Thursday, February 10, 2011

Aw Nuts!

Quite a few years ago, a friend offered me a small english walnut seedling he found growing on his farm. I accepted it eagerly!
Mindful of the size it might someday become, I found an open spot alongside the railroad tracks and planted it. The seedling grew & flourished, becoming a good sized tree.




Every year we watched & waited, anticipating the crop. How great would it be to harvest walnuts from our own farm!

And still we wait ... and never have we picked even 1 single nut.
Why? The tree is healthy. It's plenty big enough to bear fruit.
Finally it occurred to me. Our walnut tree needed a friend - another tree for pollination.
Why I never thought of this I don't know. We only have acres & acres of fruit trees, so I know that trees need pollinators in order to produce a crop (except for peaches & nectarines). When planting cherries, plums, pears, & apples, several varieties are always planted together for this reason.
So we purchased ( http://www.grimonut.com/ ) and planted a persian walnut tree, and while we were at it a few heartnut and hazelnut trees as well. They have grown for 2 summers now and are coming along quite nicely.



Since nut trees - especially the heartnuts, can get rather large they are planted quite far apart. In between we have planted some quince trees.

It's always fun & interesting to grow new crops ... and await the harvest!

4 comments:

  1. I hope we get to pick some walnuts this year!

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  2. sorry Johnny - walnuts aren't ready till late fall.

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  3. When we moved here some 16 yrs ago there were 2 Carpathian/english/persian walnuts trees. Wow-what luck! Over the last 5 yrs I've had bushels of walnuts. You'll be so happy when you get them. It adds a whole new dimension to your farm.
    All the best to you!

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