Black Walnuts

Ultradog MN · Jul 10, 2013

I have 3 black walnut trees in my yard.
They're all about 12-14" in diameter at the butt.
I've been here for 6 years now and they've never had a single nut on them.
This year it looks like I'll get a bunch of them.
I'm wondering why.

JCinKY · Jul 10, 2013

Not sure why they started now, but that size should be at least a couple decades old and you'd think they would've started sooner.

You will soon wish they didnt drop. I've got 6 that line my driveway. They can be he!! on mowers. Even my 6' KK doesn't like em.

Ever ran over a 5 gallon bucket worth of golf balls :shock:

huntingreen2day · Jul 10, 2013

In the fall harvest them and eat them. Great tasting nut. Just a little work to get to the meat.

Russ from MN · Jul 10, 2013

Did you threaten it in any way, prune, damage bark, or disturb the ground around them? Some trees get the urge to reproduce when they feel threatened. That's why a pruned apple tree usually will produce more apples.

farmallstrong · Jul 10, 2013

I have 15 trees. They seem to produce on different years never all the same time. I don"t eat them but I store them and put them out all winter for the squirrels. I also have a friend who makes stain from the hulls. Black Walnut trees are the last to get there leaves in the spring & the first to drop them in the fall.

Mark6005 · Jul 10, 2013

We have plenty for us and the squirrels live on em all winter.
Glad we have them but ours produce every year had no idea
they wouldn"t

WAYNE-N-TX · Jul 10, 2013

Back when I was a kid, long time ago, the most enjoyable thang in the winter was to go to a walnut tree and eat the nuts. You can take a piece of hay wire, that's what we called it then, flatten out one end and dig all the goodies out. I doubt if anyone knows how to do that now.

I guess most of us here has out lived our time, so sad. I'm still not sure how to use a cell phone!!!

Dean · Jul 10, 2013

The black walnut trees on my property produce nuts some years and not other years. Don't know why but I suspect it is weather related.

I also have some that have never produced nuts.

Dean

GordoSD · Jul 10, 2013

Google black walnut pollinator

Adrian Billheimer · Jul 10, 2013

We have them all over the place here, I have several dozen on our farm alone, theye produce every year, but not as much every other year.

Dan T in MO · Jul 11, 2013

We have a very large walnut tree down in the bottoms that has never produced a nut as far as I know. I'm thinking it would make some real Purdy gun stocks and maybe a dobro or 2, but getting the logs out of there would be a real chore. Maybe I'll go down there and threaten it with the chainsaw and see if I get some walnuts to feed to my hogs.

Anonymous-0 · Jul 11, 2013

We have Black walnuts, and I was always told they produce more in 7 yr cycles, and I have seen this with ours. Also, know from experience..don't have a garden near a black walnut tree,something in the leaves? have some kind of toxin that can wipe out a garden..learned that the hard way.

Anonymous-0 · Jul 11, 2013

The toxin is called allelopathy, here's a link:
poke here

Ultradog MN · Jul 11, 2013

I have both black walnuts and butternuts up at my land in central MN. The walnuts are at their extreme northern range and were introduced.
Butternuts are native there.
I grew up eating butternuts. Real similar to walnuts but shaped like a football.
Not so highly prized for their wood as it's softer and less colorful. Have about 150' of rough sawn butternut stashed up there that I should sell.
Agree that mowers don't like them as much as the squirrels.
No I didn't disturb their roots or trim them at all.
I know they don't bear nuts every year but thought 6 years without and then suddenly start producing was kind of odd.

Thanks for all the replys.

James Babcock · Jul 11, 2013

Thanks for the memory, Wayne. Dad always took an 8penny nail and flattened the end to dig out the goodies. I need to show my grandsons next fall how to do that!

Blackhole49 · Jul 11, 2013

I have 400 Black Walnut trees, so I get nuts every year. Never paid attention to individual tree cycles. The nuts I get are good but, small and too much work to get out of the shell. My neighbor has an English Walnut and the nuts out of it are like you by in the store. The squirrels and chipmunks get 99% of them. They leave my nuts on the ground until they get desperate.

randallinMo · Jul 11, 2013

I"ve been picking up walnuts every year since I was a little kid. It was always our "Christmas money". One year my brother and I picked up 400 sacks full and sold them. We got $100.00 total for those and WE WERE RICH! I"ve always noticed that the walnut trees seem to produce "well" every other year.

ohiojim · Jul 11, 2013

12 to 14 inches,...they may have just started to mature...

JerryS · Jul 11, 2013

My father-in-law has a lever-type cracker that explodes the shell of a walnut or hickory nut. Ever see walnut "halves"? This cracker makes 'em. He also has an expanded metal drum, turned by a motor, that removes the outer husk and polishes the nut shell.

Fordfarmer · Jul 11, 2013

Can't tell you why they haven't had nuts before now. We've got a bunch of them, and they've had nuts every year as far as I can remember, starting from a smaller size than yours. Those husks make a mess on stuff... splattered on the driveway, or launched from a water balloon slingshot.

641Dave · Jul 11, 2013

I heard a story once that some of the old timers would put black walnuts that still had the green cover on them in tote sacks and run the wagons over them to mash them up. Then they would drag the tote sack full of mashed walnuts though the river to bring fish to the surface.

...must be something with that toxin. hmmm

pete 23 · Jul 11, 2013

When I was a kid, we moved to this farm that had one walnut tree. Huge nuts, nothing inside of them. That was in 1950, tree still stands in corner of farm yard. Couple years ago had a bumper crop. Good nuts. I husked, dried, cracked open a bunch and the meat is still in a plastic bag and son was eating a few the other day. I can't easily eat nuts, (teeth) and no one really wants them. Last year I picked them off lawn and let the squirrels have at them. Tree was damaged by a storm so maybe that is why it decided to get with it.

W_B · Jul 12, 2013

(quoted from post at 02:36:05 07/11/13) I have 3 black walnut trees in my yard.
They're all about 12-14" in diameter at the butt.
I've been here for 6 years now and they've never had a single nut on them. This year it looks like I'll get a bunch of them.
I'm wondering why.

Why? Your luck just ran out! Nice trees but dirty. You'll be getting the chain saw out after spending a day picking up walnuts or you forget and park your pickup under it in the early fall and wonder why your hood is dimpled (don't ask!).

Anonymous-0 · Jul 13, 2013

Really interested in the nut cracker. Would it be possible to get the company's name that manufactured it? Gathered a bunch of hickory nuts a couple of years ago and they are gathering dust because too hard to get the meats out. Have looked at those shown on the internet but unwilling to spend that much money on something that doesn't work. Always have a bunch of walnuts but they are also hard to crack and since they aren't in the yard the squirrels get them although many are left to sprout and therefore black walnut trees are everywhere.

Black Walnuts

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