Collins Kids Black Walnut Plantation

[George Collins]

Lolly, the log mulch is reserved for the food forests. The walnuts are on their own. Log mulch would probably be really good for the walnuts but the scale for providing each tree with its own split log would likely be far greater than I could realistically accomplish. Hopefully, in a few years they are going to be self-mulching. But now that you mention it, I may log mulch a few random trees and compare growth rates to un-log mulched trees.

[Lollykoko]

I was thinking that mulching them all would require a lot of log splitting.

Someone helped themselves to some firewood from the pile of trees taken down by the county last year and left me plenty of small logs to pick up out of the grass. Perhaps I should go buy a wood splitter before I make the trip north today. The mechanical model was available for just over $100 a month or so ago.

[George Collins]

584 + 35 = 619

All but two of the nuts that germinated since the next most recent planting came from the seeds most recently taken out of cold stratification.

[dave brenneman]

[George Collins]

Those seeds most recently taken out of cold stratification are germinating like crazy. Seventeen more were found and planted today bringing the total up to 636.

And speaking of seeds of ideas, the black walnut grove started out as merely that. One could certainly do worse than to begin helping their children formulate vision. And from this perspective, most do worse - usually far worse.

[George Collins]

636 + 19 = 655 sets

Of the seeds planted today, 18 came from those most recently taken from artificial cold stratification and only one came from those pots that over-wintered outside. The first seeds to germinate in the pots that overwintered outside did so about the last week of February and here, in the last week of April, they seem to have all but quit. This year's germination window seems fairly consistent with the previous year's experience.

In addition to planting those nineteen seeds today, we also watered and I was shocked at how may are showing signs of desiccation/blackening of the leaves. There is definitely a pattern but I'm not sure it makes sense from a water perspective. A better explanation might be the recent high winds we have been experiencing.

In doing a spot of research on the same phenomenon concerning pear leaves, I learned that strong winds are one potential cause. Right about the time we started receiving our recent several days of strong wind, there were relatively few trees that were showing signs of leaf blackening. Prior to that, the large rain events we experienced suggested that too much water seemed the most likely culprit. However, since those crazy-large rain events subsided, we have gone into a very uncharacteristic-for-this-time-of-year drought during which time we have had several really windy days. As the number of windy days have culminated, the percentage of trees showing signs of leaf desiccation seems to have risen dramatically.

[matt walker]

Interesting George. I think you should dig one up and rule out that the roots are sitting in a clay bowl of water. If it is water, I still think you could puncture the clay layer that is holding the water against them and save a lot of them. If it's wind, well, I dunno. Hopefully they will come back.

[Lollykoko]

George, have I mentioned that my walnut trees were interspersed with white pines? I've always assumed that the pines were there to keep the deer from the baby walnut trees but now I'm wondering of they serve more as a wind break.

[George Collins]

[Lollykoko]

I am very ready to have the pines removed. It would open up the woods in a wonderful way and probably decrease the mosquito population to a tolerable level. My brother in law has decided they will become building material, sooner rather than later.

When I bought the place, the walnut plantation was still in CRP. My understanding was that we couldn't do anything more ambitious than mowing (where possible) and removing deadfall that was in problem areas. That acreage fell off in the fall of '10, about two months before the Soil and Water Conservation guy (who was not the CRP administrator) commented that he didn't know why those pines hadn't been removed already, since they had served their purpose. Last year was the first time we have been able to appraise the possibilities. Fingers crossed for this year.

I am located near the 41st parallel. The weather we get here can be (mostly IS) nasty during the winter. All of the walnut groves in the area are inter-planted with pine. Of course all that pine creates a better habitat for the wild turkeys that own the township.