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Hard mast already?

I was raking my very neglected lawn and clearing some overgrown vegetation on the wood line of my backyard and was being belted with what I think are beech or hickory nuts. I'll post a pic when I get home but they were falling rapidly and in numbers. My trees have no signs of insects or are unhealthy looking. I have about 250 feet of hard mast trees (beech,hickory,red oak,white oak) along my wood line and only one type of nut is present right now. From my understanding and little bit of research they shouldn't start dropping till early fall or when the air temps average mid to low 60's. I know hard mast trees have an on-off cycle for their crop sizes but this is weird to me. Any ideas?

Post a pick. Beech nuts often do drop pretty early, though this seems extra early unless a high wind hit which could pull some off prematurely. They are pretty darn small and greenish early. Hickory nuts sort of look like a really hard lime you could peal when they drop early, eventually they turn brown and sort of peal open on their own releasing the actual nut.

Last summer around this time I found an area covered with tiny white oak acorns, obviously way early and not fully developed. If I recall there was a similar discussion on this forum, but I don't remember what the general consensus was.

Joe, I actually looked for that thread as I remembered something came up. Got tired of searching though. Not that its a bad thing, just means are forum is awesome with discussions.

If you were under fire from a hickory tree you'd know about it. Those nuts are the size of a golf ball (some even bigger), and heavy too.

Oh I knew it, I had to stop raking for a bit because they were pelting me. Some were small some were big. I think they are hickory because the trees have a rougher bark pattern than the beaches and that's where they are coming from.

Those are Hickory. Beach nuts have a spiny outer shell. Those are good eats though, so let them dry out. The actual nut looks similar to a walnut.

I just dumped two full wheelbarrow loads in the woods. I'll grab some and try them out. The squirrels love them. Maybe the deer will come by and munch on them too.

I think I tried to open some of those up, a couple years ago, and it was difficult. They're tough nuts to crack, just like the saying goes.

Just got back from my daily morning walk here in Dartmouth... saw quite a few small acorns under virtually every red oak tree. The same thing happened last July. We ended up with a decent mast crop... especially the white oak acorns.

cherry trees are loaded!

Apples too... sort of surprised there... figured after last year they would be a bit less enthusiastic in their growth this year. Hickory indeed. as the shells mature and "dry" eventually they sort of peel back and you can get in to them much easier.

I'm sure deer eat em, but I've never gotten lucky in that regard and found a tree they were really on.

I found a mess of those also while trimming branches for my climber this evening.

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