These were shipped to me almost 5 months ago and promptly planted. They haven’t been fertilized yet, but will give them some liquid fertilizer tomorrow. Grainger has two buds expanded but not yet opened. The other three trees have new growth up to 6 inches or a bit more.
They both got good thick shoots on them. I’m happy for ya.
Dax
The leaves have darkened up quite a bit after putting some fertilizer on them 2 days ago. I’ll keep them growing vigorously as long as I can during the spring and early summer so they will be well established for next winter.
I grew up in Mississippi and we had pecan and hickory trees in my yard.
Have you ever tried to shell a hickory nut? It’s super hard and not much meat inside
@Exmil …
You can split shag, shell, mocker easily in half with a knife and hammer… in about 2 seconds… then with compound diagonal pliers… just a few nips later you have some tasty goodies.
It is not like pecans or white walnuts.
TNHunter
Can’t say I’ve ever tried to shell a hickory nut, but I hear Barkslip and Lucky have done so a few times. They rank it right up there with pushing a string and snipe hunting. 
p.s. I won top honors in a leg pulling contest when I was 3 years old. 
Makes me think of using my teeth everyone like a friend in my YUT (Joe Pesci says “Yute” for Youth) used to open his Pepsi bottles with.
Those hickory nuts look way better than the ones we had. Ours were more round and the shell was more thick with less meat. At times we completely smashed them to a pulp because of the force needed to break it with the hammer.
@Exmil … that is a mockernut… they have very thick shell and it is harder to get nice chunks from it.
You may have had those… or even red hickory or pig nuts… reds and pig are not that thick shelled but they do not crack well at all… all you can get from them is small thin pieces. Not worth collecting really.
Shagbark nuts or shellbark nuts… thats what you want. Get nice big chunks from them.
It was our neighbors tree and about 40 years ago we would load burlap bags full of them for my Aunt to make Hickory Nut Cake. We spent hours getting the microscopic amount of nuts from them in order for her to make 1 cake. Kind of crazy, looking back on it
Of these 4, they looked closest to the bottom right. They were slightly larger than a quarter, if I remember correctly but I was just a kid at that time
@Exmil … here in my county… we have lots of reds and pig… some bitternut in river bottom areas… mocker… and shagbark.
I have never found a shellbark here… not yet anyway.
So in my county you really have to focus on shagbark hickories… they crack well and you can get quarter and sometimes half nut size pieces from them. A very tasty nut.
Below is what a shagbark hickory looks like.
And below is what the nut in the hull looks like when they are about ready to harvest.
It has a thick hull that splits off in 4 pieces easily when ready.
anyone heard from Barkslip lately?
He is still out there, same place, doing different things. He has a bunch of persimmons grafted this year.
I dont see any posts from him recently and hes not responding to PM, Is he active on a different forum?
Barkslip retired from GrowingFruit. Some personal problems came up and brought too much focus on forum disagreements. His email has been discontinued. I’m not aware of him participating on any other forums. I tend to respect a person’s choices, in this case, he is welcome to disappear from GF if he wants.
