8. Things to Know Before Falling in Love with
Nuts
ā¢ Your site characteristics
ā¢ Soil-test it!
ā¢ Water
ā¢ Climate
ā¢ Micro-climate
ā¢ Your own characteristics i.e. your context
ā¢ Financial
ā¢ Existing and needed skills/knowledge
ā¢ Do all of your decision makers agree?
ā¢ Does the nut species excite you? Including the non romantic aspects?
ā¢ Regrarian Platform-Darren Doherty
12. General Tips for All Species
ā¢ Visit people already growing nuts
ā¢ Yes, that includes conventional nut growers
ā¢ Get info from as many sources and perspectives as possible
ā¢ Learn to like reading academic papers
ā¢ Observe and interact with nut trees as much as you can
ā¢ Donāt under estimate grass and deer
ā¢ Join Northern Nut Growers Association
ā¢ Eat nuts!
13. Cultivars VS Seedlings
ā¢ Destroy Dichotomy!
ā¢ Cultivars:
ā¢ Predictable characteristics
ā¢ Yield
ā¢ Quality
ā¢ Disease resistance
ā¢ Uniform ripening time
ā¢ Grafted or clonal plants more expensive
ā¢ Often in short or no supply depending on species and variety
14. Cultivar VS Seedling
ā¢ Seedlings:
ā¢ Opportunity for selecting better varieties
ā¢ Cheaper to buy and/or propagate
ā¢ Can be used as rootstock if it sucks
ā¢ Not applicable to every species
ā¢ Often more vigorous growers
ā¢ Ripening time spread out
ā¢ Diversity also includes negative characteristics!
15. Cultivars VS Seedlings
ā¢ Choosing Seedlings
ā¢ Use seedlings of proven cultivars*Especially important for chestnut if you
want to graft*
ā¢ If you know it was pollinated by other good cultivars, even better
ā¢ Seedlings of good, non-cultivar plants
ā¢ Look at what the other trees in the planting are like
ā¢ Is this a commercial planting? Does the owner actually depend on nut production?
ā¢ Avoid buying run-of-the-mill seedlings, especially from large nurseries
ā¢ Applies to rootstock too
16. Chestnuts
ā¢ Castanea
ā¢ C. mollissima and hybrids
ā¢ C. crenata X C. sativa
ā¢ Wouldnāt recommend pure C. dentata due to blight.
ā¢ Soil characteristics are important for chestnut!
ā¢ Acidic soil 4-6.5
ā¢ Well drained
ā¢ Best to use seedlings of desired plant as rootstock
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19. Varieties
ā¢ C. mollissima
ā¢ Mossbarger
ā¢ Luvallās Monster
ā¢ Sleeping Giant
ā¢ Lockwood
ā¢ Qing
ā¢ Gideon
ā¢ Gellatly hybrids with isolation from Chinese
ā¢ Complex hybrids
20. Varieties
ā¢ C. crenata X C. sativa-for trial only zone 4 and 5!
