An entertaining exchange about the possible Causes of an Abundance of Acorns Dropping Early leads to Lessons in Letting Go.
Nearby Oak trees were defoliated by Spongy Moths, formerly called Gypsy Moths, and could be the cause. We chat about the origin of Spongy Moths and the reasons for the name change.
Thank you for tuning in.
Related Stories & Helpful Links:
Early Acorn Drop – Lessons of Letting Go – Blog Post
Native Plants, especially Oaks, are Essential -Blog Post
Ep 35. Leaf Therapy, Essential Oaks
NPR's article Insect Experts Will Change The Name Of The 'Gypsy Moth' and 'Gypsy Ant' (July 2021)
Ep 96. Mending Fences with Forsythia – the saga of Susan's neighbor mentioned in the intro.
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I'd love to hear your garden and nature stories and your thoughts about topics for future podcast episodes. You can email me at AskMaryStone@gmail.com.
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Episode web page —Garden Dilemmas Podcast Page
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Mary Stone, Columnist & Garden Designer
AskMaryStone.com
More about the Podcast and Column:
Welcome to Garden Dilemmas, Delights, and Discoveries.
It's not only about gardens; it's about nature's inspirations, about grasping the glories of the world around us, gathering what we learned from mother nature, and carrying these lessons into our garden of life. So, let's jump in in the spirit of learning from each other. We have lots to talk about.
Thanks for tuning in, Mary Stone
Garden Dilemmas? AskMaryStone.com
Direct Link to Podcast Page
Ep 170 Early Acorn Drop - Lessons of Letting Go
Sun, Jul 21, 2024 8:27AM • 9:43
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
acorns, trees, dropping, spongy moths, gypsy, oak trees, shedding, spongy, garden, learn, hope, gypsy moth, leaves, insects, early, dilemmas, mows, mary stone, garden, nature, inspiration
SPEAKERS
Mary Stone
Mary Stone 00:00
Hello, fellow lovers of all things green. I'm Mary Stone, and welcome to Garden Dilemmas, Delights, and Discoveries. It's not only about gardens. It's about nature's inspirations, about grasping the glories of the world around us, gathering what we learn from Mother Nature, and carrying these lessons into our garden of life. So let's jump in in the spirit of learning from each other, we have lots to talk about.
Mary Stone 00:26
Hello there. It's Mary Stone on the screen porch, and we just completed a series of many sweltering days. There's one thing about weather: it's constantly changing. We had wild storms yesterday with monsoon rains, and after the thunder and lightning stopped, I snagged a photo of sheets of rain. Funny saying, sheets of rain, the sun was shining at the same time. What an anomaly. And I am hearing cicadas in the trees that seem early. I hope you don't mind and can endure the sound. There's something late summery sounding about them. Speaking of, I received a text from Chris of Blairstown New Jersey, about the abundance of acorns that are falling from his trees at an untimely time, leading me to today's topic, although maybe it's timely after all.
Mary Stone 01:14
But before that, I want to thank those who reached back after last week's chat about Safe Alternatives to Harmful Weed Killers. Susan wrote I hope my neighbor reads this. Good information for all. Thanks. You may recall the unfortunate saga with her neighbor in Episode 96, Mending Fences with Forsythia. It's astonishing that each time Susan's neighbor mows the patch of grass, he sprays roundup in the now dead zone under the fence. Then there are municipalities spraying foliage on the sides of the roads with weed killers rather than cutting it back, and they do so next to farm fields and waterways, which is troubling. Susan plans to take action and reach out to our municipality to see if she can implement change. I loved hearing that. It's one of the reasons I write the column so that more of us learn and grow about things we can do to help our environment and each other. So on to this week's story that starts like this.
Mary Stone 02:14
Hello, fellow listeners and readers. Chris from Blairstown, New Jersey, wrote, have you ever seen acorns fall this early? Our trees in the back started dropping them about three or four weeks ago, and not a few, a lot. I hadn't noticed an abundance of acorns falling early, but a few always do. Now I'm going to look for them. Oak trees have two rounds of dropping acorns, the first in the summer, dropping less viable or diseased acorns - a way of shedding those weighing them down. And in the fall, the mature acorns drop. It's crazy. I've never seen them drop so early like they do in the fall. It's a good story for your blog. I'm pretty sure the world is coming to an end.
Mary Stone 02:55
It would be a good story. Hopefully, I can publish it before the world ends. Smiley face. He sent photos of the dilemma, and indeed, there are a lot of early dropped acorns on his lawn. They're immature, so perhaps the trees are shedding an overabundance of acorns that they developed during the wet spring. But I'll look into it further. Thanks for the great idea. I'm going to check out our oak trees.
