How Long Does It Take For A Black Walnut Tree To produce Nuts?

On average, it takes about 10 to 15 years for a black walnut tree to produce nuts, although some trees may start producing as early as 6 years old or as late as 20 years old:

How Do You Husk Black Walnuts?

Follow these steps to husk Black Walnuts: collect the nuts in the fall once they have fallen to the ground, wear gloves (husking can be toxic), prepare the nuts by soaking them, remove the husks from the nut, and then clean and dry the nuts.

How Do You Collect Nuts?

Different types of nuts ripen at different times, so it's important to know what type of nut you're collecting and when it typically ripens. Nuts such as acorns, chestnuts, and hazelnuts typically ripen in the fall, while walnuts and pecans can ripen as early as late summer. In all cases, you gather nuts from the ground after they drop from the tree.

Learn How To Collect, Husk, Stratify, Plant And Grow Black Walnut Trees

This Guide Will Show You How To Grow Your Own Black Walnut Trees.

Collecting Nuts

There three ways to collect walnuts: pick them up off the ground in the fall, shake nuts loose from a tree using a telescopic branch holder or climb the tree and shake individual branches by hand. Picking them up off the ground after they drop in the fall is by far the easiest and safest way to collect walnuts and should provide a thousand walnuts or more from a reasonably mature tree.

Separating The Husk From The Nut

Separating the husk from a walnut is time consuming, messy work. There are two ways to do this; one is to soak about 50-husked nuts together in a five-gallon pail for 2 days. This will soften and loosen the husks from their nuts to be easily pulled apart by hand.

The other way to separate husks is to fill a 20-gallon drum half full of water and pour in approximately 200 walnuts. Allow the nuts to soak for 48 hours. Then using a power cord drill (a cordless drill will not be powerful enough for the job) with an agitator attachment (this is the same attachment they use to mix paint or drywall plaster, which can be purchased at most hardware stores, Home Depot, Lowes, Tractor Supply, etc.) stir the nut filled water for about 5 minutes. Then using a small 1-gallon children’s beach pail, scoop some of the mixture out of the drum and pour it into an upturned milk crate placed on top of a overturned milk crate. The milk crates will work as a sieve and give an elevated workstation so there is less bending over and strain on your back. Vigorously spraying the soaked nuts with a garden hose will separate the husks from the nuts. Set aside in a cool place – do not let them dry out unless you are cracking the nuts to eat.

Processing Walnuts, Picking, Husking, Stratifying And Planting Video

Stratification

Black walnut trees are temperate and require stratification in order to germinate in the spring. Stratification simply means to artificially create dormancy for a sufficient period to induce germination. Black walnut needs 3 to 4 months of dormancy before you can sow the seed. To start the process, clean and soak the nuts for 24 hours. Then strain and lay them out on a towel to dry at room temperature for about 10 minutes. Fill several large self-sealing plastic bags with nuts, peat and potting mix leaving just a little room at the top. Seal the bag and gently shake until nuts and soil are thoroughly mixed. It’s important not to add too many walnuts so you have good separation of soil between nuts. A crowded nut bag will rot the nuts in just a few weeks. Place the nut filled bags face down, one on top of each other in a second fridge (perhaps you can buy a second hand fridge and put in the garage). Do not place nut bags in your fridge where you keep food. After a few months, the nuts are ready to plant. If you stratify black walnuts in December, then your nuts should be ready to plant by the spring.

Planting Black Walnut Trees

Remove the stratification bags from the fridge and take them to the planting site. If you are planting black walnut trees the traditional way, then stringing a line between two stakes hammered into the ground will provide a guide to plant the seeds in a straight line. Use a shovel to dig small holes about 5 inches deep every 15 to 20 feet along the line. Place the seed in the hole and cover. Repeating the string and plant method will create rows of trees that should be spaced 25 feet apart.

How To Transplant Black Walnut Tree Seedlings

If you are transplanting black walnut tree seedlings, you will need to auger deep round holes in the soil. The holes should be wider and deeper than the tree seedling root. Depending on how many tree seedlings you need to plant, the auger can be handheld, or PTO driven. The string and plant method can also be used to align and space rows of transplanted tree seedlings.

Pruning Black Walnut Trees

If you are growing black walnut for nuts, there are two schools of thought to improve yield: heading and non-heading the trees. Heading involves topping the main trunk of the tree each season at a specified height. The thought behind this type of pruning is to encourage more branch development and with more branch development, more nuts. With non-heading only the lateral branches are pruned.

