Gaswamp
Senior Member
post oak tree should be included
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Deer acorn hierarchy.
- Thread starter chrislibby88
- Start date
HughW2
Senior Member
White oak and Swamp Chestnut oak are definitely preferred over Water oak. My only problem is Water oaks out number the others by ten To one on my property. I have a couple of Water oaks that literally pave the ground underneath them with acorns each year and the acorns are left alone until about January when all other acorns have been consumed.
chrislibby88
Senior Member
I’ve got it at the bottom of the list in last place with other oaks that Ive never seen feed sign on, or heard of anyone successfully hunting. Where would you rank it?
mallardsx2
BANNED
Hogs like those chestnut acorns. Thats a fact.
Gaswamp
Senior Member
I would rank post oak pretty high
chrislibby88
Senior Member
Interesting. I’ve heard directly from some good deer hunters that they don’t pay them any attention. I also haven’t really seen the ones by my house produce enough acorns to draw anything in. Where would you rank them?
Gaswamp
Senior Member
right under true white oaK
Philbow
Senior Member
A lot of the time an individual tree will be the "hot one". I've seen a red/black oak, even water oak, hit heavily while white/chestnuts are ignored. Even when the deer are targeting a certain species there will be "hot" trees and others left alone. When bowhunting I want to be about 20 yards from the "hot" one.
Of course when the "good" acorns" are exhausted the "bad" (water oak) will be hot.
Of course when the "good" acorns" are exhausted the "bad" (water oak) will be hot.
chrislibby88
Senior Member
Interesting. They are in the white oak family.
chrislibby88
Senior Member
For sure. I don’t know what exactly makes a “sweet tree” so desirable, but I love finding them. I have seen more hot chestnut, white and water oaks than anything else though, by a long shot too, of course those also happen to be the most prevalent trees in many of my hunting areas aside from red oaks. Unfortunately the timing of my local WMA bonus hunts doesn’t lend well to hunting reds later in the season and I have yet to find a hot one when they first start dropping.
Bigbendgyrene
Senior Member
Live on my property of 112 acres outside Tallahassee so I get to really watch the deer acorn feeding habits closely.
My place is on old plantation land and my best guess is it has about 60 plus ancient live oaks. Blessed to have a couple of stands of swamp chestnut white oaks. Have some red oaks, lots of water oaks, and planted 50 or so sawtooths six years ago that saw about half of the trees producing well for the first time this year. I'm also weird enough to actually BITE each type of acorn to see what I think about their flavor -- bitterness vs sweetness.
Here's my take on them, pros and cons.
Swamp chestnut white oaks -- my favorite by far as deer will vacuum them up when available. Traffic is VERY heavy around trees when they're dropping. Taste is sweet and mild. Another plus is very large size of the acorns as takes just a few to make for a heavy hand-full. Biggest negative I've seen on my place is they only seem to drop heavily about every 3 years. When drop is heavy it's VERY heavy, but when light it's extremely light. Also will add if you have hogs in the area, it'll draw every dadgum one of them around for miles. We had a heavy drop last year and it led to me harvesting 78 hogs on my place.
Live oak -- they DEFINITELY attract deer and when I've tasted them I've found them to be relatively sweet and having somewhat of an additional floral taste I don't get with other acorns. I've read literature stating they're in the white oak family, other articles stating red oak, and some references stating neither. I just know they don't taste as astringent as red oaks and water oaks to me. The trickier part to hunting them, at least at my place is once huge they have such expansive canopy that they tend to be found in the open or grouped at a fair distance from other live oaks nearby them so the deer prefer to feed under them at night versus exposing themselves during the day. I've yet to kill deer under them but have killed less wary hogs more than once. They're definitely a very common night time destination at my place (verified night after night with an infrared monocular) so I actually tend to hunt honey hole food plots I have located between bedding areas and the live oaks during evening sits.
Sawtooth oaks - have some bitterness but also some sweetness and not as bitter as reds and water oaks. Deer do like them on my place and being an early dropper, they get them about as fast as they fall. Positives I really like about them are how fast they grow and produce. I've got some trees about 6" in diameter, 25 to 30' tall that produced acorns within six years of me starting them from pots as acorns.
