Acorn Contest

The largest acorn with no cup is now 41 grams. It's 1 3/4 inches long and 1 1/2 inches in diameter.

I need to post an update. Some bur oaks are dropping acorns already. I picked up a couple from places I know of. So far the biggest ones are 33 grams for no cup and 76 grams with a cup.

Feel free to post questions or comments here in the guestbook.

Victor

All,

I'm interested in finding the tree in the Austin area that grows the largest acorns. As far as I know, bur oaks haven't started dropping their acorns yet, but they should soon, probably in November. To encourage other people to help me find the largest acorn, I've decided to make a little contest. I'll pay $20 for the largest acorn, by weight. Since sometimes the acorns won't some out of the caps, I'll have a prize for acorns out of their caps and acorns with the caps. Please use only acorns that have naturally fallen from the tree.

If the acorn is a twin or a triplet, the weight used for the contest will be the total weight divided by the number of acorns. If the acorn is a twin and one acorn fell out of the cup but the other didn't, it can be a contestant only if you have the other acorn, too, and know for sure it's the acorn that goes with that cap. Weigh together as if the neither had fallen out of their cups.

I will be weighing the final contestants with a gram scale. In the event of a tie, winnings will be divided among the winners.

It's important that the acorns be fresh, so there is no official date to the contest. However, I will keep a log of the winner to date. If you have a gram scale, you can weigh your acorn to see if it has a possibility of being the winner by comparing it to the record holder so far. As of this writing, there are no entries.

To give you an idea of what size might win the contest, here are the sizes listed in Oaks of North America:

1.9 to 5.0 cm (3/4 to 2 inches) and often weighs 30-40 grams when fresh. This is not including the cup. I've seen some really big cups, so I'd expect at least double the weight for one with the cup.

Please contact me by private email if you have an entry. If you have a scale, give me the weight, and I'll let you know if it's a winning acorn so far. If you don't have a scale, I can weigh it for you.

At some point, I'll declare the contest over (let's say Christmas or a week of no entries, whichever comes first).

Winner must tell me where the tree is and allow me to collect fresh acorns.

If you send me a picture of your entry, I will post it to

http://victorspictures.com/acorncontest

I will also post updates to that page.

Victor

P.S. Feel free to forward this email to other people/groups in the Austin area. Please don't post to groups where it would be considered off-topic or spam.