Nut Nursery Notes

By H. F. Stoke, Roanoke, Va.

The present season has seen an increase of interest in nut tree planting that is new in my experience. This interest is apparent not only in retail orders, but is reflected in inquiries received from large general nurseries, many of which have not been listing nut trees. I do not believe that this interest in food-producing trees is a passing phase of the war, but that it will continue if honestly catered to and wisely directed.

With apologies for personal reference, the demands of my small commercial nursery on my time and attention have become so heavy that I am faced with the necessity of either building a permanent organization of skilled workers or dropping out altogether. Due to advancing years and other considerations I am choosing the latter course. Because of this I feel free to make certain remarks as to the future of nut tree production that I would hesitate to make if I were still in the business.

Without doubt many of the large commercial general nurseries will take up the growing and selling of nut trees. We who have pioneered in this work, should welcome the increased public interest that will result from the more extensive advertising and cataloging of nut trees. The specialist who has worked out propagation, pollination and variety problems should be more than able to hold his own against the competition of newcomers in his field, however large.

As all old-timers know, there are certain factors in the growing of nut nursery stock that do not lend themselves to the mass-production methods of the large general nurseries. Stocks, generally, take longer to produce. It may take as much as six years to produce a saleable hickory tree from the time the seed is planted. Failures in grafting and budding walnuts run high, especially with beginners. A catch of twenty-five per cent means either selective hand digging must be resorted to or seventy-five per cent of the seedling stock must be sacrificed if power digging is used.

Suitable grafting stock for chestnuts is still a matter of controversy. Good authorities claim that Chinese chestnut is unreliable as a root stock while others, including myself, as stoutly maintain that the main need is for proper technique in grafting and budding. These and other considerations, including the training of workers in improved technique, offer certain obstacles to the newcomer which, in turn, offer certain temptations that may result in harm to the whole movement toward nut tree planting.

To be specific, the difficulty of producing good grafted or budded trees of named varieties may readily tempt the less scrupulous to sell any kind of nondescript seedling, while at the same time giving the public the impression that superior stock is being offered. This is, in fact, already being done. I have before me the catalogues of three large general nurseries. One of them offers what are obviously seedling Chinese chestnuts in these words: "Only two years from now, right on your own grounds, you can pick up big, fat, tasty chestnuts from the trees you plant this year."

Of English walnuts—no variety name given and quite obviously seedlings—the following description is given: "Thin-shelled, large, delicious nuts, producing heavy crops and demanding good prices". In both these cases the prices asked are as high or higher than good, grafted, named varieties can be bought for elsewhere.

The second catalogue offers seedling black walnuts, not so designated, and also "Thomas Improved" black walnuts at a higher price. Seedling English walnuts, not stated as such, are offered as having commercial possibilities and being as good in quality as those grown elsewhere. The third catalogue is entirely ethical and legitimate. It lists a limited assortment of well-selected varieties under their true names.

When misguided buyers purchase a seedling chestnut tree with the expectation of "picking up big, fat, tasty chestnuts in two years from planting" and realize a handful of nuts after ten years of waiting, or nothing but empty burrs because of lack of pollination, nut tree planting gets a black eye. The same is true when the buyer tenderly nurses a weak-rooted English walnut seedling for fifteen years before he gets a few small, thick-shelled, astringent nuts.

When nurseries that show honesty in their advertising write me for information I give them the best I have. When their advertising is otherwise I do not trouble to answer. One party, after asking many questions, wound up by saying he wanted "to get in on this nut game." My impression was that if he had said "shell game" he would have more accurately stated his case.

Buyers should be on their guard not to be deceived by flowery, but vague descriptions. If catalogues list nut trees by recognized variety names it is pretty safe to assume that the trees are as represented. If recognized variety names are omitted the trees may safely be considered to be seedlings and that they will produce a wholly unknown quantity, no matter how alluring the advertising. Of course, this is not intended to discourage the planting of new varieties offered by nurseries of known reputation for integrity, nor of such strains as the Crath Carpathian walnut importations, from which new varieties are emerging.

As a practical note I wish to state that the black walnut is by far the most satisfactory stock on which to graft walnuts of any species. Not infrequently seedling English walnut trees take from ten to fifteen or more years to come into bearing. I have fruited fifteen or more varieties by grafting on black stocks, and in no case has it required more than five years for the trees to bear. Frequently they have borne in two or three years. The English walnut is also a more vigorous grower on black walnut roots than on its own.

The Sherwood butternut grafted five or six years ago on butternut stocks has not borne yet; grafted on a small black walnut in the nursery row in 1942 it bore one nut in 1943 and has many staminate buds for 1944 visible at the present time. Walters heartnut bears the second or third year on black walnut; it has not borne for me on butternut after seven years. The same holds good for the other heartnuts.

In the grafting of chestnuts, defective (incompatible?) unions can generally be spotted the first year. They develop with a transverse fissure into which the bark ingrows. Good unions show new tissue entirely around the closing wound; the final scar as healing approaches completion being vertical, i. e. longitudinal with the stock. This result can be obtained by proper technique.

The members of the Association can do much to further the cause of nut tree planting by discrimination in recognizing the ear-marks of honest advertising and encouraging their friends to make their purchases from conscientious, responsible nurserymen. Our Association nursery list is a valuable help in this direction.