I'm putting red oaks and water oaks together for my last vote BUT they DEFINITELY have their role too. They're far more bitter than the white oak acorns and live oak acorns, but in years where I've had the white oaks almost completely fail to drop any acorns the deer I've harvested have had stomachs full of water oak acorns and / or red oaks. I've watched them eat water oak and red oak acorns without delay during white oak failure years, but even when the white oaks produce heavily they'll just wait to hit the red oak acorns until after the white oaks are gone. Killed a nice buck in my food plot this year and about the ONLY thing he had in his belly was water oak acorns. So long story short, with enough acreage think having as wide a variety of oaks as positive can be a big plus, offering food / draw across as wide of timeline as positive AND giving insurance for when one species isn't as productive from year to year and another species can be loaded.
My place is on old plantation land and my best guess is it has about 60 plus ancient live oaks. Blessed to have a couple of stands of swamp chestnut white oaks. Have some red oaks, lots of water oaks, and planted 50 or so sawtooths six years ago that saw about half of the trees producing well for the first time this year. I'm also weird enough to actually BITE each type of acorn to see what I think about their flavor -- bitterness vs sweetness.
Here's my take on them, pros and cons.
Swamp chestnut white oaks -- my favorite by far as deer will vacuum them up when available. Traffic is VERY heavy around trees when they're dropping. Taste is sweet and mild. Another plus is very large size of the acorns as takes just a few to make for a heavy hand-full. Biggest negative I've seen on my place is they only seem to drop heavily about every 3 years. When drop is heavy it's VERY heavy, but when light it's extremely light. Also will add if you have hogs in the area, it'll draw every dadgum one of them around for miles. We had a heavy drop last year and it led to me harvesting 78 hogs on my place.
Live oak -- they DEFINITELY attract deer and when I've tasted them I've found them to be relatively sweet and having somewhat of an additional floral taste I don't get with other acorns. I've read literature stating they're in the white oak family, other articles stating red oak, and some references stating neither. I just know they don't taste as astringent as red oaks and water oaks to me. The trickier part to hunting them, at least at my place is once huge they have such expansive canopy that they tend to be found in the open or grouped at a fair distance from other live oaks nearby them so the deer prefer to feed under them at night versus exposing themselves during the day. I've yet to kill deer under them but have killed less wary hogs more than once. They're definitely a very common night time destination at my place (verified night after night with an infrared monocular) so I actually tend to hunt honey hole food plots I have located between bedding areas and the live oaks during evening sits.
Sawtooth oaks - have some bitterness but also some sweetness and not as bitter as reds and water oaks. Deer do like them on my place and being an early dropper, they get them about as fast as they fall. Positives I really like about them are how fast they grow and produce. I've got some trees about 6" in diameter, 25 to 30' tall that produced acorns within six years of me starting them from pots as acorns.
I'm putting red oaks and water oaks together for my last vote BUT they DEFINITELY have their role too. They're far more bitter than the white oak acorns and live oak acorns, but in years where I've had the white oaks almost completely fail to drop any acorns the deer I've harvested have had stomachs full of water oak acorns and / or red oaks. I've watched them eat water oak and red oak acorns without delay during white oak failure years, but even when the white oaks produce heavily they'll just wait to hit the red oak acorns until after the white oaks are gone. Killed a nice buck in my food plot this year and about the ONLY thing he had in his belly was water oak acorns. So long story short, with enough acreage think having as wide a variety of oaks as positive can be a big plus, offering food / draw across as wide of timeline as positive AND giving insurance for when one species isn't as productive from year to year and another species can be loaded.
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Bigbendgyrene
Senior Member
Semi-related note, back in 2016 when butchering the nicest buck I've killed on my place I noticed that its belly was full and after I removed it cut it open to find a number of perfectly WHOLE swamp chestnut white oak acorns in it.
