Sorry to re-open the topic but I thought it better than starting a new one, plus it would get the attention of anyone who posted here. Does anyone have details on the current top cultivars of heartnut and the best sources (online nurseries) for named cultivars? Also wondering if it is best for the home gardener to get a variety that is on black walnut rootstock or heartnut rootstock.
Check with Ernie Grimo. He has arguably the best selection of heartnut cultivars. Also, eastern black walnut (Juglans nigra) is an excellent rootstock, better than heartnut.
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Do you know anything about their Grimo cultivars? i.e Grimo 75, 89, 94, 99, and 146?
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Very little other than some info published about 10 years ago describing the selection process and how many seedlings they had to grow to get one worth propagating. Email and ask, Ernie is never shy about his trees!
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Agree that Grimo is probably the expert on heartnuts.
IIRC, Fred Blankenship’s picks - at least at his place in central KY - are Killdeer, Simcoe, Pearl, Stealth.
All I have bearing here is a seedling of Fodermaier; not the best, but not terrible.
Have a grafted tree of ‘Late Rhodes’ that’s been growing here since before 2000… has never produced a nut. It’s a late-vegetating variety… the only one that survived the Easter Big Freeze Disaster of 2007… which even killed 10-yr old seedling heartnuts/Jap. walnuts outright.
IDK if the seedling buartnuts, heartnuts, and Japanese walnuts just don’t bloom in synch with it or what.
Ernie recommended a Grimo 89 and a pollinator so I ordered a Grimo 89 and a Grimo 94, both grafted on black walnut. I also picked up 2 sizes of plantra tree tubes, 3 feet for year 1, and 5 feet for year 2, in an attempt to get the trunk tall and out of the reach of deer. wish me luck!