doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DIY Gunsmithing @ doublegunshop.com Imported French walnut

The English walnut tree that I had band saw-milled for stock blanks a couple years ago was a fairly large tree that never produced many nuts. Most of the nuts it did produce fell off and rotted well before they got ripe. The nuts that got ripe were small.

Then I bought several more English walnut trees that were about 6 ft. tall when I planted them. I planted one about 75 feet away from the large tree that never produced many nuts. Once the new tree began flowering, they cross pollinated each other and we had lots of nice big English walnuts. The squirrels were happy too.

The other two trees, I planted in the field near my new house while I was building it. They did real well for several years, and began producing nuts. Then we got a particularly brutal winter with lots of below zero temperatures. Those trees just didn't understand that we are in a time of Global Warming and got winter killed along with several young fruit trees. A guy a couple miles from me lost about six English walnut trees that were even larger than mine that same winter. It is good to plant them where they will be somewhat sheltered from arctic northwest winds if you live in a cold region. Or you could try to find a Carpathian cultivar, which are supposed to be more winter tolerant.

Keith,

That's what my dad planted, the Carpathian cultivar and they've done very well. I suppose since the time he planted there've been some -10 to -15 degree temps but that kind of cold around here is rare and usually doesn't last but a few days.

At one time he'd battle the squirrels over the nuts but at his age (92) he doesn't give a s*&t any longer how many nuts the squirrels get.

Cameron, I was given the advice about the Carpathian cultivar by a very old Nursery owner with decades of experience. The English walnut tree I had band saw-milled into future gun stock material a couple years ago lived its' entire life in the same area as where my trees got winter killed. But it survived and so did the smaller one I planted near it as a cross pollinator. I know for a fact that it was started from seeds that were brought from California, but have no idea what cultivar the parent tree in California was. But that tree was fairly close to a large two story brick house that blocked our winter winds. The size of the tree, and the fear that it could come down and damage the house is the reason it was taken down.

I've planted other nut trees, and have plenty of oaks and shagbark hickory trees around too, so my squirrels have a veritable smorgasbord. I got too busy with other matters this past fall, and the little bastards got nearly all of my Hybrid Hazel Nuts before I remembered it was past time to pick them.

Dad has some hazel nuts trees he planted as well. I'm not sure if they're hybrid or not, but they produce a fair amount of nuts. As mentioned, he's not too concerned about the squirrels and the walnuts but he does get worked up about the blue jays getting his hazel nuts.

He's got a Winchester model 37 16 ga he keeps in the corner of their kitchen, but he's gotten too slow to be much of a threat to the jays. When I'm visiting he's prodding me to be on the lookout for the jays.

My brother and I planted about 25 American chestnut trees, a couple of northern pecan trees and a couple hican trees. The chestnuts are supposed to grow well without the blight being in the west as it is in the east....we'll see! The northern pecan and hican trees we planted last year, so it's a bit of an experiment at this point.

Cameron,
Good luck with the chestnut trees, I hope your experiment works out.
Mike

Best I know, the true American Chestnut has not been cultivated in a blight free form. The closest is a Dunstan Hybrid available here:

<http://www.chestnuthilltreefarm.com/?gcl..._caArtkEALw_wcB>

These folks have good plants...Geo

Thanks Der Ami...time will tell! We'll see what happens George. There are some mature blight free American Chestnut trees growing at the city park in Coeur d'Alene, so we'll see what happens in another 5-6 years or so with those we've planted. Hope they survive, some good mast for the deer, elk and turkeys that roam our property.

I got the original 25 trees from the American Chestnut Society, which they claimed were true American Chestnuts. Not sure where they came from. The original batch were planted 4 years ago with about 8 still alive. The others didn't die from blight but from the darn pocket gophers. We replanted 15 last year that I got from the University of Idaho nursery that are also American Chestnuts.

I've read about the Dunsten hybrid when I was researching chestnuts. May have to try a few of those, if the current planted ones don't turn out.