Nut Trees for Wisconsin Farms and Homesteads

Patterns &

Details

Things to Know Before Falling in Love with Nuts• Your site characteristics• Soil-test it!• Water• Climate

• Micro-climate

• Your own characteristics i.e. your context• Financial• Existing and needed skills/knowledge• Do all of your decision makers agree?• Does the nut species excite you? Including the non romantic aspects?

• Regrarian Platform-Darren Doherty

Fail on Paper

Farm or Homestead Crop?• It Depends

Nuts!• Castanea-Chestnuts• Carya-Pecan and Hickory• Corylus-Hazel• Juglans-Walnut

General Tips for All Species• Visit people already growing nuts• Yes, that includes conventional nut growers

• Get info from as many sources and perspectives as possible• Learn to like reading academic papers

• Observe and interact with nut trees as much as you can• Don’t under estimate grass and deer• Join Northern Nut Growers Association• Eat nuts!

Cultivars VS Seedlings• Destroy Dichotomy!• Cultivars:• Predictable characteristics

• Yield• Quality • Disease resistance

• Uniform ripening time• Grafted or clonal plants more expensive• Often in short or no supply depending on species and variety

Cultivar VS Seedling• Seedlings:• Opportunity for selecting better varieties• Cheaper to buy and/or propagate• Can be used as rootstock if it sucks

• Not applicable to every species• Often more vigorous growers• Ripening time spread out • Diversity also includes negative characteristics!

Cultivars VS Seedlings• Choosing Seedlings• Use seedlings of proven cultivars*Especially important for chestnut if you

want to graft*• If you know it was pollinated by other good cultivars, even better

• Seedlings of good, non-cultivar plants• Look at what the other trees in the planting are like• Is this a commercial planting? Does the owner actually depend on nut production?

• Avoid buying run-of-the-mill seedlings, especially from large nurseries• Applies to rootstock too

Chestnuts• Castanea• C. mollissima and hybrids• C. crenata X C. sativa

• Wouldn’t recommend pure C. dentata due to blight. • Soil characteristics are important for chestnut!• Acidic soil 4-6.5• Well drained

• Best to use seedlings of desired plant as rootstock

Varieties• C. mollissima• Mossbarger• Luvall’s Monster• Sleeping Giant• Lockwood• Qing• Gideon• Gellatly hybrids with isolation from Chinese• Complex hybrids

Varieties• C. crenata X C. sativa-for trial only zone 4 and 5!• Szego-Actually mollissima X sativa• Maraval• Marsol• Marigoule• Bouche de Betizac

Farm or Homestead?• Both! As long as your site fits its needs• Commercial production will require transportation or proximity to

population centers• Immigrants from chestnut cultures like chestnuts

• Main advantage is that it doesn’t need shelling

Walnuts• Juglans regia- Eurasian walnut, “English”, “Persian”, “Carpathian”• Juglans nigra-Black walnut• Juglans cinerea-Butternut• Juglans ailantifolia-Heartnut• Hybrids of above, especially butternut and heartnut AKA Buartnut

Juglans regia• What nut growers dreams are made of• Then what their nightmares are made of

• Compared to other walnut species it lacks hardiness and disease/pest resistance• Walnut blight• Butternut Curculio

• Usually grafted on black walnut with few incompatibility issues• Thousand Canker disease could change this

Juglans regia• Varieties• Papple• Combe• Lake• ISU 73H32• Harrison• Broadview-from Gellatly via Ukraine. Produces pendulous fruit like heartnut• Sejnovo• Dooley 69-E-(nigraXregia) X regia• Idaho-regia X nigra

Juglans regia• Characteristics to look for• Lateral bearing• Short, stocky shoots that harden quickly• Not just hardy wood but hardy flower buds, especially male• Don’t confuse blight or curculio damage for lack of hardiness• Healthy foliage

Juglans nigra• Native walnut species• Thick, hard shell• Strong tasting nut meats disliked by some• High value timber• Thousand Canker disease• Grafted on same species

Juglans nigra• Varieties:• Emma K• Ohio• Vandersloot• Sparks varieties• Weschcke-especially for zone 4

Juglans nigra• Things to look for in a good tree• Adapted to your climate

• Leafs out late• Matures nuts before frost• Hardens off early

• % kernel and shell structure more important than nut size• 25-30% kernel

• Disease resistance• Anthracnose• Thousand canker disease?

Juglans nigra• Farm or homestead?• If close enough to a processing facility it can make a good farm crop

Juglans cinerea• Native walnut species with elongated nuts, now found primarily in

early succession ecosystems• Population devastated by butternut canker• Often grafted on black walnut or butternut. Buartnut would make a

lot of sense

Juglans cinerea• Varieties-• Any local tree that’s alive!• Buartnuts selected for butternut characteristics- “Butter-buarts”

Juglans cinerea• Farm or homestead• Little prospect as a commercial crop due to butternut canker and poor

cracking characteristics.

