I have several white and red oak trees that are anywhere from 40 to 80 yrs old and none of them have a single acorn this year, my neighbor said the same thing about his oaks. So why are their no acorns this year, I have owned this property since 1987 and the neighbor owned it for 80 yrs. prior and has never seen this before.

Greetings Laurie:

Oak masting is very cyclical and varies of course from year to year. It is also important to note that some oak trees are simply poor producers of acorns. Tree age is another factor worth mentioning as mast production drops precipitously as trees reach senescence or maximum biological age for their species and environment. Weather also plays a significant role as wet, cool spring weather can significantly affect pollination and thus acorn production.

You may or may not be interested in knowing that red/black oak mast production on our university campus and on many of our city trees is above average (i.e., good mast year for the red oak family here in east-central Illinois).

Please feel free to contact University of Wisconsin Extension to ask if they've received other reports of poor to non-existent oak masting in your area.