Obviously, planting a grafted tree guarantees predictable nut quality. But, are seedling walnuts also worth any consideration at all?
Burnt Ridge sells a number of both seedling and grafted walnuts; one that I’m particularly interested in, that I present here just as an example, is described as "Cascade English Walnut (Juglans regia):
“Manregian x Russian. Thin shell, excellent flavor, plump, light colored kernels. Fast growing, large tree. These are cold hardy seedlings of J. regia which can be grown throughout much of North America. The Cascade parent tree has medium large nuts with up to 56% kernel. Zone 4-9.”
Given that the parent variety (and likely the pollinators that Burnt Ridge has around it) are likely selections of walnuts that have reasonable nut quality, what might chances of its offspring having nuts of reasonable quality? Or, of bad-quality? Would it be wise to risk planting any given seedling tree, just to wait 5-10 years until it starts producing to find out what they’re like?
Good Question. Depends a lot how well it was trialled.I’d guess Burnt Ridge or their provider did the hard work of parsing various qualities out of the new panel of seedlings grown. But even then; it can still be different. Even good new seedlings can have very different qualities of the parent.
The better question is what are the graded parameters you want of the new seedling. I’d ask Burnt Ridge.
For walnut, seedlings IME have been surprisingly good. I gave some Thomas black walnuts to my ex-MIL and she planted one. It is about 25 years old now and regularly produces nuts as good as the parent. Commercial Persian walnuts have been highly selected producing cultivars such as Chandler. I would not expect a Chandler seedling to be as good as the parent.
Most people dont have the patience to grow nuts.It can take a number of years invested on a seedling that may or may not be ok quality. Peoples lives are unfortunately shorter than things like pears and walnuts. A seedling takes around 7 years to bear here frequently. Nut Trees: How Many Years Until Harvest? - Stark Bro's
" Stark Bro’s Nut Trees are 1-2 years old when shipped. “Years Until Harvest” begins counting after the trees are transplanted into your growing space.
Note: The years until harvest mentioned above are an average. Some nut trees bear sooner. Weather and climate may cause some nut trees to bear later. If you are concerned that your nut trees are not bearing at all, check out this blog post on blooming and bearing problems since similar issues can affect nut trees.
-We also recommend contacting your local county cooperative extension for more local advice.
Walnut trees, butternut trees, and heartnut trees are ideal if your goal for growing nut trees is receiving a relatively quick yield. Pecan trees and filbert-hazelnut trees may take a bit longer to bear, but anyone who has eaten these nuts from the grocery store knows that they’re incredibly tasty and worth the wait. In the meantime, you have all the benefits of an attractive landscape tree.
I have a number of black and english walnut seedlings that I plan to use for grafting rootstock if they do not produce anything worth eating. Buying a single grafted tree and using it to supply scions for substandard seedlings would be a good option.
Planted a good number of improved seedlings years ago. I put them in pairs so I could keep the best and cut out the bad ones. So far they have all turned out great. I’m grafting some named brands this coming year, but that is more just because I want them more than I need them.
I have a row of 20 or so seedlings of Emma Kay BW. At least one is, IMO, equal to the mother in crackability, with good flavor in a very light kernel. However, another row of BW seedlings, grown from named-variety seednuts brought home from KyNGA meetings did not yield any remarkable nuts worthy of collection.
Buzz Ferver swears that rows of Emma Kay seedlings at John Gordon’s place look like clones, with most having excellent nut quality. My own experience was not THAT good.
Persian and Heartnut have done well for me using the improved seedlings. Both of those even with a lesser version are still good. Black on the other hand comes from a very bad shell state and any reversions are bad. I’m just getting into the black game, but I’m grafting names on those. Wild black walnuts are like weeds here, so there is no use having anything but the best.
All walnuts we grow are seedlings from 2-3 ancient trees that are no longer alive. The orchard was really started by my parter’s father planting 50 walnuts in a row between beans and tomatoes. He kept the more vigorous ones and my partner planted them in the former vineyard.
This is one of the seedlings
The larger nut has a slighty smaller core sometimes. Often 2 or 3 lobes are larger. It has a punk spirit, but tastes like butter in the first two months after harvest, that is if you peel the core’s skin off .
Yes. It would be a pity if the genetics were not spread around (within EU).
There are actually several giant varieties on the market, but are not that common. People get disappointed that many are very loose in the shell (like the one in my top pic), expecting the core to be almost as large as the shell - psychology is funny that way. The real downside is that, if you don’t store the airy ones perfectly well, or there is a rain (very common for CE in autumn), they get moldy inside. The round one (2nd pic from top) doesn’t have this problem, though…We’ve stored those for over a year unshelled.
A friend runs a nursery dealing mainly with Junglans regia. From what he said, the most important features (in pure species), e.g. disease resistance, are inherited in mitochondrially/ by female line to a high degree (sometimes it is difficult to distinguish the seedling from the mother). I assume that with controlled pollination with a variety with complementary features, the seedlings would be % better than their parents.
I was what it would take to cross our 2nd generation (the round ones) with Sychrov to get a giant red walnut with good fat content and disease resistance. (Would I have to build a tent for the controlled pollination? )
Then I found Wiśnicz Czerwony, but from what I read, just like our more irregular 1st gen giant walnut, it isn’t really good for drying because the cores shrink.
Paper bags are fine unless it’s raining or outright pouring and blowing, which it often does here between April and May… I considered trying to graft Sychrov into the large-fruited tree. It may take the same number of years to get it right, unless there’s a particularly dry spring.
I’m wondering if the “Red morawian” is in fact Hospozinsky. But the red skin is apparently not uncommon. I recall seing it for the first time over 20 years ago on a train route between Medzilaborce and Bratislava. An old man was giving a taste test to fellow travellers…
I’ve also found a bunch of red skinned varieties here. They look interesting as do the ones from the Polish nursery. I have selected Sychrov, because it is also a non-shrinker.
I must confess I like the lotery of waiting for what the young seedling trees will produce. It’s like gambling with very delayed gratification…
Btw, does the name Jacek apply to all large walnuts? I know we have a group name for them, don’t remember what it is, but it is something semi-derogatory due to the common discrepancy between shell and core sizes and shrinking when dried.
Yes. In Poland we use term Jacki/Jacki Sandomierskie for large nut genotypes. The small type was brought from Romania (Wallahia) in X-XI century and spread randomly by people. There is a legend that around 1226 a Dominican monk named Jacek Odrowąż brought from Rome big nut type walnuts to Sandomierz from where they spread around. I’m not sure if it’s true but some local selection are great, E.g ‘Markowski Słodki’ gives large biterless seeds.
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but some local selection are great, E.g ‘Markowski Słodki’ gives large biterless seeds.