In the Garden with Pat Rubin

Bee garden writer Pat Rubin writes about everything that grows, from flowers and trees to vegetables and lawns. Pat volunteered for several years as a Placer County Master Gardener and has written about gardening for many national and regional publications. In addition to gardening, she spends time raising and showing miniature horses and miniature donkeys.

In the Garden will include news, events, advice and other gardening tidbits. Pat will also answer reader questions.

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November 14, 2007

Masses of acorns

It’s a mast year for acorns.

That’s what the experts call a year when acorns are beyond plentiful, when they’re everywhere, when they’re, well, ubiquitous. Check beneath almost any oak tree and you’ll see the ground littered with acorns.

2007 will be remembered as a very good year for acorns.

Actually, the wet spring of 2006 when, during the month of March, it rained 21 of 31 days, was the beginning of this year’s bumper acorn crop, says Ken Menzer, arborist for the City of Folsom.

“It’s a two year process. We need to have a really wet year, particularly a wet spring, then a dry spring.”

2007 was a much drier spring, and all of the flower catkins the trees produced because of the previous wet spring had a chance to be pollinated. “If it had rained as much as it did the year before, a lot of the pollen would have been washed off and we’d have very few acorns this year.

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