Juglans ailantifolia • East Asian species with some trees having butternut type nuts and

some having the heart shaped nuts• Seems well adapted to Upper-Midwest conditions zone 5 and up• Bunch disease only potential issue• Often grafted on black walnut but can out grow stock• Suggest grafting on buartnut seedlings for hardiness, disease resistance, and

vigor

Juglans ailantifolia• Varieties:

• Etter• Campbell CW3-seedling of Etter. Late bloom and cold hardy. Said to be side bearing• CW1• CWW• Campbell’s West• Imshu• Pyke• Blunt-cold hardy from Manchurian walnut genes• Locket • Stealth• Szukis

Juglans ailantifolia• Buartnut varieties with heart like nuts• Mitchell-Thought to be most hardy• Dooley• Filzinger• Miekal’s buartnuts

Juglans ailantifolia• Farm or homestead• Farm?

• Needs cracking, easier to do small scale but still time consuming

Hickory• Carya ovata-shagbark• Carya cordiformis-bitternut• Carya illinoinensis-pecan• Carya laciniosa-shellbark?

Carya ovata• Native upland species, often co-dominant with oak• Grafted on it’s own species or on hardy pecan

Carya ovata• Varieties:• Yoder #1• Porter• Glover• Wilcox• Neilson• Weschcke• Campbell #26• Campbell #8

• There are shagbark X pecan. Badgersett

Carya ovata• Good nut should give at least 50% whole halves• At least 85 nuts per pound• Size is less important than internal shell structure

Carya ovata• Farm or homestead?• Homestead• Farm possibilities with a shelling facility

Carya cordiformis• Native hickory, faster growth than shagbark and more precocious• Very similar to pecan • Bitternut with high tannin• High oil content• Useful for breeding purposes

Carya cordiformis• Varieties• Halesite-sweet bitternut• Hatch-sweet bitternut• Abbott-cross with pecan• Galloway-cross with pecan• Mall-cross with pecan• Nelson-cross with pecan• Pooshee-cross with pecan• Westbrook-cross with pecan

Carya cordiformis• Farm or homestead?• Potential for income from pure bitternut for oil. More viable wild collected• Potential for bitternut X pecan but more breeding work needed

Carya illinoinensis• Closest native range is the border of Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota• Hardiness not as much of a problem as length of season• Need to drop nuts before hard frost• “Northern” pecan works in southern Illinois, northern Missouri,

Kentucky. Need “Ultra-northern” for upper-midwest • Issues with scab in susceptible varieties

Carya illinoinensis• Ultra-Northern Varieties-• Snaps• PK Jumbo• Deerstand• Oaks• Diken• Lucus

• All are small nuts, 1-1.5 inches long

Carya illinoinensis• Northern varieties for breeding purposes or warm years

• Posey-fair resistance to scab• Starking• Witte• Major-Scab resistance• Hark-scab resistance• Shepard-Scab resistance• Warren 346-scab resistance• Kansas state varieties

• Kanza-scab resistant• Lakota• Osage• Oswego

Carya illinoinensis• Farm or homestead?• Ultra northern pecans are too small to compete with southern production.

Potential as an oil crop?• Northern pecan could be grown as pollen source for breeding with ultra

northern or other hickory species

Carya laciniosa • Shellbark hickory native to southern part of Midwest and up the

Mississippi to around Iowa City• Large nut, biggest of hickory• Tends to be more of a mesic species than either shagbark or pecan• Takes a lot of heat to ripen nuts• Lots of “packing material” and convoluted shell structure

Carya laciniosa• Varieties?

Carya laciniosa• Farm or homestead?• Neither except for homestead trial. Gary Fernald says he thinks that there

could be varieties that ripen in Zone 5 Wisconsin

Corylus• Corylus avellana-European hazelnut• Corylus americana-American hazelnut

Corylus spp.• Long history of breeding and attempted industry in Wisconsin• Euro hazelnut has cold hardiness and disease issues• American hazelnut tends to have small nuts• Hybrids are seen as the solution• Selection for Euro characteristics can lead to disease problems• Selection for disease resistance can lead to more American characteristics

Corylus spp.• Varieties-• Tom Molnar breeding pure C. avellana for disease resistance and cold

hardiness• Midwest hazels-hybrids of american and European

• Clonal selections being made and trialed. Few available but starting• Controlled crosses available and being trialed

• John Gordon varieties collected by Molnar• Gordon 1-4• Contact Tom Molnar for scionwood• Could be used as reference cultivars

Corylus spp.• Farm or Homestead?• Farm? Genetic improvements are happening but processing industry is in its

infancy• Homestead use for sure

Suggested Reading• NNGA Newsletters• A Guide to Nut Tree Culture-Editor Dennis Fulbright• Nut Tree Culture in North America-Editor Richard Jaynes• Nut Tree Ontario- Ernie Grimo• Nut Growing Ontario Style-John Gordon available online http://

johnsankey.ca/songnews/nutgrowing.html• Growing Nuts in the North-Carl Weschcke also available online

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18189• Growing Hybrid Hazelnuts-Philip Rutter et. all

Suggested Reading• NAFEX• Upper-Midwest Hazelnut Development Initiative (UMHDI)• Chestnut Growers of America• University of Missouri School of Agroforestry• Nut Competitions