I recieved walnuts from a friend who said I should plant them. Does anyone know if and how to do this. I have kept them for several years in a dark dry place. I am guessing they are no longer good. However, if I get more , I would like to know if it is possible to grow them? Thanks, SGrund

-- sandi grund (sgrund@in4web.com), October 03, 2001

Answers

Soak the nuts in water, a day or two, Then freeze and then plant. The freezing preps the shell.

-- Rich (pntbeldyk@wirefire.com), October 03, 2001.

Sandi, Great question!!!!! I have been wondering if it is possible to grow seedlings from a walnut if buried in a 5 gallon bucket of dirt. I am planning to try this, and want to leave the bucket outside during the winter.

-- clovis (clovis97@yahoo.com), October 03, 2001.

They come up "volunteer" around here from squirrels planting the walnuts. Have also had some success planting them myself, as soon as possible after they are on the ground. Although they do not all come up, many will come up the following spring if they are fertile.

-- fred (fred@mddc.com), October 03, 2001.

With out draging out one of my hort books if I remember right, black walnut from seed is fine but english walnut has to be grafted onto black walnut roots as they wont grow here.

-- kathy h (ckhart55@earthlink.net), October 03, 2001.

To those who have planted the walnuts-do you leave the outer husk on ? If so , do you rupture it before or after you freeze it. Thanks Lenny

-- darlene leonhart (dleonhart@sprynet.com), October 04, 2001.

You can plant the walnuts in the ground (2 to 6 inches deep should be okay) as soon as you have the nuts available after they fall from the trees. If you plant them right away you won't have to worry about freezing them or any other processing, as that will be handled by mother nature over the winter. I try to do this (plant walnuts) in odd corners of our property whenever I can get some walnuts in the fall. I am always surprised how fast they grow. I usually plant them with the husks off simply because that happens fairly quickly in the week or two of sitting around that the nuts go through before I get them in the ground. I don't think they will be good to plant next spring unless you make an effort to keep them moist and cool over winter. They seem to dry out too easily. I've never had to crack the shells or make any effort to husk them.

Good luck.

Jim (in western WI)

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), October 04, 2001.

You can plant with either the hulls on or hulls off, I prefer to plant with hulls on as that is usually indicative of more moisture within the shell, and if too dry they will not germinate as well.

-- fred (fred@mddc.com), October 04, 2001.

Sandi, I have several small trees growing in three and five gallon containers at the moment. These are both english and black walnuts. The black walnuts I picked up soon after they fell from the parent tree, I hulled the nuts before planting. The english walnuts were bought from the grocery store about this time last year. I planted both kinds in potting soil in large drink cups with drain holes in the bottom.They were placed in an unheated enclosed porch and kept watered.about 90% of what we planted came up and grew.They are very healthy trees about 18 inches or more now.I plan to plant them in the yard as soon as they go dormant this fall.I have a 4 foot tall papershell pecan tree I planted 3 years ago the same way. I can't say how well it will work in your area but here in north central Texas it works for me and the price is certainly right.Good Luck to You.

-- carla sloan (twosloans@texoma.net), October 04, 2001.

I've raised both black and english walnuts into producing trees. One regret I have is in not trying a thin-shell grafted black walnut also as a comparison. The same goes for my english walnuts. Yes, my seedlings are fairly good trees but I wonder what I'm missing.

-- Wayne B. IN (sueblake@onemain.com), March 06, 2002.