Walnut - there's a walnut tree a block from the house.

If you're planning on growing a future gun stock I hope you're a youngster with a lot of patience.

Juglans Nigra.

While you’re waiting.

https://foragerchef.com/nocino-black-walnut-liquor/

I have heard of it, but never knew until I saw this link that it tastes like Jaegermeister. I don’t think I’ll try it.

Squirrel bait
I used to hit 5 gallon bucket loads for driving practice as a kid at my Grandpa's.

you can make a fun dye by packing a jar with the whole pods and filling with alcohol .. let sit a year inside, .. it becomes very dark, but doesn't have a high solid/dye count .. can help on sapwood

I gave a cousin a 5 gallon bucket of walnuts last fall he planted them.

Now he has 50 or more seedlings coming up.

The tree they came off of is 50 years old and about 10 inches across.

That nut is still green; have to wait until it is ripe and turns black; then it can be eaten and the hulls used for dye.
As for growing walnut trees; if it grows quickly and has plenty of moisture, you will have straight grained, average quality wood. Trees grown under duress tend to have more figure and tighter grain.

I knew a guy in Pennsylvania who planted some walnut trees in his twenties, to be his son's college tuition.
They'd go out once a year to trim them, to be veneer logs at maturity.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
I gave a cousin a 5 gallon bucket of walnuts last fall he planted them.

Now he has 50 or more seedlings coming up.

The tree they came off of is 50 years old and about 10 inches across.

Some of my trees that weren't logged in the late 80's are 30" in diameter. I harvested black walnuts last year and planted about 20 seedlings this spring. The last owner of this property told me that he did the same thing every couple of years and I have trees in varios sixes of 1" up to 30".

Some of the trees I won't cut because they're beautiful trees in great locations and I enjoy looking at them.

We have a lot shorter growing season in northern Wisconsin.

4 years ago a English Walnut seedling showed up growing on our property. As it was in a nice location, I left it alone just to see how it would grow.
OMG dang thing has taken off, its about 18 foot tall this year and about 4 inch in diameter at the base.

I found 2 more seedlings this late spring growing in a couple of spots, if they make it thru the summer I will dig them up and replant them next spring

We have a lot of various English walnut trees around us, so its hard to figure out which variety they may be.
I just know the Crows and Blue Jays have been busy dropping nuts on my property of late.

J Wisner

It is fantastic to see folk taking an interest in nurturing seedling walnut trees, particularly European Walnut. I struck and planted over 4000 from nuts taken from various trees I'd milled that had superb colour. Lost all but two of the buggers to fire.

That is a very quick growth rate Mr Wisner. I've seen a fair number of US-grown walnut blanks with astoundingly quick growth rates expressed in the annular rings when the tree is younger (slows a lot if the tree gets old). Such trees show a big bold gap between mineral lines, which punters are attracted to.

On the mainland of Oz and most of NZ, walnut is similarly quite quick-grown, with that rate being the upper limit for the most part. The quickest-grown trees I ever saw were from the north of the north island, NZ, which laid down even more wood each growing season.

Where I live in Tasmania, growth rates are typically 1/8 of that, and a tree that races is 1/4 as fast as what Mr Wisner has experienced. I reckon it to be a mix of climate/soils and genetics to be the reason why.

I am cutting blanks from my 998th tree at the moment. It is a respectable specimen, and seedlings will be grown from it's nuts by two people.

Locally, for the longest time most walnuts planted are grafted trees (WW1 era onwards) and latelr plantings of lateral-bearing trellis pruned varieties ensure there will be a distinct lack of seedling walnut for gunstock blanks in the future. Currently, most of the walnut growing districts here will very soon have the orchards re-purposed as vineyards.

I still see good walnut trees wasted. In the face of so few seedling trees being re-planted, I find myself driven to keep cutting until I can cut no more, even though I have an incurable spinal disease that makes it a bastard job.

Hopefully things are different in other countries.

I plant them in the fall 2-3” deep. Apparently it helps to go through the freeze here in WI and they faithfully sprout the next spring.

I can't imagine where good walnut stocks keep coming from and doubt that many people who plant the trees ever see such results.

For some reason my father planted a nut from a neighbour's tree, which had (if you can believe it) not borne fruit until 23 years old. Dad's tree did bear at three years, though the nuts were not big. He gave me two seedlings and I planted them in my garden. They grew well but heat reflecting off a very-hot shed roof killed one after 20 years.

When my parents died and their house was to be sold, I put a 'caveat' on the deal that if the new owner wanted to remove the walnut tree I would have the right to do it. The very next year, however, a strong wind blew the tree over the fence and someone got rid of it.

So, we have one tree left and after 30 years it is still only about nine inches through the trunk. The nuts are good but small and, if you gather them green, maceration in vodka can lead to a liqueur something like Fernet Branca. I sometimes wonder if walnut stain is not the color of walnut wood but just what you get from macerating the fruit.

quote:

Originally posted by richj:
Walnut - there's a walnut tree a block from the house.

That walnut will produce the BEST and ABSOLUTELY permanent green stain in the world.

Crush a few walnut hulls in your hands.......Semi permanent BLACK stain

Hulling walnuts was a seasonal job for us kids. Even rubber gloves would not keep oout that stain..just had to wear off.

Probably one of the most interesting, incite-full post ever on this site. Full of knowledge, love, respect and without detractors. WOW!

I can add but a pitiful comment. When the nuts fall naturally from the tree, take them on the road and run 'em over with the car/truck. Let them sit a day or so; makes them easy to peel. Still make your hands black but worth it.

mike