Thanks for the offer Darrel, but I will pass for this year. I have no experience grafting greenwood for black walnut. I don’t think my rootstock is of adequate quality to try more walnut grafting this year. I noticed the scions I got from Richard Fahey were harvested much later in the year than the scions you harvested for me. The buds on the later scions were more swollen and well defined. My rootstock was bareroot with a large amount of root bleeding. The later scions grafted to these bleeding rootstock very well (looks like approximately 95% take after several weeks). The scions deeper in dormancy either did not take or are just struggling. I will inspect the graft unions in about two weeks. The grafting parameters were identical for all sets of scions. I am extremely grateful for your generosity. I feel I could have had 95% plus takes on the scions you sent me if I was doing bark grafts on well established rootstock.
Do you think the heat wave we had in February had anything to do with the the issues I had with the black walnut scions you sent me? Even stranger, all the pecan scions you sent me had 95% or better takes???
I started a bunch of Thomas and Neel #1 seed (provided by you), which are doing well. I should have plenty of high quality rootstock next year for any varieties that did not take if you are still feeling generous?
I can’t say with regard to the scionwood except that the pecan was collected in mid-February and the walnut the end of January. I’ve had best results with the inlay side graft to such an extent that I don’t even use other graft methods for walnut.
In addition to the Spark’s cultivars you listed above I obtained a scion of Sparks 128. I cannot find any information on this selection. Does anyone have any data for Sparks 128?
@Fusion_power
Darrell,
I planted out a seedling of Farrington, Neel, Thomas and Cranz today from the seeds you sent me. Thanks so much. Planting very late in Spring but I have multiple of each in pots for backups. This is a Cranz pic here.
Actually, if anyone has some thoughts on it, please I would love to hear. Do you think it’s real? This is the first I’ve ever heard of a buartnut/black walnut cross. I think Oikos only sells seedlings so the genetics of each tree would not be guaranteed.
I love the flavor of black walnuts, but most people seem not to. Does this produce a mild flavored black walnut? It sounds interesting. I wonder if crosses back to buartnuts would be possible with this seedling? I never had a buartnut, but I would love to try one.
I’m generally not impressed with hybrids though I saw one highly productive buartnut at Les Wilmoth’s place back in 2005. If you want to talk about possibilities, John Brittain at Nolin River Nursery can probably tell you a lot more than I can.
I strongly disagree with their statement re growing for timber. I’ve never seen a hybrid involving heartnut that did not share the heartnut growth habit which is a spreading multi-branched umbrella.
Of the three “Thomas” sticks I grafted onto Native BW one remains and looks to be a great possible long term take.
Also, all the seeelings I planted from the Neel, Thomas, Cranz and Farrington @Fusion_power kindly sent me are doing very well. Hardy group doing well field planted this late spring. Below is the “Thomas” onto native BW.
I just picked up my first wild black walnuts today. I was surprised with how much meat there was but the flavor was off putting. I’ve never had a type of nut I didnt like and assumed these would be no different, but I only ate 3 of the 15 or so I collected. The husks were rotted off and they’d probably had been on the ground for a month, could they have spoiled that fast? I was wondering do named varieties taste better? Or did I not collect these soon enough?
Not everyone likes the taste of BWs; I’m the only one in my family who does.
It’s a stronger flavor (actually have flavor) than Persian walnuts.
Delayed dehusking will allow discoloration of nut meats and may also add an undesirable flavor in some instances.
I gathered two 5-gal buckets of them today…picked up mostly greens, but in the 2 weeks since I mowed, quite a lot had already dropped and gone black and gooey.
These from named-parentage seedlings I grew from nuts brought home from a KyNGA meeting 20 years ago. Some are pretty good! Been bearing well for 10 yrs or more. Found first nuts from a couple of Japanese walnut seedlings planted at the same time…look like butternuts, but I’m pretty sure they weren’t…but it’s been a long time…
I checked out a massive specimen bw growing in the door yard of a historic Maine farmhouse, a very impressive, spreading, low crowned tree which was just starting to drop a few nuts. The samples seemed to husk very easily, a stomp and the husk remnants came right off leaving the nut quite clean. The nuts seem pretty good sized forwhat I’ve seen around, and a cracked a few which had filled out the shell. Seems like a winner, I will return in the weeks ahead to gather some more of the 100s of pounds still in the tree
Typically the process after hulling them is to set them out to dry. I set them out to dry in my cool, dark garage table for at least a few weeks. The taste improved dramatically from just husking, breaking shell and tasting.
Patti Jackson provided a few black walnuts too. I was able to get them out in quarters, which is a huge step up for me.
Overall, I’m very happy with it. My one gripe is some corrosion on the piece of vertical flat bar that is attached to the handle. This is purely cosmetic, but I will probably try painting it to make it look a little better.
Edit: I should have edited this post earlier—it slipped my mind with the start of classes. Patti mailed me a new piece of vertical flat bar free of charge so my nut cracker is pristine now.
I have one of the small corn shellers that I use for black walnuts. It works well. I’ve never had really green husked walnuts to try, they are usually getting soft and even mushy. It does get the husk off then I finish washing them in a cement mixer. You can drop several walnuts in the top and work them down one after the other. I turn the crank with my right hand and work the nuts with my left. Sometimes they need to be fed back in to get them mostly clean.
It works well for a small amount of nuts, but I wouldn’t want to do acres of them.
I don’t have my own trees, but have located several that have decent nuts that I can get for free. I only do a couple of tubs a year.
I spent the night with Gerald Gardner about 15 years ago and brought some walnuts and a cracker home with me. Since then, I have purchased 4 more of them for friends and family. I have two of them sitting here beside me. There are a couple of others worth purchasing including the angle cracker Fred Blankenship makes plus the Hunt cracker.
