Anyone growing buartnut? I’m thinking about planting three trees here in north Alabama. If anyone has experience with how long it took to get nuts, how productive they are once the tree matures, or any issues with pollination, I’d appreciate your input. There’s some info out there but not a lot of specifics from actual folks growing it. Thanks.
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I have the hybrid Stark’s Bountiful butternut . Took forever to bloom . After about 3 years of blooming and few nuts it finally has more nuts this year . So 13 + years to a modest harvest . It self pollinates but I think it needs to have lots of blooms to set nuts . The male and female flowers are not ready at the same time so pollination of staggered bloom on the tree achieves pollination . Same problem with the Westfield heart nut that they sold as a pollinator . They do not bloom together . The heartnut has a fair crop this year also .
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Thanks, that’s good info. It is a lot of time and room to devote to trees if there isn’t a great chance of success. I’m just looking for some nuts to yield in the years when the pecans don’t. Sounds like I need to do some more research or hopefully some more folks will chime in on the pollination issue. Hope you get some decent harvest this year after your long wait.
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I can’t help with pollination, unfortunately.
I can supply you with the best hickories/hicans:
The only two hicans that are necessary to have among the flock:
T-92
Underwood
Shellbark hickory
Keystone
Longnecker
Fayette
Shagbarbark hickory
Grainger
Porter
Dax
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Thanks for the info. There are not too many folks who’ve had the chance to compare these. I see Grimo carries some of these. I’m new to grafting but I look forward to viewing some of your videos to pick up tips. You also reminded me that I need to mark my calendar to go check for nuts on a shagbark growing in a distant wooded area. That huge shaggy tree made a big impression on me when I came across it as a youngster.
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The Easter Big Freeze Disaster of 2007 killed off almost every one of my grafted heartnuts/buartnuts/Carpathian walnuts, and many of the seedling butternuts & Japanese walnuts.
I’ve got a seedling of Bountiful(which was misidentified and sold for decades as a butternut until genetic testing revealed it to be a buartnut), germinated in 1998, that has yet to produce a catkin, much less a nut. Seedling butternuts, from seednuts sent by an acquaintance from north GA, have been bearing for a few years - but I’ve either planted or given away every nut they made. I’m hoping that when the Bountiful seedling finally begins to bloom & bear, that it, the seedling butternuts, and the sole remaining heartnut (Late Rhodes) will be compatible with one another.
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That’s sure is a shame on the freeze. It does seem the late spring freezes in the South seem to be more of a limiting factor than low temperature. Well now, I’m not sure what happened for you guys because the Stark Bros site clearly says the Bountiful “butternut” will start producing in 2-3 yrs (big wink of irony). Glad everyone’s input here can bring my expectations a little closer to reality. Hope one day soon I’ll be hearing about your success when your Bountiful finally comes into bearing.
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A grafted ‘Bountiful’ will probably begin bearing in a fairly short time… though I wouldn’t count on 2-3 years. Grafted trees typically begin bearing in half the time, or less, that a seedling requires to reach fruiting age.
Mine is a seedling of Bountiful… has had a much longer juvenile period than I’d expected… 2-yr old black walnut seedlings planted in similar locations usually start bearing in 8-10 years or so, but I suppose 20 years is not outside the realm of normalcy of juvenility for a seedling nut tree
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Update on the bountiful butternut . 25 gallon half barrel full plus some in a bucket . So about 5 gallons last year .
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Just looked at this photo… those sure look more like black walnut than butternut to me… would help to actually see one of the nuts, removed from the husk material. My butternuts kinda fall out of the husk without all the muss & fuss that BWs require. Makes me wonder if Jerry63’s ‘Bountiful’ graft died, and what he ended up with was the black walnut rootstock. That would explain the long time to bearing.
That happened to one some friends here bought from Stark’s many years ago…I was excited when they told me they had a butternut… but disappointed when they showed it to me, and it was just a nondescript, average black walnut… the graft had died early on and the rootstock grew out.
I have been thinking about putting in a couple more butternuts. How long did it take yours to start cropping? I mostly focused on heartnuts when I was planting and they crop pretty quick.
I don’t recall… nuts were planted back around 2000, been bearing for quite a number of years. .most seedling black walnuts have been productive by 8-10 yrs or so. Grafted specimens typically bear in half the time a seedling takes to come into bearing
Blacks are like weeds and I am not a fan. I saw they have developed a new strain of white walnut. Supposed to crop faster, crack easier, and is more immune to disease. I love the whites and heartnuts. Pretty expensive, but I am thinking about trying a few of the new whites.
No never died back . Nuts have butternut traits . Elongated and deep groves . Crack fairly easy .
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Thanks Jerry - good to know. Just couldn’t see a nut for all the husks!
My two seedling butternuts, and the couple of seedling Japanese walnuts that have reached bearing age/size, which make a nut that looks very much like butternut - are hardly worth bothering to collect. Their structure is such that I only get kernel fragments - and not much of them, at that. I saw something in print, years ago… on the NNGA website, I think… indicating that even the ‘very best’ butternuts only cracked out at about 25% kernel… that’s a lot of wood left over after cracking & picking out the nutmeats.
There’s a group of folks who are selecting buartnuts and the like for pressing for the oil… so, cracking characteristics are not so important to them as are total production and oil content.
I planted two 1 1/2’ butternut trees in 2014 and one more in 2015 from Gurneys. In 2016 a frost on May 14th killed the leaves, but they sprouted new ones. They are in a former pasture in full sun, wired against deer and rodents, painted white on trunks, fertilized with 10-10-10, probably mulched. They are now about waist high in 2021. I wonder if I will still have teeth when (if) they finally produce nuts?
I tried to order buartnuts from both One Green World in 2015 and from Burnt Ridge in 2018, but both places later cancelled my order, so I assume they must have figured they weren’t hardy enough here. No explanation was given either time. I’ve never tasted a buartnut. What are others’ experiences with them in the Upper Midwest or Northeast?
Growing up south of Madison, WI, I remember gathering butternuts in the woods on our farm. There is also a producing butternut tree in our neighborhood here east of St. Paul, MN, or at least there was. I haven’t ventured over there since a house was built on the lot several years back. I have read there is a disease that affects the butternuts now. Since mine are isolated, I hope they will avoid the disease. ( Kind of like Covid).
That’s interesting. I put four butternuts in three years ago. Two died and the other two have not even put on a foot of growth yet. Thought they were supposed to grow fast? My heartnuts have shot up quick though. Heartnuts seem like the ticket in the walnut world. Quick growth and cropping.