Planted a couple of the acorns in pots, a year later transplanted them at the edge of two plots, and they've grown perfectly fine though slower than sawtooths.
May or may not live long enough to see them drop acorns, but still think it's neat to have them growing and hope years down the line someone else hunting them might know the story behind the trees. And even with acorns years in the future, deer are already regularly using the lower branches for licking/scraping spots.
Planted a couple of the acorns in pots, a year later transplanted them at the edge of two plots, and they've grown perfectly fine though slower than sawtooths.
May or may not live long enough to see them drop acorns, but still think it's neat to have them growing and hope years down the line someone else hunting them might know the story behind the trees. And even with acorns years in the future, deer are already regularly using the lower branches for licking/scraping spots.
Silver Britches
Official Sports Forum Birthday Thread Starter
Beautiful place, and fine buck! You have a nice buffet there for them.Semi-related note, back in 2016 when butchering the nicest buck I've killed on my place I noticed that its belly was full and after I removed it cut it open to find a number of perfectly WHOLE swamp chestnut white oak acorns in it.
Planted a couple of the acorns in pots, a year later transplanted them at the edge of two plots, and they've grown perfectly fine though slower than sawtooths.
May or may not live long enough to see them drop acorns, but still think it's neat to have them growing and hope years down the line someone else hunting them might know the story behind the trees. And even with acorns years in the future, deer are already regularly using the lower branches for licking/scraping spots.
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HermanMerman
Senior Member
I think the actual tree itself matters too. A spot I hunt regularly is full of white oak trees, but there is one specific tree that nearly every deer I see ends up feeding under. I saw it from the time they started dropping up until last weekend.
Speaking only of South central and Southwest Georgia, these deer prefer swamp chestnut acorns first. The most beneficial oak down here for everything is the water oak acorn. Even wood ducks and quail eat those little acorns and they usually have a very prolific crop every year.
I have a water oak behind my barn and the deer are under it every night when its dropping. Don't know why but they like that tree.
I have a fair number of large swamp chestnuts too, and I know they like those too.
I have some regular white oaks that have little tiny acorns by the house, deer eat them but may avoid it as much being close to the house.
I my self have bitten into a big white oak acorn, its much better than the little water oak acorns.
I agree with the above statement, the more variety the better.
I have a fair number of large swamp chestnuts too, and I know they like those too.
I have some regular white oaks that have little tiny acorns by the house, deer eat them but may avoid it as much being close to the house.
I my self have bitten into a big white oak acorn, its much better than the little water oak acorns.
I agree with the above statement, the more variety the better.
fireman32
"Useless Billy" Fire Chief.
I’d be interested in knowing if the red oaks taste different after they’ve been through a freeze. To my understanding the tannins change in them after they’ve been through a frost or freeze.
Bigbendgyrene
Senior Member
Cold water definitely leaches tannins out over time... have to laugh at one of the methods recommended at this link (though sure it works!).
https://backyardforager.com/cold-leaching-acorns-three-ways/
https://backyardforager.com/cold-leaching-acorns-three-ways/
Raylander
I’m Billy’s Useles Uncle.
Fed trees are feed trees. Some trees make better food than others. The normal ‘hierarchy’ is just that.. Normal. It’s a guideline..
All that said, I’ve seen critters walk right past white oaks to eat reds or MTN oaks..
Looks for divets in the leaves around the dripping oaks. Feed trees will be feed trees. Next year, 5 years from now, etc. some trees just make better food
All that said, I’ve seen critters walk right past white oaks to eat reds or MTN oaks..
Looks for divets in the leaves around the dripping oaks. Feed trees will be feed trees. Next year, 5 years from now, etc. some trees just make better food
Raylander
I’m Billy’s Useles Uncle.
Can’t say about tannin levels. But what I do know is that white oaks either sprout or rot really quick. Red oak akerns last until next spring before they sprout or rot. Reds are good feed through the next spring. That’s why you’ll see Turkeys eating them in March and April; bc they have neither rotted or sprouted..
FWIW I’m on the opposite end of the state from you. YMMV
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