Acorns and Sap
 

Is it just me or has anyone noticed the acorns are falling from the oaks about a month earlier than usual? I've also noticed a 'sprinkle' of sap appearing on the windows of my pickup and 'dotting' the paint.

A neighbor mentioned yesterday morning that our road felt "sticky" when he was out for his "morning constitutional" and I noticed that a number of leaves on the oaks out behind my house look like someone sprayed them with a hose as they appeared to be wet. They were wet...with sap! I don't recall seeing oaks looking like this.

This morning as I was leaving for work I noticed a wet patch on our road where an oak's branches overhang the road. Curious, I stopped and got out of my pickup, bent down and ran my fingers along the dark patch. It was wet and sticky.

Tree sap.

I honestly don't recall ever seeing this before. I certainly haven't seen it in the 7 years I've lived in my present home or during the 14 years I lived in my previous home just on the other side of the hill from where I live now.

Is anyone else seeing this?

I definitely think the acorns are early and I have a ton of them. I couldn't walk barefoot they were so bad.

Not in my yard, I had way more last year, sap too.

Not so much here in Meredith. Primarily, we have oaks, pines and beech on our property. The oaks aren't producing a whole lot of anything...so far anyway. Our squirrels aren't going to like that and I suspect they'll relocate to the OP's house. I've never seen sap on oaks.

The pines on the other hand have good years and bad. This is unquestionably a good year. Very little sap and that means a lot less cleaning it off the deck and furniture. Definitely a blessing.

All that said, I did notice beginning few days ago that our deck seemed a bit 'sticky'. I assumed it was coming from the pines in a different way than it has in the past. Upon close inspection, instead of the normal larger drops, it's like a carpet bombing of countless micro pinprick sized droplets. I can't explain this. Normally it's larger drops and spatters that tend to come down, especially, with wind or rain.

That's what I've been seeing, the micro droplets. I have to clean the windshield on my pickup every morning. Just before I closed up the house for the night I stepped outside and my driveway felt sticky.

A friend thought it might be caused by an infestation of aphids, so I took a closer look at some of the leaves on one of the oaks in my yard and even with a magnifying glass I couldn't see any. That doesn't mean they aren't there, but just that I didn't see any.

I have noticed less sap from the pines also but tons of pine needles this year.

Trees are in drought stress- they are confused!!

At my last house, I had to park under my Oak tree in the driveway. Every year late summer/early fall I would get the little drops from the tree all over the windshield and had to spray the washer fluid every AM.
I don't have any of those trees around me up here. Just Maples.
But the pine trees have been very light on the sap this year.

The morning cleanup of the windshield on my truck to remove the accumulated sap has been going on since late July...and it isn't even parked underneath the surrounding oaks.

I used to use the wipers and washer fluid to clean my windshield every morning but I found it tended to "gum up" the wiper blades after a few mornings. So it's been Windex and a couple of paper towels instead.

I just checked the oaks behind my house and the leaves on the lower branches are all 'wet' as I described in my original post. That we're in 'dry' conditions without much rain over the past month makes what I'm seeing even more puzzling.

I already have maples turning red and leaves falling! :eek:

The acorns seem about right where we are. It would be early for our home in NJ, but I know have picked up the NH ones in July and August to bring home for fall decor.cannot speak to the sap.

Trees have started turning though.


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