While doing some reading on the creator of the Rosseyanka hybrid persimmon, I came across a claim that he also crossed pecan and English walnut, giving a hybrid named 60-1. I haven’t been able to find any other information about such a hybrid. I’m curious if anyone else knows of one?
In trying to find information, I did stumble across this fellow’s site, oreh-tula.ru, which your browser may or may not block given the country domain. He’s working with English walnut x Manchurian walnut hybrids, among other things, and is based in the Tula region, which some may be familiar with via the Black from Tula tomato, and which is USDA zone 4 or 5. He mentioned a few hybrids that withstood -38 C, which is certainly colder than I would survive.
I’ve also seen mention on the forum several different Black x English walnuts, and heartnut crosses as well.
I’m familiar with pecan x hickory. But still, never heard of a walnut x pecan.
Interesting data were obtained by us in the studies on distant hybridization of pecan with walnut, which began in 1958. The objective of these studies, on the one hand, was to obtain hybrids with increased frost resistance, early entry into the fruiting period, characteristic of walnut, and on the other hand, hybrid forms with late flowering, high fruit quality, and productivity characteristic of pecan. Crossings of walnut with pecan were carried out in an elite walnut garden in the Kupyansk forest nursery in the Kharkov region. Backcrosses of pecan with walnut were carried out at the Sukhumi station of subtropical crops, where fruit-bearing pecan trees grow. Pollination of walnut flowers in Kupyansk was carried out with pecan pollen obtained from Uzbekistan, and pecan flowers in Sukhumi - with pollen from the Kharkov region.
A total of 5,796 flowers of walnut, pecan and other Juqlans species were pollinated in intergeneric crossings from 1961 to 1965. Of this number, 202 hybrid fruits were obtained (3.4% of the number of pollinated flowers).
In size and weight, the hybrid fruits differed little from the fruits obtained on the mother trees as a result of natural pollination. The hybrid fruits were sown and 79 hybrids were grown from them, which successfully grow at the Prisivash agroforestry experimental station and in the Veselobokovsky dendropark. The greatest height of the walnut-pecan hybrids at 2 years of age is 104 cm, at 4 years of age - 185 cm. Over a 3-4-year period of observation of the hybrid seedlings in the nurseries, their complete winter hardiness in these climatic conditions, timely start and end of vegetation were revealed. High drought resistance of hybrid pecan plants is of great importance for these regions. In the spring of 1966, all hybrids were planted from the nursery to a permanent area in the plantation, where they are growing at present.
The experiments conducted theoretically demonstrate the full possibility of intergeneric crossings in the Walnut family, and in practice, the possibility of successful acclimatization of such valuable heat-loving species as pecan, using methods of distant hybridization.
I’ve noticed in the plant growing worlds; growers, breeders, academics and producers still prefer to share with the global world despite politics of the day.
Paradox, a hybrid between J. hindsii and J. regia, is fairly common around here due to its use as an English walnut rootstock. Relicts from when this part of the world had a lot more agricultural diversity. It definitely has hybrid vigor but sets very few nuts. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tree produce more than a handful.
Graves documented pecan x black walnut hybrids 50 years ago. Grauke tested some of them and found they were not hybrids. I’m not familiar with the Ukraine work, however, if a pecan X walnut hybrid is possible, it is most likely with persian.
Black walnut X Persian walnut is a very common hybrid. Black walnut X butternut does not cross, however, (black walnut X persian walnut) X butternut has been made. Heartnut readily hybridizes with butternut.