Mary Stone 03:19
He wrote back, I should have taken the pictures before I mowed. There were even more last week, crazy. Maybe leave out the part about the world coming to an end. You may lose some of your subscribers. Later on that day, it occurred to me that spongy moths have been an issue in many nearby areas. I have not had them, but Pat, a client we share in common, Chris is, a custom builder, had them. So much so that they left their leave behinds all over her white stucco house, requiring power washing to clean it off. The aftermath impacted her surrounding gardens, mainly on the ground cover of the gallium odoratum, sweet Woodruff. I adore the white flowers in the spring. They can thrive in shallow soil, in full and partial shade. But while I prefer to be moist, they can also survive in dry shade. And deer don't like it. I'm planting some this week for my client, Nancy, whose river birch is so shallow-rooted that we can't get anything else to grow under it. It's really a great ground cover. I highly recommend it.
Mary Stone 04:20
So I sent a text to Chris, did your oak trees get defoliated by gypsy moth larvae, the old name for what is now called spongy moths? Pat mentioned their trees were hammered, which would explain dropping acorns early to put energy into growing a new set of leaves. But it turns out, the spongy moths didn't invade Chris's property, nor has it affected ours. His trees are totally healthy, yet Pat had them everywhere, which is only a few miles away. Native to Eurasia, unlike many unfavorable insects that arrive here accidentally, spongy moths, which are Lymantria dispar disparla were brought here intentionally in the 1860s as a possible source of silk fiber when the traditional silk moth became diseased at the same time that the civil war affected the production of cotton crops.
Mary Stone 05:08
A side note on the name change, I found an article on NPR that said that the largest organization of insect experts in the world, the Entomological Society of America, is dropping its common names for two insects, the gypsy moth and the Gypsy ant, because it says that the names are inappropriate and offensive. The Romani people, or Roma, are Europe's largest ethnic minority and face discrimination. Gypsy is considered a pejorative term. The article is written in July of 2021, I'll put a link in the show notes. I always thought that the definition of gypsy is somebody who moves from place to place in an adventurous kind of way. My mother called me a gypsy when I moved often as a young person, bringing my belongings with me and sending others forward by way of UPS. It's interesting about names, isn't it? It can mean something favorable to one group and offensive to another.
Mary Stone 06:03
Gypsy Moths are now called spongy moths due to their spongy egg masses. Their favorite host is Oak. Though they love to feed on many species of trees. My clients, oaks in Glens Spay, New York, were defoliated when I was there in June. I'll have to give them a ring and see if they have immature acorns all over the ground, too, so the trees can put their energy into growing new leaves. Trees are indeed resilient, and they know what to let go of. Maybe we can all learn to do so too.
Mary Stone 06:33
Another reason acorns drop early is due to extreme weather conditions like our long run of excessive heat and dryness, although we've had those pop-up thunderstorms giving us a reprieve. Chris only lives two miles from me, so maybe my oak trees that have only dropped a few acorns are doing better because we have kind of a bowl situation here. The Appalachian Trail is behind me, and the brook in front keeps our moisture level higher. So maybe that's why my trees aren't as stressed.
Mary Stone 07:01
Yesterday, while walking on the Paulinskill Rail Trail, I noticed gold and yellow leaves dropping from trees shedding those that have served their time. We can parallel the same concept in our lives, letting go of things that take too much energy out of our bodies or our souls. I struggle with that and tend to hold on to things longer than I likely should, although being committed to routines, goals, and people is a good thing, but when workloads and relationships drain you, it's time to reevaluate. Maybe it's caused by interim stressors, like what happens in nature with weather, but favorable weather will return. Looking back at how things used to be brings hope that times can return to how they used to be, but all we have is now and hope for the future. What about you? Do you have difficulty shedding the old to make room for the new, or in the case of the oak trees, shedding the new that is a drain to sustaining your health? It's something to think about.
Mary Stone 08:03
Letting go takes a lot of courage sometimes, but once you let go, Happiness comes very quickly; such powerful words said by Thich Nhat Hanh, who was a very well-known Vietnamese monk who did some tremendous work to improve the world around us and still does in all of his writings. Anyway, I hope this topic inspires you to consider changes in your life. We can learn so much from nature, letting go of things that don't benefit us, but at the same time being kind and understanding that there are waves of hardships in people's lives, and as we endure them, just hold on to the expectation that after every storm, the sun will shine, and in that comes great hope.
Mary Stone 08:54
So thanks again for visiting with me. I always enjoy our time together, and I hope you have as well and if so, I would so appreciate it if you could share the podcast with a friend or two so some more can join us in learning and growing in the garden of life. It means so much. Have a great day. See you next time on the screen porch.
Mary Stone 09:13
You can follow Garden Dilemmas on Facebook or online at Garden Dilemmas.com and on Instagram at hashtag Mary Elaine Stone. Garden Dilemmas, Delights and Discoveries is produced by Alex Bartling. Thanks for coming by. I look forward to chatting again from my screen porch and always remember to embrace the unexpected in this garden of life. Have a great day.
