Thanks Steve
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I have been happy with
Nice people. And they are clear on which ones will be blight-tolerant.
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Even simpler put, TACF trees that are reliably blight resistant are not American chestnut type trees. And if it’s not an American type tree, you might as well plant Chinese trees.
You’re referring to the timber form of the tree when you talk about type?
Traits of American chestnut include strong vertical growth, relatively small nuts, highly rot resistant wood, relatively high protein to starch ratio in the nuts, and ability to thrive in the understory until released at which time they grow rapidly.
Chinese, Japanese, and European chestnuts form umbrella shaped trees with strong branching on a relatively short trunk. They have been selected for large high starch nuts and high production. The wood is not as rot resistant as American chestnut. They have been selected for strong blight resistance.
Crossing blight resistant trees to susceptible American trees results in trees that strongly resemble the umbrella crown type. Even with a dozen generations of back crossing and selection, the blight resistance genes are still riding in a genome that produces umbrella crowns.
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Yes, I’m referring to the timber form when I mention “type” above.
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I was wondering where you bought your hicans? I’ve only read poor reviews on them until i read your post. Gives me new hope to try some.
Rock Bridge Trees
Perfect Circle Farm
I don’t know what will happen at Nolin River Nursery since John’s passing this Fall but his daughter he’d often mention helped him run the business at least part time. John probably has a lot of trees grafted that his children will be able to sell.
Grimo Nut Nursery in Canada which they ship to the U.S. and have excellent trees being grown, at.
Everybody’s always sold out though. You gotta be on it like a hawk.
Next Fall I’ll open a small nursery as a website thru to order my grafted nut trees, persimmons, & pawpaws. I’ll be grafting pears off and on, as-well. Probably apples as years advance. I have exactly what you’re looking for being stored for winter & to be sold bareroot, next Fall. This is after I decide upon a name and have a website created for me. But, there’s a start for ya though. You should also be highly considering adding several-many ‘Grainger’ shagbark hickories with (a) ‘Porter’ or another good shagbark to be the single pollinator for Grainger(s) at a ratio of 1:5. It’s an exceptional nut with exceptional crackability and it’s very large & cracks out in halves or quarters. With the right cracker you could get halves just about every time. The two best nutcrackers are: The Master Nutcracker (not THE DUKE which is a replica) & then there’s The Mr. Hickory - that Fred Blankenship used to build and he’ll be going back into production upcoming, but it may be a few years. He’s not in any rush at the moment, however is his plan for retirement plan returning to building his nutcrackers.
Great hican cultivars include: Marquardt (the real one and if the grower doesn’t know which they have then they don’t know if they have an inferior tree that isn’t the true Marquardt); ‘Underwood’ (same story as Marquardt. there’s two vastly distinct clones) & then ‘Clarksville’ and ‘T-92’. Those are some real good ones.
Shellbark hickories: four of the greats include: Henry, Keystone, Selbhers, Longnecker
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I grew Burlington hican for a couple decades in MD, nuts never did fill.
I have “Bounty” and “Oracle” Ukrainian Almond trees in my cart over at Jung Seed. They are said to be from Nikita Botanical Garden in Crimea. For zones 5 - 8, they bloom late (around the same time as peaches), and are also said to start producing in as little as 3 years.
I planted a Hall’s Hardy Almond 2-3 years ago and while it bloomed this year, I’m pretty sure those late frosts that we got killed my hopes of any harvest. I’m planning to try to protect the blossoms next year if we get a threat of frost.
I don’t know which cultivars from Jung a friend for this Spring’s delivery, but, they were so huge for like 30$ each he said, that no grafted tree I had ever been shown was as large as those two or three almonds he had. They were literally 5’ tall and Christmas tree in shape + density with enormous roots coming with each. I wish I had a picture.
Dax
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I didn’t mention this in my first post, but I also have 2 English walnuts that are only about 5 years old. Pretty slow growing, but I love English walnuts so I planted them. They seem to be doing well (even though like I said, they are slow growing).
