[Misc] Conkers

[Giraffe]

Based on the amount lying around seems like a bumper year. Or is it just that kids nowadays have better things to do than pick them up?

 

[studio150]

Need to buy goggles, hard hat, and padded gloves before being allowed to use.

 

[banjo]

Spiders don’t like them apparently.

 

[Raleigh Chopper]

Based on the amount lying around seems like a bumper year. Or is it just that kids nowadays have better things to do than pick them up?

They buy them from Amazon now.
In 100 years the UK will be a forest of Horse Chestnut trees and it's all thanks to the internet.

 

[Bozza]

Need to buy goggles, hard hat, and padded gloves before being allowed to use.

Paging [MENTION=31]El Presidente[/MENTION]

 

[BensGrandad]

My grandchildren have picked up literally hundreds and placed them on every window sill in the home to keep spiders at bay.

 

[Is it PotG?]

Could this mean an end to the Daz Doorstep Challenge?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-63177653



First spiders, now detergent. Bonkers Conkers mate!

 

[zefarelly]

Will we see starving squirrels as a consequence?

 

[raymondo]

My son plays conkers through his virtual reality headset. There is no danger of being hurt by flying debris. However, he won't be able to play today as we have to pop into town to find out what's causing the problem with his vision...and also why he seems so stressed and hyper all the time

 

[Worried Man Blues]

Loads of them but not more than last year BUT we have tons of beech nuts way more than ever before, damn difficult to get up off the lawn.......but we get wood pigeons and various crows types eating the seeds so that's good.

 

[1066familyman]

Loads of them but not more than last year BUT we have tons of beech nuts way more than ever before, damn difficult to get up off the lawn.......but we get wood pigeons and various crows types eating the seeds so that's good.

A lot of Acorns about too. Seems to be a mast year.

 

[Worried Man Blues]

A lot of Acorns about too. Seems to be a mast year.

Just looked up mast year!! I thought it might be global warming, as the trees were under stress, producing loads of seeds before they die!

 

[1066familyman]

Just looked up mast year!! I thought it might be global warming, as the trees were under stress, producing loads of seeds before they die!

The early Autumn we had this year was definitely trees under stress due to the drought. I have a photo somewhere of a local Woods I was walking through in August, covered in leaf litter just like Autumn.

But no, Mast years are a thing that has always been a part of trees and plants natural life cycles.

Funnily enough, when I was younger I did once mistake the droopy nature of Conker tree leaves as a sign they were thirsty due to hot dry weather . It is of course just the way there are, always.

 

[Notters]

There are loads this year.
Shame the horse chestnuts seem to be diseased right across the country now
This is why they have yellowed particularly early - they now start to go yellow almost as soon as they sprout in the spring.

 

[Denis]

I was in Germany the first week of September and their Autumn seemed to have arrived even earlier than ours. There were masses of conkers laying on the ground all over the place.

 

[Is it PotG?]

World Conker Championships investigates cheating concerns after winner found with steel nut

 

[jcdenton08]

Gotta have nuts of steel to try that

 

[B-right-on]

I bet 99% of kids and young adults under the age of 25 haven't got a clue about playing conkers.

 

[Coldeanseagull]

Ah, conkers. Childhood of bloodied knuckles, lascerations from pressed metal meccano, scrumping, slapped round the head by a copper for scrumping, then getting slapped round the head for being slapped by a copper!
I don't want to see kids put up a chimney, but they are a bit powder puff compared to when we were kids

 

[METALMICKY]

I bet 99% of kids and young adults under the age of 25 haven't got a clue about playing conkers.

Indeed. Murdered by health and safety.

Do people recall all the supposed old tricks to give you a champion conker? Soak in vinegar then dry out. Bake in the oven which obviously didn't go down too well. And my personal master plan in which I coated it in my sisters mat nail gloss. She was not happy!