Black Walnut Planting

[cheyenne]

I just got a whole load of Black Walnuts from a friend & would like to know how to start them......I'd like to start them in pots & then transplant them into a Walnut grove on my property.......What is the best way to start them........     Cheyenne

[Okrafarmer]

I'm interested in hearing about this, too.

[beenthere]

Float the husked nuts in water to remove the floaters, and just keep the sinkers.
Leave them soak for a few days, then put them in bag in the freezer for a couple months. Called stratification, I believe.

Then take them out and plant them in your containers. Keep moist. Carefully transplant if doing so when the nut starts growing.

[Autocar]

Go to your plantation site with a dynamite auger bore your hole four inches deep and drop the walnut in then back fill with sand and let mother nature do the rest. Personnally I would plant yellow poplar, walnut, yellow poplar, walnut. Then when they get started the poplar will grow faster making the walnut climb for sunlight growing a worth while log. Twenty five thirty years harvest the poplar and you should have some long lean walnut instead of a bunch of limbs

[SwampDonkey]

Freezing will keep them from molding, but I am not sure if they should be frozen. Most stratification is done unfrozen in seed centers. But if you keep them in the fridge, they are going to mold, that's a certainty. Maybe a fungicide like NO Damp will keep the fungus away? Or some sulfur powder used to keep flox leaves from mildew and mold. I'd sink them in the posts and leave outside over winter next to the house. Maybe make a frame or something to keep the coons and skunks and cats from digging.

Butternuts are easy enough, I just plunk them in a 2" hole in the ground where I want them. They come up in July when I plant them in the previous fall. Can't have a lot of over topping weeds as they take awhile to root good, then grow up. I've planted them all over God's creation here.

[beenthere]

Well, they freeze around here and then sprout in the spring. 

Here is a quote from one source I found.

"Walnut seeds require stratification (cold treatment) before they will germinate. Small quantities of nuts can be stratified in a plastic bag in a refrigerator at 34 to 41° Fahrenheit for 90 to 120 days. To stratify large numbers of walnuts for spring planting, dig a pit, spread out the nuts, and cover them with 1 to 2 feet of sand, leaves, or mulch. Cover the pit with screening to keep out rodents.

When the ground thaws in spring, dig up the nuts and plant 1 to 2 inches deep in the prepared site. Plant two nuts at each planting spot. About half the nuts will germinate in four to five weeks. Additional nuts may germinate the following year. Remove excess seedlings to allow adequate growing space.

To reduce predation by squirrels and other rodents, plant nuts in the spring in an open field at least 330 feet from a woodland. When nuts will be planted within 330 feet of a woodlot with squirrels, some form of protection may be needed. Tin (not aluminum) food cans, such as soup cans, may be used to protect small plantings. Burn the cans so they will rust and disintegrate within a few years. Remove one end of each can and cut an X into the other using a chisel. "

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/naturalresources/dd0505.html

[SwampDonkey]

The kind of cold in the freezer is dry and in the ground they are surrounded by ice. I would try some in a freezer bag with water. I have done it with red oak for about 4 weeks and sprouted them in the house in pots. In late years, I just put them in the fridge part. Hardwood seed does not store well like most softwood does. Yellow birch will store well since it is a tiny seed. I've got some stored at the seed centre since 1999, they aren't mine now, they belong to our marketing board. I used to have a few thousand grown in the nursery. Mice and rabbits love to live in multipots of birch. Anyway, I have a nice little stand of yellow birch from these seedlings behind the house. I planted 3500 on the woodlot and the animals ate good for about 2 weeks.

[Larry]

I have a couple of small fields I quit mowing.  The walnut trees are coming up so thick you can’t walk between them.  There are a several mature trees nearby that provide the seed.  I’m positive the squirrels are the ones doing the planting and cultivation.  Seeing as how they are so successful I’ll ask one for there method.

Seems to me them squirrels must be really smart cultivating a walnut crop.

[SwampDonkey]

Yes, they certainly do a good job at it. I get oak and butternut sprouting up on the lawn. I keep mowing them off though.  Had one butternut I was saving. While off at the piggy roast, my brother mowed and too bad for that butternut.

[locustoak]

Make sure you check the site before planting.  Walnut won't grow worth a darn in some soils.  They prefer bottomlands around here.

[sandhills]

I know of a single row of black walnut around here but haven't seen them in many years.  My dad could tell you exactly when they were planted but I don't remember the story for sure, all I know is he can remember them as a child and he's 67.  Does anyone know how easy/hard it is to start them in sand (this is not bottom land but it's where these are growing).  Probably should go back and look for seedlings in the area?

[SPIKER]

I posted my method as the 3rd or 4th post but it disappeared?

