It’s harvest time in Iowa and while most farmers are focused on corn and soybeans, foresters are focused on another crop. Roger Jacob of the State Forest Nursery in Ames says most oak trees in central and western Iowa haven’t produced many acorns, but some other types of trees did produce a good crop of nuts.
Walnut trees produced a “pretty good” crop all over Iowa, according to Jacob. While red oak trees produced a “fair” amount of seeds, white oak tree production was almost “non-existent” in central Iowa. Jacob says most of the oak trees “aborted” their acorns because it was dry this summer and that will make it harder for animals that depend upon nuts in the winter.
“Turkeys, squirrels, a lot of things use the mast crops such as acorns and hickory nuts and walnuts,” he says. The State Forest Nursery in Ames plants nuts, or seeds, to get tiny trees. They have enough walnut seeds, but they’ll accept fresh acorns. “The cap doesn’t need to be on. They do need to be still moist where they haven’t dried out past the point of being able to germinate,” he says.
The state nursery plants about 6,000 bushels of walnuts each year and another 1,000 bushels of acorns. “Production is down a little bit as there seems to be a lack of interest in planting trees because corn’s $3 a bushel,” Jacob says.
Jacob, who has worked at the State Forest Nursery in Ames for three decades, says the nursery spends up to $100,000 a year to buy acorns, walnuts and other tree seeds from Iowans.