Note 20 — Colby, a Hardy Persian Walnut for the Central States

According to U.S.D.A. workers in walnut breeding, pollen of other Juglans species is not to be depended upon for securing a set of fruit on this species. Several hardy Persian varieties of good quality which have won awards in recent contests are being propagated but have not been grown at Urbana. These include the Lake, McKinster, and Metcalfe among others of Carpathian parentage, and two non-Carpathian varieties, Hansen and Jacobs, which have been fruitful in northwestern Ohio. Before one or more of these can be recommended as a pollinator for the Colby walnut, however it will be necessary to have them flowering in the same orchard for a period of several years.

Among the other Carpathian walnuts which have flowered in the orchard containing the original Colby tree, there is one very hardy seedling, R 5 T 27, which in 1951 and 1952 produced abundant pollen at the proper time to pollinate the Colby. Tree R 5 T 27 an open pollinated seedling of Crath No. 23, is protandrous, but later flowering than the Colby with respect to pistils as well as catkins, and consequently most of its pistillate flowers fail to set fruit in years like 1951 when there was no later Persian walnut pollen available. The R 5 T 27 tree produces an attractive, smooth shelled nut slightly smaller than that of Colby, not quite as sweet in flavor, and slightly earlier in maturity. Because of its hardiness and apparent value as a pollinator for Colby, propagating wood from this R 5 T 27 walnut tree will be available to experimenters, but we do not plan to name it at present.