My wife and I are planning to move this spring to a new property with abundant black walnuts. I love black walnuts, but let’s face it, cracking is slow and no fun. I want to graft some of the smaller black walnuts and/or seedlings over to easier cracking walnuts. I think Heartnut seems like a good candidate. Maybe also some sort of English or Persian walnut.
Does anyone have any suggestions for particular varieties I should look for and/or sources for scion? I know nut grafting is notoriously difficult, but rootstock availability shouldn’t be an issue and grafted nut trees tend to be pretty expensive. I figure I can waste a good deal of scion trying to learn and still come out cheaper than buying a few trees. Also if grafts are successful, I’ll have the advantage of a locally adapted root system.
For context I’m in southern VA zone 7a/7b. Our summers tend to be quite humid, but we get less summer rainfall than most areas of Southside VA. A humid drought is a normal summer for us.
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Check out Cliff England’s orchard. He has a nice collection of heartnuts and both walnuts. Also consider pecans. I’ve read on here that pecans and heartnuts are the easiest to process.
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Just had to reply to let you know the phrase “HUMID DROUGHT” is totally hilarious but quite accurate!!! Next time we have a drought (which is right now actually) that phrase will stick in my mind. Black walnut cracking is slow and tedious. My family always used a brick with holes and centered walnut in a hole using a standard claw hammer to crack neatly. Works but still a bit tedious. Best of luck in your search…Randy/GA
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Pecans are definitely on my priority list, but I currently only have one seedling and already have source for good scion to put on it. A lady we know from church has a huge papershell tree that cracks like a dream! Some nuts are so soft you can crack a single nut with bear hands. Planning on starting some seeds from it this year so I’ll have rootstock in the future.
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Your area can grow walnuts. Here are a few varieties to consider.
Thomas, Farrington, Sparks 127, and Neel #1 are all large easy to crack black walnuts that produce consistently.
Burtner, Sejnovo, Broadview, and Dooley Hybrid would work for Persian walnuts.
Ernie Grimo has several heartnuts which would be worth sourcing.
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I thought about trying to source easier cracking blacks. Do you know a source selling Scion for any of those? Also, how much easier are they? Are they “regular nutcracker” easy or just less terrible? I actually have a tree on the property (though I’m not 100% sure which) that produces nuts with a strong indentation at the base that makes them possible to snip apart with side cutters. They’re “easy” compared to the rest, but not easy lol.
I usually offer black walnut scions in January. Check my trade list. I don’t have Persian or heartnut. Qualified exception, I have Bedco #1 Persian, but IMO it is not a well adapted tree for this region.
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Does anyone know what happened to John Brittain’s impressive Nolin River Nut Tree Nursery cultivar collection? Sad if it is lost.
NRNTN is still in the Brittain family. John lost his sweet wife and helpmate, Lisa, several years prior to his own death in 2020. One of the daughters has spoken about possibly re-opening the nursery, but IDK what she is currently doing, or how well the property has been maintained since John’s passing.
@Nutbush-VA even with the ‘improved’ BW cultivars, you’ll still need a hardshell nut cracker. One designed for cracking pecans will not hold up; you need one sturdy enough to crack BWs & hickories. A bench-mounted vise or even a pair of vise-grip pliers will work better than a hammer, but they are much slower than a good nut cracker.
My only bearing heartnut is a seedling of Fodermaier. Easy to crack - they are a ‘locket’ type nut. Very mild kernel. Mine is not a great nut, as the kernel does not fall free, requires a pick. Fred Blankenship, in central KY, likes ‘Killdeer’, ‘Imshu’, ‘Pearl’ and ‘Simcoe’.
I have a 30-yr old grafted tree of ‘Late Rhodes’ heartnut that has never produced a nut… I’m just guessing that nothing else (seedling hearnut, butternut, Japanese walnut, buartnuts) growing here pollenizes it.
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Thanks for the information. I assumed they’d only be a bit better. May still try some, since better is better and I do love black walnut flavor.
Pearl and Killdeer are both on my list due to good past reviews on here from others. Hopefully I can find a scion source for them somewhere. I’ll have to check into imshu and simcoe.