ā¢ Szego-Actually mollissima X sativa
ā¢ Maraval
ā¢ Marsol
ā¢ Marigoule
ā¢ Bouche de Betizac
21. Farm or Homestead?
ā¢ Both! As long as your site fits its needs
ā¢ Commercial production will require transportation or proximity to
population centers
ā¢ Immigrants from chestnut cultures like chestnuts
ā¢ Main advantage is that it doesnāt need shelling
22. Walnuts
ā¢ Juglans regia- Eurasian walnut, āEnglishā, āPersianā, āCarpathianā
ā¢ Juglans nigra-Black walnut
ā¢ Juglans cinerea-Butternut
ā¢ Juglans ailantifolia-Heartnut
ā¢ Hybrids of above, especially butternut and heartnut AKA Buartnut
23. Juglans regia
ā¢ What nut growers dreams are made of
ā¢ Then what their nightmares are made of
ā¢ Compared to other walnut species it lacks hardiness and disease/pest
resistance
ā¢ Walnut blight
ā¢ Butternut Curculio
ā¢ Usually grafted on black walnut with few incompatibility issues
ā¢ Thousand Canker disease could change this
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31. Juglans regia
ā¢ Varieties
ā¢ Papple
ā¢ Combe
ā¢ Lake
ā¢ ISU 73H32
ā¢ Harrison
ā¢ Broadview-from Gellatly via Ukraine. Produces pendulous fruit like heartnut
ā¢ Sejnovo
ā¢ Dooley 69-E-(nigraXregia) X regia
ā¢ Idaho-regia X nigra
32. Juglans regia
ā¢ Characteristics to look for
ā¢ Lateral bearing
ā¢ Short, stocky shoots that harden quickly
ā¢ Not just hardy wood but hardy flower buds, especially male
ā¢ Donāt confuse blight or curculio damage for lack of hardiness
ā¢ Healthy foliage
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34. Juglans nigra
ā¢ Native walnut species
ā¢ Thick, hard shell
ā¢ Strong tasting nut meats disliked by some
ā¢ High value timber
ā¢ Thousand Canker disease
ā¢ Grafted on same species
36. Juglans nigra
ā¢ Things to look for in a good tree
ā¢ Adapted to your climate
ā¢ Leafs out late
ā¢ Matures nuts before frost
ā¢ Hardens off early
ā¢ % kernel and shell structure more important than nut size
ā¢ 25-30% kernel
ā¢ Disease resistance
ā¢ Anthracnose
ā¢ Thousand canker disease?
37. Juglans nigra
ā¢ Farm or homestead?
ā¢ If close enough to a processing facility it can make a good farm crop
38. Juglans cinerea
ā¢ Native walnut species with elongated nuts, now found primarily in
early succession ecosystems
ā¢ Population devastated by butternut canker
ā¢ Often grafted on black walnut or butternut. Buartnut would make a
lot of sense
39. Juglans cinerea
ā¢ Varieties-
ā¢ Any local tree thatās alive!
ā¢ Buartnuts selected for butternut characteristics- āButter-buartsā
40. Juglans cinerea
ā¢ Farm or homestead
ā¢ Little prospect as a commercial crop due to butternut canker and poor
cracking characteristics.
41. Juglans ailantifolia
ā¢ East Asian species with some trees having butternut type nuts and
some having the heart shaped nuts
ā¢ Seems well adapted to Upper-Midwest conditions zone 5 and up
ā¢ Bunch disease only potential issue
ā¢ Often grafted on black walnut but can out grow stock
ā¢ Suggest grafting on buartnut seedlings for hardiness, disease resistance, and
vigor
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45. Juglans ailantifolia
ā¢ Varieties:
ā¢ Etter
ā¢ Campbell CW3-seedling of Etter. Late bloom and cold hardy. Said to be side bearing
ā¢ CW1
ā¢ CWW
ā¢ Campbellās West
ā¢ Imshu
ā¢ Pyke
ā¢ Blunt-cold hardy from Manchurian walnut genes
ā¢ Locket
ā¢ Stealth
ā¢ Szukis
46. Juglans ailantifolia
ā¢ Buartnut varieties with heart like nuts
ā¢ Mitchell-Thought to be most hardy
ā¢ Dooley
ā¢ Filzinger
ā¢ Miekalās buartnuts
47. Juglans ailantifolia
ā¢ Farm or homestead
ā¢ Farm?
ā¢ Needs cracking, easier to do small scale but still time consuming
51. Carya ovata
ā¢ Good nut should give at least 50% whole halves
ā¢ At least 85 nuts per pound
ā¢ Size is less important than internal shell structure
52. Carya ovata
ā¢ Farm or homestead?
ā¢ Homestead
ā¢ Farm possibilities with a shelling facility
53. Carya cordiformis
ā¢ Native hickory, faster growth than shagbark and more precocious
ā¢ Very similar to pecan
ā¢ Bitternut with high tannin
ā¢ High oil content
ā¢ Useful for breeding purposes
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55. Carya cordiformis
ā¢ Varieties
ā¢ Halesite-sweet bitternut
ā¢ Hatch-sweet bitternut
ā¢ Abbott-cross with pecan
ā¢ Galloway-cross with pecan
ā¢ Mall-cross with pecan
ā¢ Nelson-cross with pecan
ā¢ Pooshee-cross with pecan
ā¢ Westbrook-cross with pecan
56. Carya cordiformis
ā¢ Farm or homestead?
