osker brown

we're in the early stages of trying this with lots of stuff, but mostly focused on hazels, pawpaws, aronia, elderberry, and mulberry.

Another strategy to add to the mix is cutting scions from young seedlings and top working them onto established rootstocks, this will produce fruit much quicker than on it's own roots. This is how Luther Burbank was able to do selections on whatever ridiculous number of species it was on only 1/4 acre.

That list names basswood and blackberry as being juglone intolerant, which is definitely untrue. I've got both of those thriving within the dripline of black walnuts. I've never been able to find a list that didn't have errors.

peace

If you cut locusts higher off the ground they won't root sucker.

There is a disease affecting black walnuts called thousand canker disease, it's native to the walnuts in the southwest but began moving east recently.

http://www.thousandcankers.com/tcd-information.php

These mountains tend to be phosphorus deficient, so it may be worth buying some rock phosphate, digging a deep hole within the dripline of the trees, and dumping a bunch in. There's no need to spread it, the trees will find it and use what they need, the important thing is to get it deep, as phosphorus doesn't move well in soils.

Another thing to try would be to coppice one or more of them and graft select walnut varieties onto the regrowth. Many select cultivars are chosen for consistent bearing, as well as kernel size. I'm told that select hickories and even pecans are graft compatible with black walnut, I haven't tried that myself, but I intend to soon.

peace

Goats can definitely eat black locust in large quantities. Yes the blooms are a delicious edible, raw or cooked. My favorite use of them was a pesto of Locust blooms, black walnuts, and a little honey.

Re:rot-resistance, they'll rot more or less as fast as anything if the wood is from young trees (younger than 20 years). Younger trees are called Yellow locust, colloquially, because they are mostly sapwood. Older trees are called Black locust, because at about 20 years they seem to drastically increase the ratio of heartwood:sapwood. It is the heartwood that is extremely rot resistant. I know of farms in my area where the fence posts are 100 year old Black locust, in clay, in a temperate rain forest. They are still solid.

peace

Black walnuts are one of the best food crops you could have, alternately you could maintain them as a coppice (honestly they regrow so well it would be hard to kill them without removing the stump). The regrowth is usually very straight, the wood is somewhat rot resistant and grows fairly fast in good conditions.

Some food plants that thrive near walnut are mulberry, pawpaw, elderberry, hazelnut. I would recommend working with what you've got.

peace

Black walnut husk and Artemisia species are also natural wormers.

You might consider acquiring some Kikos, or finding a buck locally for stud service. Kikos were bred in a very wet environment (south island of New Zealand), specifically for parasite resistance and weight gain. Myotonics are also generally resilient, as they were bred in Tennessee, which is fairly wet. There are certainly lines of all breeds that are parasite resistant to some extent. We purchased a 4 year old Alpine that had never received any wormer, and lived on a small overcrowded lot.

Also check out this: http://www.ars-grin.gov/duke/highchem.html Type in copper and submit, you get a readout of plants with high PPMs of Copper.

Good luck!
peace

L. Zell wrote:I'm shocked your goats aren't eating the poison ivy. Mine adore it, and have been slowly killing it back. I can point to it, and they come running and snarf it down. I would go ahead and "force" them to eat some of it, but maybe not all. Moderation in all things.

What breed are your goats?

We also acquired goats hoping to control ivy. Success is limited. Preference seems to vary between breeds. Some of our goats will only eat it at certain times of day, or after they eat other things first. I think raising goats exclusively on forage from birth is helpful, but still not 100% effective. I'm still hoping to find a breed, or line, that really loves it.

I think it's fine to "force" the mama to eat it, as long as she has a generally balanced and healthy diet.

peace

Julie Anderson wrote:

How do you get the young leaves into the gel caps without getting a horrendous exposure? I get it really bad. I have 3-4 weeks of open oozing skin if I get any on me.

JA

Sorry, didn't see this until now. I use tweezers to carefully pluck the young leaves and stuff them in a gel-cap.