Black Walnut question re fruit production

[Gunner]

I have an abundance of black walnuts and they seem to vary as to fruit production. One in particular had much fruit in the fall of '02, last summer/fall nothing, and now this year it's laden with fruit and they are dropping already and they are only large marble sized. Is it normal for the tree to skip a season and is it normal for it to be dropping so early? Weather and conditions haven't really been extreme...I live in zone 6 New Jersey.
Much as the fruit is a pain to deal with, I don't want to lose the tree and am concerned that something might not be right. Thanks for any responses and opinions.
Richard

[Phorester]

Most trees produce seeds on a variable schedule, and black walnut is no exception.  Some years there will be a large crop, other years a small crop.  You can sometimes observe a single tree over the years and determine it's seed production schedule, and predict which years it will bear a lot (or a little).

That being said, health is the second biggest factor in seed production.  If the tree senses it is dying, it will put all its energy in to trying to reproduce.  So it will have a large seed crop the last year or two of its life.

But I wouldn't be concerned about your walnut yet.  This may just be a big seed year for it.  

[SwampDonkey]

Walnuts are self pollinating, but some years there may be a short supply of pollen from the tree or other trees around. This may result in nuts not being fertilized and will be droped pre-maturely.

[rebocardo]

If you have a big year for nuts, I would not mind some to plant. Not that I probably will live to see a black walnut grow into anything I could use since they probably bear nuts after 50 - 70 years?

[SwampDonkey]

Walnuts bare nuts quite young. I have 2 walnuts on the lawn I planted in 1992 and they have been producing nuts for 4 years now. But, ya know what? The local squirrels don't even touch'm. I have a larger butternut tree beside them, and the squirrels come to it instead. I saw a squirrel a couple weeks ago run out onto the end of a branch with butternut flowers and chewed a cluster of flowers off. Must have been anxious to gather his nuts. The butternut tree is about 40 years old and it was transplanted 20 years ago from a local stand. It produces heavy crops every 2 to 3 years, but has nuts annually.

[Jeff]

If you have a big year for nuts, I would not mind some to plant. Not that I probably will live to see a black walnut grow into anything I could use since they probably bear nuts after 50 - 70 years?

I can remember the grove Dad planted started having good crops of nuts when they were only 8 years old. Plant some trees!  Not sure how walnuts do in your area?

[rebocardo]

I live in GA, but, have property in Central Maine, so I could hopefully plant them both places. My red acorns I have planted before winter have not sprouted yet. I did as someone suggested and planted a can with them and some dirt underground. I am going to dig it up this week and see if they will germinate.

[BlaBla]

Last fall I went and gathered black walnuts to plant in my back pasture. They took an hour to gather from a local tree and another couple of hours to plant. This was about 400 seeds and they took a few hours of my time. Now I have tons of black walnuts trees! Plant some. It's really interesting watching them progress They've taken zero maintenance as of now and they're all alive and healthy.

[SwampDonkey]

Rebo:

Just plant them acorns in 1 inch of soil, take a piece of iron 1 inch diameter and poke a hole and drop the acorn, then kick the earth, move on to the next. To improve germination put some fall leaves over the area you plant to hold moisture in the spring. You'll have tons of seedlings. Do this in the fall, so the seed get stratified properly. Most acorn seed still lying on the ground not germinated will be duds or have dead embryos by this time of year.

BlaBla:

Yes its fun to grow walnut or butternut and they are quite a sturdy seedling. I know my butternut seeds I've planted around have been very successful germinating. I don't find them emerged untill mid july in my area.

[daws]

Here in northern Iowa, southern Minnesota we been doing direct seeding of walnut, red oak, white oak, and ash for about 10 years.  It works well where there is a shortage of good quality hardwood seedlings.  Especially in CRP fields where the deer would hammer the oak.  You just overwelm them with numbers.  It's not uncommon to have 2000-4000 stems per acre of desireable hardwoods.

[SwampDonkey]

daws:

That's pretty much what ya have to do alright. But, I tried it with yellow birch and it didn't work. They were 18 inch seedlings, from local seed. The snow-shoe hare and mice had a field day for a few weeks. (planted 1000 trees/acre). Planted some buy the house after it was sprayed with roundup, not much for rodent damage. But plant them in grassland and the mice and moles girdle them. The rodents don't seem to bother the red oak, white ash and butternut seedlings much, thank goodness.

[rebocardo]

> The rodents don't seem to bother the red oak, white ash
>  and butternut seedlings much, thank goodness

That is good to know. Where I want to plant in ME, it is big open field, about 6-7 acres of just grass/hay from an old field. There are tons of deer and mice there. When they hay the field, the mice run out and down the road and are caught by a fox that lives in a den on the property.

[SwampDonkey]

rebo:

Deer and moose are a different matter, they will browse anything succulent (new spring shoots). Also, beware the black walnut will have die-back if the seed source is not from its extreme north range. Plant them in the shelter of softwoods from NW-W winds in winter months.

[rebocardo]

thanks