If you are growing black walnut for timber, then lateral branch pruning is a must to grow knot-free trunk wood for veneer and lumber. Pruning should start the second year after transplant giving the tree at least one season to establish itself. Pruning should continue year-to-year until the trunk of the tree has grown to a sawlog length of 12 feet. Continued pruning will create longer length sawlog that will exponentially increase the value of the tree.

Calculate Spacing And Distance Between Black Walnuts For A Tree Plantation

Black Walnut North American Growing Zones

Black walnut naturally grows in Eastern Canada and the United States, with the highest concentration in the Southern States. Although native to Eastern North America, this tree also grows in microclimates around the world.

Growing Black Walnut For Wood And Timber

High-density tree stands create more dark colored heartwood, increasing wood value. Dense tree stands encourage trees to grow faster and straighter as well. Young tree seedlings can be thinned when they achieve an 8 to 10-inch caliper giving room for the remaining trees to grow much larger.

Black Walnut Wood

The heartwood of this tree wood ranks with the most durable woods, including cedars, chestnut, and black locust, even under conditions that favor decay. Because of the unique color and grain characteristics, walnut wood has been a prized wood for furniture, cabinets, millwork, flooring and other decorative interior applications, as well as gunstocks. Bookcases, desks, dining room tables, bedroom furniture, office furniture, and many other pieces are frequently made of black walnut. Because of its low movement after seasoning, walnut is particularly suitable for gunstocks. Figured black walnut stocks are prized for expensive shotguns, sporting rifles, bowls and artistic carvings.

Milling Black Walnut Live Edge, Plain Sawn, Quarter Sawn And Rift Sawn Lumber Video

The following comments were collected from a national wood products discussion forum using black walnut wood in the United States.

Comment from contributor A:

Recognized as one of the most lovely and finest hardwoods, these days black walnut wood is in short supply. As a result, the wood is often cut into veneers and used to cover less-expensive woods in furniture making. A large diameter tree with a tall straight trunk can be worth tens of thousands of dollars and can produce enough veneer to cover 3 acres. And yes, there are black walnut tree rustlers – just ask mu neighbor.

Comment from contributor B:

The big money comes from veneer grade black walnut trees.They will be in the saw log class at 14 inches in diameter. Veneer grade trees will be 21 inches in diameter. The price per log triples from saw log to veneer. Get in touch with your service forester or private forestry consultant. Anyone with tall veneer grade trees may have a gold mine that is worth investigating further.

Comment from contributor C:

If you have one or two or even a dozen black walnut trees in your yard and think you are sitting on a fortune in valuable wood, think again. The most valuable trees are straight and tall with even grain and diameter over 16 inches at breast height. Yard trees rarely have these characteristics. In addition, many yard trees have had nails, fence wire, horseshoes, and other metal objects attached that grow into the wood. This ruins the most valuable part of the tree from a veneer perspective and drastically reduces its value for sawlogs. Very rarely will a timber buyer mess around with yard trees.

Comment from contributor D:

If your black walnut tree has a damaged or crooked trunk and you want to get a nice straight tree that is much more valuable later on, you can cut down smaller trees with an established root system to the ground and they will send up a shoot that grows straighter and faster than the original.

Comment from contributor E:

Several key characteristics determine the value of this tree for timber or veneer; trunk diameter, merchantable height, and how free the trunk is from defects such as knots and damage from lightning. Quality lumber and veneer trees generally have diameters of 18 inches or greater.

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Comment from contributor F:

The length of tree trunk that can be used for lumber or veneer is called its merchantable height. Merchantable height is usually the trunk height a foot off the ground to start of major branches or forking. Minimum merchantable height for lumber and veneer black walnut trees is 10 feet. Quality lumber and veneer trees will have merchantable heights that are several times that height. The quality of a hardwood tree is measured by how free its trunk is from defects such as crookedness, limbs, knots, scars, swellings, bumps, cracks, holes, insect or disease damage, and wounds. Other factors being equal, the fewer the defects, the more valuable the tree. High-value lumber and veneer trees have few visible defects. On the other hand, Walnut trees with numerous defects are of little economic value. In general, the larger the tree's diameter and merchantable height and the more free the trunk is from defects, the greater its economic value for lumber or veneer.

Comment from contributor G:

With all these positive attributes black walnut still accounts for less than 1% of the hardwood production in the US. Walnut wood is expensive, generally the highest priced domestic hardwood. Most logs are short; special grading rules allow for 6’ being included in FAS, the top grade. Lengthier logs would be worth considerably more.

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