After looking at the previous table you now know that lacking a specific nutrient affects a different aspect of the tree development. Also, when not enough water or not all nutrients are available, the trees will grow much slower and smaller but will not stop growing. Oak trees can start producing acorns when they are 20 years old, but sometimes can go all the way to 50 years for the first production. By the time the tree is 70 to 80 years old it will produce thousands of acorns. The oak trees produce acorns once a year during the fall.
Acorn production varies year to year and normally alternates.
Not even the healthiest and largest oak can accumulate enough food and energy to produce strong crops two years in succession. Real strong acorn productions might happen every four to ten years. In addition, a late spring frost can blight the flowers which prevents acorn development. Droughts and insect ravages can decimate crops. The chart shows that production starts very slowly at around the 25 th year, the number of acorns produced then accelerates, and when the tree reaches about 100 years of age, it starts slowing down until it reaches a yearly production of about 2,200 acorns per year.