalks. The acorns lodge between the prongs and are fed into a nut catcher. The manufacturer, based in Jacksonville, Fla., sells four models for acorn gathering, including two that can be pulled behind a garden tractor. Prices range from $355 to $635.

The nuts are gathered so Mr. Stallard and his colleagues can make new oak trees at the department's nursery in Augusta County. Sown soon after collecting, they grow to healthy seedlings to sell to rural property owners who want to forest their land. Saplings from acorns harvested this fall will be sold in early 2008, Mr. Stallard said. Current prices are $250 for 1,000 seedlings. Shipping and backache pills are extra.

The backyard gardener with a need for trees can sow his or her own acorns, of course. Acorns from the white oak group germinate quickly and should be planted promptly. Peg 1-inch netting over the acorns for their first few weeks to thwart squirrels and crows. The holes should be large enough for the young stems to grow unimpeded. The nuts can be started in 4-inch pots (outdoors and similarly protected against foragers) but planted in their permanent locations by spring, before the root systems get too large.

Plant a white oak where its roots will not be disturbed and where its limbs will have space to stretch. Keep it away from houses, if you have a care for the inhabitants half a century hence. Even oak lovers need to sleep.

First Published: November 18, 2006, 5:00 a.m.

RELATED
Comments Disabled For This Story
Partners
Advertisement
A huge Canadian flag carried by a crowd in Montreal in 1995, before a referendum on Quecec’s independence. Dennis Jett suggests Pennsylvania do the same in reverse.
1
opinion
Dennis Jett: Pennsylvania should become part of Canada
There is a large covered porch at the front of the house at 115 Forest Hills Road in Forest Hills.
2
life
Buying Here: Forest Hills home in its own 'mini-forest' listed for $425,000
Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers throws a touchdown pass to DK Metcalf during Steelers Training Camp at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe on Friday, July 25, 2025.
3
sports
Steelers training camp observations: Aaron Rodgers, receivers bring 'wow' factor to Day 2
A woman charged under the name Shannon Nicole Womack is accused of using fake names, fake references and fake credentials at staffing agencies to secure nursing jobs across Pennsylvania and beyond. Pennsylvania State Police urged health care providers across the state to check their records and study the woman’s photo to help identify other facilities she might have duped.
4
news
Pittsburgh 'fake nurse' linked to 5 more Pennsylvania facilities
Several houses are shown along N. Dallas Avenue near Penn Avenue in Point Breeze with “For Sale” signs in the front yard, Friday, March 21, 2025.
5
business
A cooling market and patient buyers are causing many Pittsburgh home sellers to cut their prices
Advertisement
LATEST life
Advertisement
TOP
Email a Story