ā¢ Potential for income from pure bitternut for oil. More viable wild collected
ā¢ Potential for bitternut X pecan but more breeding work needed
57. Carya illinoinensis
ā¢ Closest native range is the border of Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota
ā¢ Hardiness not as much of a problem as length of season
ā¢ Need to drop nuts before hard frost
ā¢ āNorthernā pecan works in southern Illinois, northern Missouri,
Kentucky. Need āUltra-northernā for upper-midwest
ā¢ Issues with scab in susceptible varieties
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60. Carya illinoinensis
ā¢ Ultra-Northern Varieties-
ā¢ Snaps
ā¢ PK Jumbo
ā¢ Deerstand
ā¢ Oaks
ā¢ Diken
ā¢ Lucus
ā¢ All are small nuts, 1-1.5 inches long
61. Carya illinoinensis
ā¢ Northern varieties for breeding purposes or warm years
ā¢ Posey-fair resistance to scab
ā¢ Starking
ā¢ Witte
ā¢ Major-Scab resistance
ā¢ Hark-scab resistance
ā¢ Shepard-Scab resistance
ā¢ Warren 346-scab resistance
ā¢ Kansas state varieties
ā¢ Kanza-scab resistant
ā¢ Lakota
ā¢ Osage
ā¢ Oswego
62. Carya illinoinensis
ā¢ Farm or homestead?
ā¢ Ultra northern pecans are too small to compete with southern production.
Potential as an oil crop?
ā¢ Northern pecan could be grown as pollen source for breeding with ultra
northern or other hickory species
63. Carya laciniosa
ā¢ Shellbark hickory native to southern part of Midwest and up the
Mississippi to around Iowa City
ā¢ Large nut, biggest of hickory
ā¢ Tends to be more of a mesic species than either shagbark or pecan
ā¢ Takes a lot of heat to ripen nuts
ā¢ Lots of āpacking materialā and convoluted shell structure
65. Carya laciniosa
ā¢ Farm or homestead?
ā¢ Neither except for homestead trial. Gary Fernald says he thinks that there
could be varieties that ripen in Zone 5 Wisconsin
67. Corylus spp.
ā¢ Long history of breeding and attempted industry in Wisconsin
ā¢ Euro hazelnut has cold hardiness and disease issues
ā¢ American hazelnut tends to have small nuts
ā¢ Hybrids are seen as the solution
ā¢ Selection for Euro characteristics can lead to disease problems
ā¢ Selection for disease resistance can lead to more American characteristics
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71. Corylus spp.
ā¢ Varieties-
ā¢ Tom Molnar breeding pure C. avellana for disease resistance and cold
hardiness
ā¢ Midwest hazels-hybrids of american and European
ā¢ Clonal selections being made and trialed. Few available but starting
ā¢ Controlled crosses available and being trialed
ā¢ John Gordon varieties collected by Molnar
ā¢ Gordon 1-4
ā¢ Contact Tom Molnar for scionwood
ā¢ Could be used as reference cultivars
72. Corylus spp.
ā¢ Farm or Homestead?
ā¢ Farm? Genetic improvements are happening but processing industry is in its
infancy
ā¢ Homestead use for sure
73. Suggested Reading
ā¢ NNGA Newsletters
ā¢ A Guide to Nut Tree Culture-Editor Dennis Fulbright
ā¢ Nut Tree Culture in North America-Editor Richard Jaynes
ā¢ Nut Tree Ontario- Ernie Grimo
ā¢ Nut Growing Ontario Style-John Gordon available online
http://johnsankey.ca/songnews/nutgrowing.html
ā¢ Growing Nuts in the North-Carl Weschcke also available online
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18189
ā¢ Growing Hybrid Hazelnuts-Philip Rutter et. all
74. Suggested Reading
ā¢ NAFEX
ā¢ Upper-Midwest Hazelnut Development Initiative (UMHDI)
ā¢ Chestnut Growers of America
ā¢ University of Missouri School of Agroforestry
ā¢ Nut Competitions