Harvesting Black Walnuts

[SwampDonkey]

Yes, but but but. I'm sure if the husk was required to be removed before germination that it would be extinct long before this.

[beenthere]

Not to continue the discussion, but I didn't say anything about "requiring" the husk to be removed.

The point trying to make was the husk of a black walnut would drop away as mush IF the dropped nuts were mature (and not the early immature nuts that fall early). I don't think those early black walnuts with tight green husks are worth planting.

And may be the same with butternuts...just too long to remember and don't recall.

[SwampDonkey]

I follow you on those points. But, about the only thing I go by as far as being developed enough is if they drop early they are duds and if they are not filled out well they are usually no good. I just went this afternoon under my yard butternut and found some well developed nuts to full size. Earlier ones I found in August were 3/4 developed, so they were left for the animals. Ones my brother picked up for me in the grove must have been early drops to, same story. And yes they seemed to have green tight husks. He doesn't observe such things like I do, they are just butternuts.

The leaves have dropped off the butternut trees pretty much now and has never been cold. Of course it's declining light that triggers it, but just the same when it's warm like this you don't expect it. The leaves this year don't seem to be very colorful except for smaller trees. They just seem to be going brown too quick and falling. You see a few nice colors, but it's not really peek time yet either. Some of my yard trees are pretty much bare to: white birch, ironwood, poplar (populus), and boxelder (one in front yard is green, back yard tree is bare).  Sugar maples in the woods where I was thinning this week are yellow orange as they should be though.

[ahlkey]

I collected some more today so I have more than I really need for my attempt this year at planting from seed.   As far as the early ones I will donate them to the squirrels but the current ones look ripe and a nice yellowish in color --- please see my picture gallery as I am having problems posting it directly.

The past two years I planted 100 Walnut trees around the property from a local guy who grows them at $2 a piece.  They were already about 3 ft high when I planted them and they are doing great.   About 25% of them I fenced to keep the deer away but the rest fo them are doing ok even with some deer damage.  

It is good to hear I can bypass the the husking work but I do agree that once they are soaked they get mushy and really fall apart anyway.   I plan on putting them in the ground early next week and thanks for you input.

[Chuck White]

So, from all that I've read, I would guess that planting them 1-2" below ground level now and letting them go through the natural germination process will do the same thing as putting the nuts in the freezer then planting them in the spring. 

[ahlkey]

With such a large volume I just will not be able to plant them all this year.   So I will follow the advice of digging a pit "spread out the nuts, and cover them with 1-2 ft of sand and mulch. Then cover the pit with screening to keep the rodents out and when the ground thraws in the spring --- dig up the nuts and plant in 2 inches deep (three per hole)".  As with most of things this will be a big effort in the spring but I will then have more time to plant everything.

[beenthere]

With such a large volume I just will not be able to plant them all this year.   So I will follow the advice of digging a pit "spread out the nuts, and cover them with 1-2 ft of sand and mulch. Then cover the pit with screening to keep the rodents out and when the ground thraws in the spring --- dig up the nuts and plant in 2 inches deep (three per hole)".  As with most of things this will be a big effort in the spring but I will then have more time to plant everything.

Maybe just need 1-2 inches of sand and mulch. Two feet is a lot of work burying and also digging them up.

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah a couple feet of turf is pretty heavy duty.

What I did with red oak acorns one time was I harrowed up a spot below the garden, scattered the acorns and raked them in the newly worked ground and took wheel barrows full of sugar maple leaves to cover the works. I had oaks galore nest spring. But many of the oaks did get girdled by mice because of all the grass that grew up. If your growing hardwood around here, you have to have very short herbs like wild strawberries for ground cover or the mice will move in on you. I planted about 500 yellow birch, if I recall, on an adjacent plot where an orchard was removed and those are about 10 feet tall now. The seedlings were green house started, and at that point they were only 4" tall from the nursery. When I planted them they were 12-16" tall. I walked the fertilizer to them when I received them for a few weeks.   The seed was from my own collections.

I tried 3000 on the woodlot but the moose and rabbits had great fun, took them about a week or so.

[ahlkey]

I had already dug the pit which is about 10' X 6' or so.  It was in sandy soil so it really was not that difficult overall.   I followed the write up from the University of Minnesota PDF - "Growing Black Walnuts" which recommends 1-2 ft of sand or mulch for good stratification in a pit.  The hard part really will be planting next spring as I figure I have around 200 gallons of walnuts which have to be a few thousand in total.  Three years this past spring I planted 10,000 two year red oaks and white pine. I used a planter at that time as I was reclaiming 10 acres of a field but this will all be done by hand around the woodlot in a number of clearing areas.  The property did originally have a lot of Butternut trees but all of the mature ones are either on the decline or been cut.   So I thought I would try Walnut trees. 

[Chuck White]

The wind is really taking the walnuts off the tree today.

Do the nuts need to be husked or just bury them 1 - 2 inches below the surface?

We have an area at my brothers camp that's rolling hills and very stoney, I think this would be a good place to plant!

Any thoughts?

[beenthere]

Black walnut grows best on deep soil that has washed off the hillsides (think good corn ground ). They may grow and exist on stoney hillside, but won't do their best.

[Chuck White]

Sounds good we have that too.

I would think that just take them as they fall and bury them shallow, that way they can still freeze and crack to enable germination.