Turn the nuts so that they dry on all sides. You will need to protect against squirrels. Spread them out one layer thick on screens or in the barn, attic, garage or greenhouse. Nuts need to be dried or cured before their meats ripen enough to eat. If squirrels are a problem, shake the trees and gather the nuts. Once fall comes, you can wait for them to drop and readily gather the nuts before they deteriorate quickly on the ground. The years of watching your trees reach skyward will fly by, and a year will come when you notice nuts, actual nuts on your trees. Diseases and insects seldom infest backyard nut plantings. Prune the trees to one central leader and, eventually, to have no branches for the first 8 feet. Spread a thick layer of compost out to the drip line each spring. Trace minerals, such as azomite, menafee humates or compost, can be spread around the surface of the planting area, then covered with a thick organic mulch. Water your tree thoroughly at planting and provide at least 1 inch a week for the first year when rain doesn’t do the job. ![]() Continue to fill the hole, ending by making a slight rim of soil around the hole to hold water. Place the best soil in the bottom, around the roots, mixing in a small amount of compost if the soil is poor, and gently tamping to eliminate air pockets. Dig a hole large enough to set the tree to the level at which it grew in the nursery and a few feet wider than the tree roots they are spread out. Nut trees grow best in deep, well-drained soil on a sunny site with some wind protection. Planting a nut tree is similar to planting most fruit trees, except that they need plenty of space, away from driveways, sidewalks, roads and overhead wires. If sprouting has occurred before transplanting, be extremely careful not to break the delicate tap root. Nuts will sprout over the next few months. Plan them out as soon as the ground can be worked. Nuts can also be overwintered in a plastic bag with moist leaf mold, sphagnum moss or potting mix. To protect against squirrels, the seed should be covered with hardware cloth or metal screening, which must be removed before nuts sprout in spring. The nuts can be planted directly into a garden or nursery row and covered with a few inches of soil. To start a nut tree from seed, gather sound nuts from a tree with favorable traits. Each seedling tree is genetically different, so two walnut seedlings could pollinate each other. Two of the same named cultivar will not pollinate each other, because they came from the same tree, essentially. If you are planting all cultivars, rather than seedlings, chose different cultivars of the same species to pollinate each other. Cultivars tend to bear a few years earlier than seedling trees, which may take 8 to 10 years to bear. On the other hand, if the species you want to plant is reliably hardy in your area, you may want to go for the selected cultivar. In Maine, where hardiness is a consideration, one might opt to plant seed from a hardy Northern tree instead of purchasing an improved nut cultivar that may not be as cold hardy. Intentional crosses of choice trees have produced cultivars with especially large or flavorful nuts, or high yields, or nuts that crack more easily, or, in the case of American chestnuts, potentially more blight-resistant cultivars. Less breeding has been done with nuts than with other fruits, but excellent cultivars are available. Single black walnuts, butternuts, and shagbark hickories can produce nuts, but will yield more if a second tree of the same species is planted within 100 feet. A large yard or a few acres can accommodate nut trees. Conifers are particularly sensitive, but grass and blackberries are not. Another consideration is that butternuts and black walnuts emit a toxic substance (juglone) that prevents many plants from growing underneath them. With the exception of filberts, hazelnuts, and their various relatives (which reach 7 to 15 feet), nut trees will mature to 50 feet tall and close to that in width, more than most suburban lots can accommodate. ![]() ![]() Chestnuts, filberts, filazels, hazelnuts, tree hazels, ginkgo, hickory, nut pines, heartnuts, buartnuts, butternuts, black walnuts, and many oaks, including the edible, acorn-producing burr oak, can be grown in the Northeast. ![]() Yet many nut trees are hardy in the northeast, and a few nut trees can produce bushels of nuts. No longer can families go into the woods and gather burlap sacks full of nuts for winter keeping. The wild nut forests of North America are gone, having succumbed to weather, blight, and the heavy harvesting of their valuable lumber.
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