Do you like oak trees? Do you want to promote them on your property, but just can’t find them? Here are some ways to find even the smallest ones so you can help them grow up and produce acorns in abundance.
Do you want acorns for deer and turkey? Or do you just like oak trees?
Acorns! (Image by Michael Kauer from Pixabay)
Whether you enjoy watching wildlife, hunting, or you just like oak trees, finding them can be hard, especially when they are small.
However, finding oaks becomes a lot easier when you know the timing related to leaf color change and loss for different deciduous tree species. I have talked with landowners that have hundreds of acres and only several dozen oaks (some of which are only 6 feet tall) and yet they know right where they are.
So, how can you find your oaks? It’s as simple as looking at the right time and knowing what you are looking for.
In this late October picture of a hillside, the deciduous trees with leaves on are the oaks. They stand out! That makes finding them easy.
Here are the keys:
Oaks tend to hold on to their leaves longer than most other tree species:
Look for trees with their leaves on in late October and early November.
Color:
Leaf shape:
You can tell if it is an oak tree by its leaf shape. Binoculars can help you see leaf shape high in the tree (Image by pasja1000 from Pixabay).
Here are some oaks clearly standing out across a small field area.
You can even find small oak seedlings on the ground, like the one below:
Here is a small purple-leaved red oak seedling. Flag it so you don’t lose it!
Now that you have found your oak trees, you will probably want to keep them healthy and growing. In an upcoming blog, I will show you how to do that. Then I will cover how to protect seedlings from deer so they can grow to be the acorn producers you want.