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!
Received my 2 Grimo Heartnuts in mid april and got them in the ground on April 21. Grimo 94 had (I hope I’m not exaggerating here) about 10 times the size larger roots than the Grimo 89, and the 94 also had a larger Apical Bud. noticed yesterday the 94 is beginning to leaf out. the 89 still isn’t showing signs of life. keeping my fingers and toes crossed that it makes it. growing them in 3 foot tall plantera tree tubes (received from grimo too) and held up my 2 bamboo poles each.
94 taken yesterday
89
picture of them both planted on 4/21/2024, with the 89 closer to the camera
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still nothing on the 89. 94 is looking like the leaves are really crampped in this grow tube. Should I remove the tube on the 94 or not?
94
89
Put the scratch test on it. As for the other one I would just use a cage. They grow pretty quick. As a side note the deer have never touched mine, but that’s no guarantee they won’t.
The deer like the tips on mine in late winter/early spring…really annoying, but they bounce back fast enough.
My Grimo 89 eventually leafed out, but from a bud much lower on the graft. I just took the plantra tree tubes off for the season on Sunday 8/25/2024 and this is what they look like. while the Grimo 89 is much smaller than the 94, since the growth was from a node much lower on the graft, the 94 essentially had a 1 foot head start on it. the 89 was also (unintentionally) planted in an area that gets less sun. I’m surprised at how well they seemed to handle the drought conditions we had this summer with zero irrigation after the first month or so after planting. very tempted to preorder a few other Grimo heartnuts particularly Grimo 99 and a compatible pollinator like grimo 75.
Grimo 94
Grimo 89
Not sure if you have the lantern fly there, but my heartnuts have been covered with them all summer. They don’t seem to be doing any damage, but they make a nasty mess with some kind of sticky crap they put off.
Posted pics of some of my crop over in the buds flowers and fruit thread.
we don’t have any spotted lanternfly here yet