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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

-------- Original Message --------


Date:   Tue, 23 Feb 1999 13:29:34 -0500
Reply-To: homestead AT listserv.oit.unc.edu
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From: Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT roanoke.infi.net>
To: homestead AT listserv.oit.unc.edu
Subject: Walnut trees
References: <d1acb41.36d2da5c AT aol.com>
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FranksFarm AT aol.com wrote:

> Hey Bev
>
> <,I got over 100 chestnut oaks, over 100 white oaks, about 10 Loblolly
>
> pines, about 10 persimmons, and about 50 redbuds!  Looks like I will be
>
> busy for quite a while planting trees!!!  I will probably give some
>
> away, but it still looks like a big job ahead.>>  Sounds like your LUCK is
> changing:)
>
> BTW a USDA forester told me that the quality of their trees is often
> suspect...some are better than others. That bugged me because you 
would think
> that they would give you only the best quality trees to replant for the
> improvement of private forests.
>
> In addition the company that sells those genetically improved Black walnuts
> that TVO previously wrote about uses slides of the black walnuts grown from
> USDA stock that show walnuts with twisted, curvy trucks, and 
branches. Perhaps
> we should start complaining to USDA. What's the sense of planting inferior
> stuff that takes decades to grow.
>
> Best wishes.   Frank

> > > tvoivozhd:  A good, low cost compromise between poor quality USDA 
and high cost
selected Purdue or other stock is to select your own.  Travel around and 
find a
tree or trees that is big, straight, and if you are very lucky, that 
produces
large nuts easy to crack.

Make a deal with the owner to pick up two or three hundred and plant 
them where
you can see them and robber squirrels.  A long, high mound of compost
is best, and
preferably over sandy soil.  This will permit you to dig them out for
transplanting without damaging the long taproot.  Better yet, if you
can wash them
out with a garden hose, do so.

Transplant only the ones which grow straightest and fastest---it is
best done in
the fall of the year you placed the seed in the bed, and prepare the 
holes well
and deep---don't break or bend the taproot.  Fertilizer spikes
designed for trees
will help, as will mycorrhizae chosen for the trees you buy.  If deer
tend to eat
your young trees, a plastic tube will protect them for the critical first to
second or third year.  Except in the unlikely event you have adequate
distribution
of rainfall, mulch and water them regularly.

Planting the nuts in the fall where they will permanently reside is the best
way---better than transplanting, but it is only possible where there
are no trees
or shrubbery nearby to provide cover to marauding squirrels, who will 
sniff out
and eat every one.  This has another disadvantage in that you do your
thinning out
of undesirable specimens in a row, rather than in a nursery bed.  There 
will be
large gaps requiring subsequent planting and the trees will not be of
the same age
or size to properly compete with each other (insures upright growth).

A further advantage of prowling the vicinity for good parent trees is 
that they
will have been naturally selected for your particular climate and soil.

Forgot to mention, though shouldn't have to.  In addition to deer,
cattle love to
munch young trees.  A tree with the leader bitten off isn't worth
much, so fence
cattle away from your nursery bed too.




--
Bevanron of EarthNSky Farm   Sleep well tonight, for somewhere in the 
ocean's depths, MY son is protecting YOUR freedom.