I hunt east texas. Plenty ofvacorns. Covered up with them.

I have never believed the old saying, wait until freeze and they will sour.

Walking around today i notice many half eaten acorns, all blaze orange inside. So do they sour? Or not. Orange?

They don't have to experience a 'freeze'. From the time they hit the ground they are 'degrading' to some degree. Cold (but not freezing) weather is actually better for preserving acorns. Acorns (mast) typically are quite fatty and have oils that turn rancid over time.

Moisture in the form of soaking rain (not just dew) can hasten the spoiling process. IF the shell/hull is saturated then freezes, the shell expands and can become cracked. And a good number of acorns are 'wormy' with Acorn Weevils...so those don't need to spoil anyway.

Laying on top of moist ground can result in a fungus forming on the shell..which makes them unpalatable to some animals.

As to your question "do they sour", yes...but think of it as 'spoil' more so than 'sour' (as in taste).

They also seemed to drop later this year in East Texas, at least it appeared so in Houston County.

Still falling in Henderson County.

Good ole Houston Co. My moms from Crockett. Where about you hunt?

SE of Crockett.

Getting sick of these acorns..

I can't even see the ground at my property

How long would a bucket of acorns last if picked fresh and dry and kept in the garage?

This

Cold weather is perfect for keeping acorns... if they are healthy ones they can stand water a good while too. I bet your seeing some test bites from deer searching under tress

We are loaded with acrons in Madison and Leon county this year... not as many as last year but they are steady dropping off the pin oaks and a bit later drop also

Deer are layered in fat this year due to acorn crop. Hunting has been real slow because of them. Deer just started eating corn.

Some acorns have more tannin in them and can be an orange-ish color. I've seen live oaks acorns that are that color.

As for the taste, any acorn that has so much tannin in them that they are orange will taste sour even when they are fresh. The white oak acorns are about the least acidic, and they are a very light color. If you're just using them for feed, the longer they are on the ground the greater chance of rot. If you are using them for seed, scoop them up the day they drop. When they are on the ground, they get bugs that eat the acorns. If you see tiny little holes in the acorns, they have worms and the nut inside is no good.

Probably a few months, they will eventually go rancid as someone said.

Now if you have a chest freezer in your garage they will last well over a year. I used to have a 6ft long deep freeze and would fill 5 gallon buckets of pecans from my trees. After a year they would lose their flavor but still be palatable.

Pin oak acorns really just started hitting the ground heavy a week or so ago here. They last longer but hogs have moved back in on my place and vacuum them up pretty quick.

I have gathered over 500 pounds of various kinds of acorns and they are done falling in East Texas. There is still alot of them on the ground, but they are drying up and rotting. All acorns have a parasite in them that mutates into a grub and eats the internal mass out of the shell. When its done it bores a small perfect hole and exits the shell. It eats a large portion of the acorns growing abilitys. This also alows the acorn to be exsposed to the elements. Now ants inter the hole and eat the core too. Morsture helps to finish off the last bit of an acorns life. A germinating acorn that eventually turns into a sapling is more or less a miracle. Expecially with all the critters that feed on them. I've been watching hogs and deer walk right past acorns to eat the native grasses.

Reason I ask is, I had my boys gather a 5 gallon bucket of acorns from the house trees and plans were to use as feed once the acorns at the deer lease were all gone or rotten. Been 2-3 weeks in my garage now. Plans are to throw them out this weekend or next and see if the deer like em. Figured they would still be good if kept dry and off the ground but didn't know about the grub parasite thing. Will crack a few open and see if they are still good and then let the deer decide.

I don't think the "souring" or spoiling hurts them much, the deer will eat them till they are gone.

Have caught several deer in hog traps baited with some RANCID bad nasty maggots crawling in it soured corn/milo, and shot a few deer over the stuff while attempting to attract hogs as well.

We don't have acorns where we hunt now in south texas, but on our old lease which was loaded with them, they ate them till they were gone.

Fill the bucket full of water with the acorns in the bucket. The grubs will bore their way out and you can pour the acorns into a drain bucket with holes in the bottom. The floating acorns are the ones with less meat. The ones in the bottom of the bucket are still solid. Tree farmers cull bad acorns this way.

Im sure the floaters will still eat though for a hungry deer or hog. Live oak and white oak are deer favorites and are loaded with worms. Could be considered a gulf coastal tree. They are trying to seed as soon as they hit the ground. Alot of your reds have to have a winter dormant period before germination. Just a dumb hick in the woods with too many guns.

This is my third time collecting the acorns in my yard and throwing them out at the lease this year. These are two red oaks. Heard that the deer don't like them and prefer the smaller white oak acorns. Well I guess my deer have a different taste than others. My deer numbers have tripled since I started doing this. I have a Spartan cell cam and can see the real-time action. After I throw out the acorns the deer are in there thick and won't even touch the corn until all the acorns are gone. Notice the untouched pile of corn in the pic. Acorns are still dropping on my trees so I am hoping to get another batch out soon.

Do any of yall fertilize certain oak trees to help with the acorn production in your shooting lanes? How do you do it?

I have done the oak tree fertilizing many times, on a 1.5 acre oak flat on my place in Mississippi we used 100lbs of 13-13-13 broadcast or some years 150lbs of 6-8-8. For target trees on other parts of the place (usually White oaks and Saw Tooth oaks put a cup of 6-8-8 fertilizer in a 6 inch hold about every 5 to 6 feet around the drip line of the tree. That worked pretty well for us and now is the time to put It out

The white oaks were bow hunting spots since most of the acorns were gone before gun season. The Water oak/red oak flat was good hunting through the gun season