We usually just take the nuts in fall and step them into the ground one or two take a step or two and drop 2 more & stomp them things flat into the dirt.     I have been roto-tilling a path and pour them in and step em flat about 6 to 8" apart works for transplants 2nd growing season run a spade under them to shear the tap root (sapling about 12 ~20" high will have a tap root same depth it seems on them little suckers.)   let them grow a year or so more in the same spot they tend to spread the roots after the tap is cut.  dig them in the fall after a good summer of growing or the early spring following year.

my last row got away from me and is about 6 ~10' high now.   the year I needed to cut the tap root I went down with my back.   took a year & half to get back to moving much after removing 2 disks. :

I took some pics but have not down loaded them yet .

Mark

[Okrafarmer]

I posted my method as the 3rd or 4th post but it disappeared?

We usually just take the nuts in fall and step them into the ground one or two take a step or two and drop 2 more & stomp them things flat into the dirt.     I have been roto-tilling a path and pour them in and step em flat about 6 to 8" apart works for transplants 2nd growing season run a spade under them to shear the tap root (sapling about 12 ~20" high will have a tap root same depth it seems on them little suckers.)   let them grow a year or so more in the same spot they tend to spread the roots after the tap is cut.  dig them in the fall after a good summer of growing or the early spring following year.

my last row got away from me and is about 6 ~10' high now.   the year I needed to cut the tap root I went down with my back.   took a year & half to get back to moving much after removing 2 disks. :

I took some pics but have not down loaded them yet .

Mark

Ouch on the 2 removed disks.

I suppose your main planting method works well even if you are not planning to move them. Does shearing the tap root have any adverse effects on them later?

[SPIKER]

My post was directed at the person wanting to plant in pots, (reason to plant in pots is to transplant later.   Not knowing where tyhey intended to transplant (could be forsale?)   The cut tap root forces the roots up and out which makes for a better supporting root system when transplanting.  the tap root will grow back in a year or two.

Mark

[Okrafarmer]

My post was directed at the person wanting to plant in pots, (reason to plant in pots is to transplant later.   Not knowing where tyhey intended to transplant (could be forsale?)   The cut tap root forces the roots up and out which makes for a better supporting root system when transplanting.  the tap root will grow back in a year or two.

Mark

Good to know. When I have some land of my own, I may want to plant some.

[Stan snider]

Sandhills: Walnut grows best in sandy soil. Good internal drainage is essential. If you could get them through the first couple of summers you would probably be OK. They root real deep. Stan

[RedHawkRidge]

I've planted walnuts for several years successfully simply by digging a hole with a post hole digger about 7" deep, then dropping 3 nuts into the bottom.  Then I work a Tubex plastic tube over the nuts, pour the dirt back into the tube, tamp it down, then fill the rest of the hole with dirt outside the tube.  I have used tubes from 2' to 4', and the sapling will grow out of the top end by middle of summer.
I plant in late fall.  I use 3 nuts/hole to assure a successful sprout.  I don't get worried if a particular tube doesn't show a sapling by late May, because some will take until midsummer to show up.
Be prepared to lose some plantings to the squirrels - they will dig out the nuts from under the tube. Beggers have a great sense of smell.
I have tried the approach of putting a batch (200-300) of nuts in a wire basket and burying it in the fall to allow for stratification.  It didn't work great because the nuts germinated over an extended timeframe. Some were nearly 12" high before others just broke out of the shell. Tough to time when to plant.
Walnuts seem to be pretty robust growers from seed.
jimp

[smalldog]

I have planted BW seedlings and by nuts. I found I had better results by just planting the nuts at location. I have planted nuts into pots and have had good luck,but, it's just better by planting at location. I would plant just like a squirrel, just a couple inches deep. The squirrels will plant some in my yard and as soon as I see the trees growing, I transplant them.

[Brad_bb]

Squirrels are some of the best planters around for Black Walnuts.  I've tried planting them in organized rows after winter, but not very successful.  I have a mature Black walnut in my yard.  I let the squirrel plant them and the seedlings sprout in June through August.  I have to look carefully before I mow the grass in the yard and have gotten pretty good at spotting the new seedlings.  When they do sprout, they jump up pretty fast to 4 or 5 inches.  I use a small potting shovel and transplant them to plastic pots with some dirt.  You have to make sure to dig them early enough so that the tap root doesn't get too long and get damaged when digging it up.  Get them quick.  I then usually keep them and water them in the posts for 2-3 weeks to make sure they are not damaged.  If they were, they'd die in the post.  90 percent or more survive, then I replant them where I want them.  I've been doing this for 4 or 5 years.  I have a couple that are 8ft tall now.   When small I cover them with grow tubes, which are blue plastic tubes that allow some light, and force the tree or plant to grow up quickly to reach more light.  I'll then add a second grow tube when the start coming out of the first.  I will also use a 10ft piece of 1/2" electrical conduit to train the tree on after the grow tubes.

[Redonthehead]

FYI - the Missouri Dept of Conservation sells walnut seedlings in three flavors:

per bundle of 25 seedlings

run of the mill  $8
"certified" genetics  $13
extra large  $16

http://extra.mdc.mo.gov/cgi-bin/mdcdevpub/apps/seedlings/search.cgi?record=all