I have a bunch of what I am sure are Black Walnut “seedlings” that came up from some wood that a local tree service dumped that was buried in wood chips about 3 years ago too. I am planning to dig them up this spring to replant them in a better area. Black Walnuts are “ok” as far as flavor goes. A pain to get the meat from and stains your hands something awful if you don’t wear gloves. But they were free and if it came down to it, they would be a great source of fat (from a plant resource).
Also, I have a bunch of Hazelnuts that are anywhere from 4 to 5 years old. I’m getting excited at the prospect of finally getting a harvest from them. I took cuttings last spring and this fall and stuck them in my outdoor prop bed. So far so good.
After i saw your post i went to go buy some grainger hickories and all sources are sold out for this spring already. That was fast! I know rock bridge and grimo had them early fall. My grainger from 2 years ago died at the graft and is now a seedling, hopefully it will at least pollinate the porter hickory.
Regraft it in a couple of years…you’ll get known nut quality nuts of Grainger, and it should bear in half the time you’ll be waiting for that seedling to reach flowering/bearing age…which could be 20 years or more.
I bought a couple pounds of Fayette shellbark seednuts from John Gordon, in 1998, planted about 15 2-y.o. seedlings in a riparian bufferstrip deal in 2000. One of those produced its first nuts this year. Granted, they’ve had no care other than 2X/year mowing and 20 years in a good, deep bottomland soil alongside the creek, but that’s a pretty lengthy wait…
I have a couple of grafted hicans, planted in 1996, that have not produced a nut yet, and a third one, planted at the same time, made a few nuts, for the first time, last year…all ‘blanks’.
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Remember to keep those Black walnut trees away from your apple trees. It will kill them. 
Last year we cut down 3 black walnuts that were over 60’ tall.
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Thanks for the reminder!!! 
Your welcome
Cody, sorry this reply is so late. I haven’t been keeping up lately. In response to your question about where I got my hicans, I grafted them. As others have said, hicans and other nuts seem in short supply at nurseries. I will be glad to see Dax’s nursery come on line. I do note the cautionary tales of hicans others have written, and I certainly respect them. I wonder why some folks have had great luck here in Ohio with Henke and Burlington, while growers in other areas have had duds. Maybe I should hit the brakes on planting more hicans. As Dax has noted regarding Keystone shellbark, there are strains of some varieties that are better than other. I wonder how often that is the case.
Fusion, you mentioned McGinnis and S127 as good black walnuts. As I have hundreds of volunteer trees coming up at a perfect grafting size thanks to squirrels, I might try some more BW grafting. My past efforts have resulted in a very poor batting average. Could you list your favorite varieties that would be suitable for central Ohio? Thanks, Marc
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Central Ohio is hands down a combination of Thomas, Neel #1, Sparrow, and Farrington. There are others that grow and perform well including Ohio, Emma K, Rohwer, Football, etc. For one reason or another I would cull all of them. Sparrow is highly productive and is a protandrous early pollen producer. Other than that, Sparrow is a small nut that takes more time to process. I have about 40 varieties of black walnut grafted with most around 20 years old. There are plenty more varieties that I do not have experience with.
The rarity with walnut is a tree that branches prolifically. The more a limb branches, the higher the production potential. The most prolific branching varieties I have are Thomas, Football, and McGinnis. Football has a problem with filling the nuts often making a huge crop of slightly wrinkled kernels. It shells out beautifully, but the kernels are not very appealing to look at and the flavor is poor. McGinnis is a highly productive tree that branches abundantly and makes a small very high quality nut. It is an outstanding variety in northern climates for which it is adapted. Thomas is arbitrarily the best of the old walnut varieties with high production and excellent quality nuts. The only significant flaw it has is that the shell is thick and it runs 22% to 25% kernel. Other varieties produce higher percent kernel.
I’ve had time to observe more varieties over the last 10 years which is why I now suggest Farrington as a very good producer. I get a crop every year from Neel #1, Farrington, and Thomas. Others tend to be biennial producers. Black Walnut named varieties - #15 by Fusion_power
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