Collins Kids Black Walnut Plantation

[George Collins]

Matt, the "cold" thing is definitely out. That rattler idea is in play but he was thoroughly cowered when last seen. The "wet" thing sounds more plausible and something I had considered as well. Perhaps the waterings need to be spaced out a bit more - perhaps every four days instead of every 2-3. But then the torrential rains that South Mississippi is noted for having can't be helped. Perhaps some few are just destined to die. While in the field this afternoon, each leaf that was showing signs of blackening was snipped off. Last year, when one started showing signs of leaf blackening like the one in the picture, death was imminent although they often came back from the roots. So often did they do so that we quit thinking of them as dead and thought instead more along the lines of hitting the restart button on a video game.

BTW, we added 8 more today allowing us to break 500. To be precise, we now have 506 sets. Before leaving the field, a quick count revealed that we are almost exactly half done meaning the field will hold right at 1,000 trees. I recently read also that (1) my memory was a bit off and (2) on a 10' x 10' spacing, the number of trees is a tad over 400 instead of the 333 that I originally told y'all. That will translate into a field roughly 2 1/2 acres in size and, once completed, bring our total area in black walnut cultivation up to about three acres.

[George Collins]

The whole family went to the grove today to put strips of white marking ribbon along the dummy wires of the fence. While there, we made ten more sets bringing the total to 516.



Matt, while we were in the field, I became perfectly convinced of the correctness of your theory about why the little walnut was turning black. I am now convinced beyond reasonable doubt that too much water is the sole culprit. There is one entire row where not a single tree has come up. I dug up a few of the seeds in this row and found a couple things:
First, the holes in which they were planted were completely saturated with water and
Secondly, those that had already made tap roots prior to having been set out had had their development arrested and the tap root had turned black and in some cases, completely rotted away.

Only time will tell how many will have been lost because of the crazy amounts of rain we've had. The mulch was pulled off all sets not yet sprouted in hopes that the drying action of the wind might improve the chances of at least some of them. My Uncle's patches are in the same shape. Most of those that had sprouted prior to the onset of all of the recent torrential rain seem to be okay although some of them are showing signs of their leaves blackening. However, all of the sets where no sprout had yet emerged seem to be in the same shape as that one ill-fated row in my field. Tellingly, the row I'm referring to was planted on the same day as his patch.

Thankfully, we are forecasted to have clear weather for the next several days. Hopefully those already lost will be the only ones that will be lost. Having said that, I'll not be surprised if we lose fifty to a hundred.

While checking on some older, volunteer black walnuts this afternoon, I noticed something I've never seen before:


BLOOMS! I didn't know they had pretty blooms.

[matt walker]

Wow, I didn't know about the blooms either. Cool.

George, one of the trees I planted a few weeks ago was in a hole that was clay lined and wet. I planted it, thought about it that night, and went back the next day and made a pile above the clay layer and replanted it in the pile so that at least some of the roots were in well drained soil. Another thought is to penetrate the clay basin of the planting hole with a rod pounded deep and pulled out, to get some drainage going. I'm sure you are aware that in wet clay your shovel can seal the hole into a perfect clay basin.

[George Collins]

The first bucket of artificially stratified seeds were removed from the refrigerator today and placed into germination media. According the Pampered Chef digital thermometer, the internal temperature was 40.2 degrees F.

To my utter amazement, one had already germinated. I was under the impression that while in stratification, none would germinate, however . . .

[GrahamB]

I've been meaning to read this thread for a couple of weeks now, but time has been a bit short until today. We have had storms coming through all day so I have been stuck indoors, instead of out planting the fifty native fruit trees that arrived this week. So it was time to sit and catch up on some reading.
George you are one impressive dude!
I couldn't imagine planting all those seedlings, watering them religiously and believing they will be there in 70 years. It's going to take all the patience I have and some to wait for these fruit trees to start fruiting.
I like the idea of you having Dog as a neighbor. We have Blackie, a six foot black rat snake and Gertie, the fattest garter snake you have ever seen. I get quite protective over them.
I concur about those black leaves too. Definitely looks like water-logging to me. I've had the same thing with roses when I lived in England.

[George Collins]

Thank you for the compliment sir! I have thoroughly enjoyed myself throughout the entirety of this process. If I were not having so much fun, perhaps I would feel more impressed with myself. So far, however, my efforts truly have been a labor of love: I love planting trees and I love my kids who are the intended beneficiaries. Over the course of my life, I've heard scores of people say, "I wish MY parents would have had the foresight to plant ME a few acres of black walnuts back when I was a kid."

And my unspoken response is, "And how many acres of black walnuts have you planted for yours?"

But boy I WISH I had the guts to say it sometimes though!

ps - We planted 9 yesterday morning and 31 more yesterday afternoon bringing the total number of sets up to 556.

[GrahamB]

I was thinking the same thing this morning. I'm in the process of planting about sixty fruit trees and bushes. In that lot I have red mulberry, persimmon, wild cherry and wild plum. Those will take quite a few years to come to fruition, and I had it in my mind that whichever of the kids gets the property will see more of them than I will. The three all planted their own elderberry this morning so they have a hand in it now. I got twenty one in today, black chokeberry, elderberry, blackberry and paw paw. Doesn't sound much but we don't sod bust here, we rock bust. I think the whole area is built on a prehistoric morass. You lift about three inches of topsoil and then you hit big lumps of flint. But it will be worth it in the end.

[George Collins]

We examined every seed currently in germination media today and found two things of note:
1. The number of those germinating that over-wintered outside has all but stopped. Out of those ~2,000, we found maybe five that had germinated.
2. The number of those germinating that were recently taken out of cold stratification seems to be getting underway. Among those we found about 10.

All total, we planted 17 today bringing the total number of sets up to 573.

Several days ago, three large dogs were observed running through the grove. When they saw me coming, they left the grove in rapid fashion and in doing so were observed going under the lowest wire which was a dummy wire. Since their oversized paws would most decidedly be unhealthy for barely sprouted walnuts, the bottom, formerly dummy wire, was energized yesterday.

I hope they take the hint.

[George Collins]

KIDS! G! They missed eleven in the pots we checked yesterday. ONE OF WHICH HAD A THREE INCH SPROUT!!!

Seeing that one sticking up outta the pot prompted me to check all the nuts behind them and in doing so found ELEVEN!

Putting them in the ground today brought us up to a total of 584 sets.

[Lollykoko]

So you have planted nearly an acre and a half so far this spring, George? That will take a lot of log mulch!