Planting 75 sawtooth seedlings today and tomorrow

Should see acorns in 7 years. Water frequently first year

We bought a place in North Mississippi five years ago that has some mature sawtooth oaks – all 12-13 years old. First three years we owned the place the trees produced well and the deer absolutely hammered them. We can see one row of sawtooths from our house and when the acorns started falling there were often two or three deer walking around waiting for the next treat to hit the ground.

Year four was an unbelievable bumper crop – way more than the any of the previous three years. Just a gut feel but it seemed like we had at least twice the production than any of the previous three years. Year five (this past summer/fall) we had almost zero sawtooth acorn production. I’ve read the boom and bust cycle is not uncommon. Hoping for a better year in '23. We also have a good number of mature native also which produced very well this year – probably the best in the 5 years we’ve been here. Wish I knew why this occurred. Did not seem to be weather related as the overall weather was not bad and had good spring and early summer rains.

I know this doesn’t really answer your question on new trees but we are very happy to have the mature sawtooths and our deer like them even more!

We planted some in Avoyelles Parish and they are at least 8 hrs old and still have not produced an acorn crop. Black jack clay soil which is high in nutrients. But we don’t fertilize. Still wondering what’s going on.

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How long till we see acorns?

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Doesn't matter.

If you produce acorns in three years would that be great? Nope, because the trees would be so small that the production wouldn't amount to shite. Regardless of when they produce their first acorns you will still have to wait until they get a few more years on them before the amount of acorns matters.

I planted a bunch of seedlings probably 6-7 years ago, but no acorns yet. We have a property with several mature sawtooth groves, approximately 1.5 - 2 acres in Claiborne County, MS. These trees are probably 30 years old and planted on a 7 yard grid. These make for an unbelievable target-rich bowhunting spot. Lots of action, both hogs and deer. The ground below the trees when they are dropping is 1 - 2 acres of dust from all the animals walking in there.

I have about 13 acres of ST in Amite County and they started producing in the 9th year. They’re 24 years old now and rain nuts every Sep/Oct. I killed a nice velvet buck in them this year during the velvet weekend. Every deer around is in them when the nuts fall. I would plant on 12-15’ spacing, then thin as required after about 10 years. They need area to crown out to optimize production.