Let me send some seed for your lot(s). Plant a few in-situ next-season. Groups of several trees such as 3’s or 5’s in a given, particular, area, Trev.
You graft on them at 5 or 6 ft.
3 Likes
@Barkslip … thanks for the offer… i have considered growing pecans here on my place and possibly other nut trees, walnut, hican, heartnut, shellbark… but i have my doubts they would do well here. Most of those really need deep rich river bottom soil to do well in… and i do not have that.
I have ridge top land here (all my cleared land is on ridge top)… with 3 or 4 inches of decent soil… and then sticky red rocky clay.
Last fall I really got into foraging shagbark hickory nuts and located several nice trees… that i will collect from again… over and over again…
I think that will do me for hickory nuts.
Now i may want to try hazlenuts here on my place… at some point.
4 Likes
I saw the first hickory nut that fell from a tree today. It is that time of year again. I need to call the guy at Auburn to see if I can get some pecans again. He should have Kanza on the ground already.
3 Likes
Cracking them I don’t have an efficient answer for, but getting the hulls off just requires a boot, pavement and a pair of kitchen gloves. I toss them in a five gallon bucket, cover them with water and hit them with an electric paint mixer. Stop about a third full or you’ll splash the water every where. Some use a trash can and let the hulls rot a bit and go straight to the paint mixer stage, then a pressure hose, but that is way too messy for me.I cleaned about 3000 nuts a couple years ago, and I suspect I’ll see about 2000 again this year. I’ve about 100 fallen already this week, so the season is starting around here.
2 Likes
Nope, you’re going to have to figure something else, the TN river isn’t in the area you’re pointing to. (And I live somewhat close to the Cumberland River…but I know the Tennessee River is in Alabama at your longitude before it turns north to Paducah KY.
let me know. ill send you some nuts to plant.
Blueberry, TNHunter is less than 40 miles north from me. He is in a ridge area that is not adapted to shellbark hickory. He can go south to Florence (about 50 miles) or west to the Tennessee river valley near Decaturville (about 30 miles). I am a few miles west of Iron City TN and about 16 miles north of Florence AL.
This area has an abundance of hickory species including C. Ovata, C. Laciniosa, C. Tomentosa, C. Ovalis, C. Cordiformis, C. Glabra, and C. Illinoinensis. I’m planning a trip to Selma AL to gather some Nutmeg hickory nuts (C. Myristiciformis) so I can get a few trees growing.
1 Like
I do not know his precise location but I assume south/southeast from McMinnville/Manchester, TN.
He has posted pictures of hickory nuts and many other things over the past year.
I am not sure how much of the highland rim has shagbark hickory…but I think if the soil is amended a little, pecans and all hickories can probably live there. People plant lots of things outside of the spots they grow in the wild.
@BlueBerry … if I go west 38 miles or so on hwy 412 I cross the TN river… just b4 getting to Parsons TN… the river runs north/south there … north up to Land between the lakes… and south down to Savannah TN… b4 going into Alabama.
Pretty sure that is the north /south run indicated on that map for shellbark hickory.
Hmmm…I’ll have to get my state highway maps out I guess…the computer ones can be confusing.
I don’t know too much from in-person experience on western Tennessee, but east of I-65 I’ve traversed the majority of it.
Look on a map at the Alabama/Mississippi line just where it meets Tennessee. Go north about 45 miles and east about 20 miles. You will be near TNHunter’s place.
TNHunter, actually, the rivers runs south/north there. Yes, I’m picking nits. At some point I might ask if you are agreeable to a visit.
We used to spread a few bushels of black walnuts in the gravel driveway. After driving over them for a few weeks, they could be picked up free of hulls.
2 Likes
This is a common method used around here.
2 Likes
By the time the hulls are off…squirrels will say thank you and take and bury the nuts around here!
1 Like
@Blueberry… i found (foraged) hundreds of good shag and mocker hickory nuts last fall in October November and December.
Even into December they were just laying on top of the ground (the nut only) … the hull was gone… like when they dropped the hull split and bounced away… and the nut only was just laying there on top the leaves.
Talk about easy pickins…
A very high % float tested good too… 95% good or more even into December.
Not sure why the squirrels were not collecting those yet… but they were not… the trees (especially reds and pigs) still had plenty of nuts hanging on and the squirrels were eating those… and leaving the nice shagbark nuts laying on the ground.
I have plenty of mocker nut hickory on my property… and reds and pigs…
The reds and pigs will grow up on the ridge tops… but i find the mockers that produce the best nuts down deeper in the hollows. Shags here are almost always found down deeper in the hollow.
That is why i am thinking… pecans and shellbark are not so likely to do well on my ridge top land.
Mockers and Shags evidently choose to only grow and produce down in the hollows.
1 Like
I’ve done the BWs in the gravel driveway… but with improved varieties, I just get crushed nuts. So… anymore, I just roll 'em beneath my booted foot to dislodge the bulk of the husk, then put them in a 5-gal bucket with bit of water and stir vigorously, pouring off the black water and adding more, until they’re clean; then place in cool dry place to cure. Probably need to build a hardware cloth ‘cage’ for them, and use the pressure washer to blast residual husk material off.
Have known of folks who used a small motorized cement mixer, with a few chunks of brick tossed in with husked nuts and water to clean larger batches of BW nuts.
2 Likes
@Blueberry … Those images show my location in Lewis Co TN.
And just west of me you can see the TN River as it runs pretty much due North/South up thru the state.
It runs between Wayne and Hardin County… Perry and Decatur … Humphreys and Benton, Stewart and Henry…
Once you cross the border into Alabama it takes a Eastward turn there in Northern AL.
That red line I put on the natural range map for Shellbark Hickory… does appear to correspond to that section of the TN river that sort of divides middle and west TN.
I do not know anyone that lives over in that area or that owns TN river bottom land… but I do bet there are shellbark hickories there.
No bets required. The Tennessee river drainage is loaded with hickories of all types but especially with shagbark and shellbark. I see areas shown on the map that are not listed as having shellbark but that I know for sure contain some in the woods.
While rivers and streams were important for moving hickory and walnut nuts around, Amerindians also played a huge part. The disjunct population of pecan trees near Selma Alabama are likely a residue from nuts transported by the mound builders. I can point out places where there is an unusual clumping of hickory species that likely represent an old Indian encampment. These are especially prevalent on raised areas near rivers where they were unlikely to flood yet had ready access to the river for fishing.
1 Like
You might surprise yourself by irrigating and fertilizing a little.
My shagbark, pig are at about 1100 ft and none at 1300 elevation. But the valley is like 900 and still no or few hickory there. Shellbark extremely rare here.
@Blueberry… I would love to have a good nut tree here on my place… and my choice would be a pecan. Love em, buy them and eat them a lot… and they are very easy to crack and get good nut chunks out. Much easier than hickory.
But still the natural range of pecans is no where near my place… again love deep rich river bottom land. So I wonder… would they work here.
Starks says that a Grafted Pecan can produce in 4-8 years… that is a long time to wait and grow something you are not sure will actually thrive and fruit at your place.
They say 8-10 years on Hickory and Hazelnuts they say 6-8 years.
The older I get, the less I want to plant things that are going to take that long to possibly fruit.
I have to do low carb so Chestnuts are not an option.
I think my best bet may be to be happy with foraging shagbark hickory nuts. I can find plenty of those and they are very good.
3 Likes