Introduction

Walnut trees are hardwoods, which are appreciated for their beautiful landscape feature, nutritious nuts, and highly valued wood. However, nuts are somewhat difficult crop to grow. It takes a lot of knowledge and patience to grow both for the nut production itself or just as a nice stately tree on your landscape. This paper captures a full guide to planting and growing walnut trees, ensuring they thrive and have bountiful yields.

Walnut Tree Varieties

Now, before going into the planting process, it should be known that there are different types of walnut trees. The two most commonly cultivated species are the English walnut and the black walnut.

1. English Walnut:

Its other name is Persian walnut. It is the thin-shelled type that is usually easy to crack. Preferring temperate climates, it is common in most commercial orchards.

2. Black Walnut:

This walnut tree is native to North America, very resilient, and has wood highly prized for furniture making. The nuts are more difficult to crack, but they have an intense flavor, most unique.

The choices each have their own requirements and characteristics, so choosing the appropriate type of walnut tree depends upon a person’s goals—nut production, timber, or ornamental purposes.

Selecting a Site

Walnut trees can grow to large heights; they are mostly 50 to 75 feet tall with an about the same spread. Proper site selection is very important for good health and productivity in the long term.

1. Sun:

Best growth of the walnut tree will be obtained under full sun conditions, requiring a minimum of 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight daily. Do not plant in shade or under the canopy of other trees.

2. Soil:

Walnut trees grow well in well-drained, deep, loamy soils rich in organic matter. They do better on slightly acidic to neutral soil pH value, between 6.0 to 7.5. Avoid locations with poor soil drainage as walnut trees are quite sensitive to waterlogged conditions that lead to root rot.

3. Spacing:

Walnuts being large trees, they require wide spacing for growing. Therefore, planting is supposed to be 40 to 50 feet apart to enable the trees to spread their root and canopies.

4. Juglone Sensitivity:

One of the odd features of the walnut tree and more specifically the black walnut tree is that they contain a chemical called juglone that is a toxin to many other plants, therefore making the black walnut tree a tomato, potato, and some fruit and flower reject. When making the site selection, ensure that planting will not have detrimental effects on the surrounding plants.

Planting Walnut Trees

Walnut trees require proper planning and planting for them to grow well and develop strong health.

Selecting Seedlings or Saplings

Walnuts can be grown directly from seed, but this is the more difficult and time-consuming method. Most growers will plant grafted saplings that are more likely to produce nuts and maintain desirable traits.

For instance, walnuts are best planted in late fall or very early spring when the tree is still dormant. This reduces the transplant shock majorly and allows the tree to establish its roots well in advance before the growing season begins.

Process of Planting:

Dig a hole twice as wide and the same depth as the root ball of the sapling. Make sure it is deep enough that the entire root system will not be crowded in.

1. Mix the Soil: If you have heavy clay or sandy soil, repair it with compost or other organic matter to provide a more porous and fertile medium.
2. Position the tree: Place the sapling in the hole, making sure that the graft union – the bulge towards the base – is out of ground level. This prevents the tree from forming roots above the graft, resulting in unwanted growth.
3. Backfill and Water: Fill the hole up with soil, tamping it down gently to remove air pockets. Water the tree well to settle the soil around the roots.
4. Mulching: Spread a 2 to 3 inch layer of mulch around the tree, but several inches out from the trunk. Mulch conserves water, suppresses weeds, and moderates temperature extremes in soils.

Care and Maintenance

Walnut trees require monitoring on a regular basis for watering, fertilizing, pruning, and pest management.

Watering:

Young walnut trees must be kept constantly watered so that their roots can grow. During the growing season, deep watering once a week should be done to ensure the moisture in the soil but not soggy. Mature trees have much greater resistance to drought but still appreciate supplemental watering during dry periods.

Manuring:

Walnut trees are heavy feeders, and where proper nutrition is deficient, the quality of the nuts suffers. Soil testing should be done before planting to decide upon nutrient levels and their corrections, if needed. Apply a balanced fertilizer in early spring before new growth starts to emerge. For more mature trees, generally, nitrogen-heavy fertilizers are recommended, but one always wants to avoid over-fertilization which would promote excessive growth of foliage over nuts.

Pruning:

Prune walnut trees at the dormant season to create the shape of the tree and to remove dead, diseased, or crossing limbs. It improves air circulation, reduces the chance of disease, and gives rise to better nuts. A strong central leader needs to be established, and all the competing shoots removed.

Pest and Disease Control:

Walnut trees are often attacked by a few diseases and pests, such as walnut blight, codling moths, and aphids.

1. Walnut blight: Black lesions on leaves, shoots, and nuts are formed by this bacterium. This mainly acts during wet conditions and could be controlled by the use of copper-based fungicides and pruning of branches for aeration.
2. Aphids: They weaken trees, feeding on the tree’s sap or spreading diseases into the system. They can be managed by introducing beneficial insects like ladybugs, applying insecticidal soaps, or using horticultural oils.

Harvesting Walnuts

There is no rush in walnut tree planting, for it requires the utmost patience. It will take a walnut tree 7 to 10 years to begin nut production; peak production occurs at about 30 years of age. Harvesting walnuts proves to be considerably labor-intensive but very rewarding.

Harvest Time Walnuts are generally ready to harvest around late summer into early fall. Nuts will start to drop from the tree once they are ripe, or shake the branches to get them to drop.

Gathering and Processing:

1. Hulling: Hull the green outer husk as soon as possible; otherwise, it will stain the nut shell. Hulling should be done immediately since this green outer husk will stain the nut shell. Wear gloves as husks stain skin.
2. Drying: The nuts should be spread in a single row and dried in an airy spot. This may take weeks. Exposed walnuts with a shell that is well dried will have a brittle shell and will produce firm, well-flavored nuts.
3. Storage: Dried walnuts are best stored in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. They will stay fresh for many months or years if kept correctly.

Ending

With this in mind, growing walnut trees for personal, hobbyist gardening use or commercially is very rewarding. Proper site selection, planting, and subsequent care will yield a nutritious nut and valuable timber, as well as aesthetic beauty that can be enjoyed by generations to come. They require a good deal of time and hard work to get growing, but the long-term rewards are worth it. Plant English or black walnuts, whichever meets your fancy, but do so following the advice in this article to ensure a beeline to successful success.