The Best Oak Trees for Abundant Edible Acorns
For those interested in utilizing acorns as a food source, not all oak trees are created equal. The tastiest, most productive acorns come from specific oak species in the white oak group. Avoid using acorns from red and black oaks, as they contain bitter tannins and even toxins that require extensive processing to make edible. Focus your foraging efforts on these prime acorn-producing oak trees.
White Oaks
The white oak group contains species with the sweetest, most palatable acorns requiring minimal processing. At the top of the list is the American white oak (Quercus alba), valued for its large acorn size and mild flavor. Also excellent are chestnut oak (Quercus montana), swamp white oak (Quercus bicolor), bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa), and chinkapin oak (Quercus muehlenbergii), all producing sweet, nutty acorns. For abundant crops on a smaller tree, look for dwarf chinkapin oak.
Gather white oak acorns in early autumn when they are brown with just a tinge of green. Float test them to eliminate any with holes or worms. Briefly cold-stratify quality acorns before sprouting or eating. Most white oak acorns can then be leached in water for a day or two to remove remaining tannins and made into flour. Exceptional trees may produce acorns so low in tannins they can be eaten straight off the tree. Seek out these prime specimens.
Avoid Red and Black Oaks
Skip red oaks like pin oak (Quercus palustris), red oak (Quercus rubra) and black oak (Quercus velutina), whose acorns have much higher tannin levels requiring extensive leaching. This makes them far less suitable and efficient as a food crop. Moreover, black oak acorns contain phenols toxic to humans before leaching. Consuming them without proper preparation can cause digestive distress. It is safest for beginners to avoid red and black oak acorns altogether.
Look for Mature Trees
Focus your foraging efforts on mature oak trees at least 20-50 years old. Younger trees will not produce large acorn quantities. Seek out trees with an abundance of acorns within easy reach. Scout trees in summer before the autumn harvest to locate prime candidates. Look for trees with minimal pest, disease, or growth issues. Healthy, robust trees yield the best quality acorns.
Consider Wildlife Value
While white oak acorns make the best food for people, other oak species still provide wildlife value. For example, small but prolific acorns of the sawtooth oak (Quercus acutissima) are excellent forage for deer, turkeys, jays, and other animals. If planting oaks, include some red and black oaks to provide food during leaner winter months after white oak supplies are gone. Just avoid eating these species yourself.
Start Your Own Grove
For a consistent, local acorn supply, plant your own grove of select white oak trees like bur, chestnut, or chinkapin oak. Grow trees from acorns following a simple stratification process. In as little as 20 years, your oaks will start producing abundant crops of sweet acorns. With some patience and planning, you can create a renewable source of this traditional wild edible.
What 6 species make up the Whitetail Package?
Sawtooth oaks drop first beginning as early as September in most areas, and can continue into early or mid-October. This is a time of year when it’s hot and dry, and most food sources are either not available or of poor quality. Sawtooth can fill that gap as a food source, but it’s also a super draw for getting game camera photos. If you are in a state where hunting season begins in September or early October, sawtooth is the ticket! Just make sure and plant them in well-drained soils because they won’t tolerate wet ground.
Willow oak is next. They begin dropping not long after the sawtooths are done for the season. The smallish red oak acorns always begin their descent prior to the more preferred white oaks, and because they are the only game in town at the time, wildlife gobble them up. When the white oaks begin dropping next, deer seem to pass them up – but those remaining willow oak acorns are good at waiting under the leaf litter for the turkeys to gobble them up late winter and early the next spring. Willow oak are also a great choice for waterfowl and can take some intermittent flooding.
White oak is the next to drop after willow oak, and they’ll likely overlap a bit. White oak is a favorite tree for wildlife, timber value, and aesthetics, and it needs no explanation. White oak is considered an upland oak, but can also thrive on well-drained bottomlands. By the time they are finished unloading their bounty for the year, swamp chestnut oak will have begun dropping their huge acorns.
What You DON’T Know About Acorns & Oak Trees!!
FAQ
Which oak tree produces the most acorns?
What is the best oak tree for eating acorns?
Which oak produces acorns the fastest?
What oak trees do deer like the best?
Can you grow an oak from acorns?
Growing an oak from acorns collected nearby lets you know the tree is well-adapted to local growing conditions, meaning it will likely thrive after being planted as a sapling. Though it may seem intimidating, it is possible to grow a new tree from an acorn.
Can you grow a tree from an acorn?
Believe it or not, you can grow a tree from an acorn. Getting acorns to grow into oak trees is not very difficult. Get ready, because we are going to explain how you can grow an oak tree from an acorn. Have you seen the acorns that have little roots protruding from the shell or noticed a tiny oak seedling in your mulch bed or while on a hike?
When do oak trees produce acorns?
Most oak trees grow to start making acorns around 20 years old. Oak tree’s peak production comes into play from 50 to 80 years; then acorn production begins to fall off after 80 years. Oak trees that produce the most nuts thrive in high canopies, which is where the most sunlight can be received.
Which oak trees produce acorns?
The acorn is brown or mostly brown, not green. White oaks (Quercus section Quercus) which produce acorns that germinate in fall. These oaks have rounded leaf lobes. Red oaks (Quercus section Lobatae) which produce acorns that germinate in spring after cold stratification. These oaks generally have pointier leaf lobes.