My neighbor’s Black Walnut had a mast year this year.

tj

Hammons purchases hand-harvested black walnuts throughout the midwest. Folks collect them and deliver them to local hulling stations where they are hulled and weighed.

Heres a link to Hammons’ crop report which suggests that overall its a pretty good harvest this year.

https://black-walnuts.com/2022/10/black-walnut-crop-update-october-17-2022/

I live in Plymouth, MI and had a zillion acorns this year. I am also noticing a lot of pinecones .

Irregular fruiting by trees cuts into population buildups of fruit pests

The one white walnut I have left had a pretty good fruiting year considering it is more than half dead from Butternut canker. I have lost many from this disease.

My casual observations this year mirror Ken's - walnut production seemed to be noticeably below average - in stark contrast to last year which IMO could have been an all-time high (last summer we had to clean up numerous walnut limbs that broke under the sheer weight of an excessive number of larger than average walnuts). Overall acorn production also seemed to be down this year. In my own yard, there were very few acorns on my red oak, and less than average on my Heritage oak and the wild pin oaks.

One obvious contributing factor was a much worse growing season this year than last year. This year, we had unusually cold weather at the end of April, then a very warm May, and every month from June through October we had above average temperatures with significantly lower than average rainfall (and very little rain in November so far as well).

Embo has it right, and also it can take alot of resources from some trees to produce a heavy crop of fruit.

i never considered the embo variable .. go figure on that ... its a plague avoidance system ... crikey

ken

Conclusion up here, most trees are in more of a 'mast year' than not.

My understanding of a mast year mostly relates to our native beeches. A mast year would see a much higher rate of viable seed and varies from season to season. The last mast year was 2020...although tbf, I haven't really checked out this years seed crop cos I wasn't planning on growing any. So yeah, a bit like biennial bearing (common to many pippin apples, especially Cox), we have fat years (mast year) and lean years. Is this what you guys mean as well.

I have never heard mast year pertaining to apples,

I suspect there are many variables which trigger (or inhibit) the production of seed, including pest and diseases, pollution, drought, floods, predation and so on. A complex interplay I only dimly understand.

If maples can be said to have a mast year, then the bigleaf maples in my area are certainly having one! Samara production was over the top this season and despite some recent heavy winds, big clusters are still very much present hanging from local trees. And all over the ground everywhere as well.

Hi presumed mast meant an abundance of seed production regardless of nut, pine cone, maple etc...but I never looked up the definitiono e n er

Omg houzz let me edit that post on my phone

Over 7 decades in North Central Texas the few Black Walnut trees we have always produced a large crop and this year was no exception. What I am tore down over is a huge Oak at mom's old home place not producing a single acorn that I can find this year nor last year. The tree is one of only two I've seen in NC Tx like it and I want to plant a few acorns in hope of getting a tree or two like it for my Grandson's place. All other Oaks have an average crop so squirrels are happy.

Our hunter is reporting NO acorns or apples this year here, driving deer into backyards. But nothing bulks up animals for winter like acorns.

Is there some sort of old farmer's wisdom about mast years and severity of winter?

i though a mast year usually followed a severe winter .. lets calll it a survival mechanism .... but again.. i havent looked up the physiology of such

ken

no crabapples either ... going to be a hungry winter for the larger birds.. especially the ones that like the fermented ones in early spring ...

at least they wont be flying into my windows ..

ken

the birds.. not the crabapples ...

I'm not sure about the crabapples being down this year, seems like most of the crabapple trees here seem to have a fairly normal crop (some varieties could be down a bit).

MSU Extension had a good article last fall on the heavy seed crop produced by oaks, walnuts, and other nut trees, as well as spruces and firs: Cones and acorns appear in copious quantities this fall [2021]

I don't know too much about mast year for Black Walnuts, since I only have Pecan trees and oak trees. We had a wet spring followed by a dry summer. WE had no pecan crop at all on both native and paper shell varieties. I'm in NE Texas. We had a nice acorn crop on both Shumard and Texas red oaks.

as i was pounding in my snow plow markers around the driveway... i also realized.. with the lack of acorns ... i havent seen many squirrels ... aka tree rats ...

mostly what i noticed was ONE SINGLE DUG HOLE.. to bury a nut ... in mast years.. squirrels can do a lot of damage trying to bury every nut on the face of the earth ... whihc is another reason not to divide too small too late int eh season.. for fear tree rats will dig up the babes planting nuts ...

i did see some pix of ridiculously fat squirrels in ann arbor.. why some random football broadcast would spend way to much time focusing on on-campus squirrels was beyond me ...

ken

Well, I have nothing to contribute really, but thanks to everyone for educating me on what a mast year is……I had never heard that term before. Would this term also apply to trees/ bushes that drop berries?

debra

Acorns are few this year, much less than normal. My husband was commenting on this the other day, and he mostly ignores the garden/yard. We are having more tree limbs and whole trees falling down. I suspect the alternating droughts and floods may play a role.

I hadn't paid attention, but now that you mention it, we haave very few acorns this fall. I should have noticed, since I have been raking copious tarps of leaves to create new garden beds for next spring. I can't say I've seen many acorns at all, and we have multiple ancient oaks. In fact, this past spring we had a plethora of acorn seedlings from the huge crop from a year ago. Our weather this summer has actually been pretty favorable for almost any plant growth. Good rainfall and decent warmth. Not much sweltering weather. I'm sure the cycle is multifactorial and varies from region to region. There is so much about nature we still have to learn about.

Martha

In fact, this past spring we had a plethora of acorn seedlings from the huge crop from a year ago.

==>> im pretty sure that would be normal ... all that energy spent.. needs to be restored before it can be done again. in tree time of course.. more than one season ... especially in ground freeze areas where the tree is pretty much totally dormant for 4 to 6 months ... might be different where roots never really go dormant.. i just dont know ... maybe someone can teach us up ....

i would think a plant cant harm itself by masting two years in a row.... it would be a sort of suicide ... and trees arent stupid .. lol .. maybe there are.. we dont know ...

ken

We live in a newly constructed neighborhood in Oregon where at least a hundred mature Quercus garryana (Oregon Oak) trees were cut down by the developer before building houses. This bummed me out, so last fall (2021) I took a walk through the closest remaining grove of Q. garryana and was delighted to find thousands of acorns. I collected and immediately planted a bunch of them in my new garden and they all germinated and grew. Good thing I did, because this fall (2022) there are no acorns at all...none. My tiny property can barely accommodate even one Q. garryana, so unfortunately, most of the seedlings will have to go...eventually.

Au contraire, @ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5- you know what can mast until the cows come home? Anything invasive or aggressive. I have a Siberian Elm that puts out roughly 1,000,000 viable seeds reliably every spring. Ugh.

I believe that's why they are called invasives. A single Chinese Tallow in a yard near me spread volunteers to every fence row and wood lot within 4 miles.