Walnut seedling safe from squirrels yet?

I tried to grow butternuts from seed this year in small pots. Today I noticed that two of them sprouted!!! They're 5" tall and I think I should plant them out as soon as I can so that the tap root doesn't circle too much. Do I have to worry about squirrels digging them up now that they've sprouted? I would assume not but it would be a shame to lose them now.

FYI, I got the nuts in the fall with the husk on. I stored them in the fridge all winter and washed the rotten black husk off this spring. I planted them in 6" pots with potting soil with the top of the nuts 1" underground on 3/7. I watered them off and on and had them outside for the last two months. I planted 6 and two came up so far. Woo hoo!

I planted 8 walnuts in containers a year and a half ago. Several sprouted, and I kept three. They didn't get very big but they were alive all summer. I was planning to plant them out in place this spring, but various things came in the way, so the containers are still outside my door. None of three sprouted leaves this spring. I'm still watering them but have given up hope. I watered them occasionally all winter, and each pot has another weed thriving in it so I don't think I failed to water them consistently. Phooey!

From What I have seen the squirrels loose interest come summer and the nuts are safe to plant out then

David

Thanks David! That's what I needed to hear

On a related note, does anyone know if I should wait for the roots to develop and fill the pot before I plant them out? Or should I try to put it in the ground as soon as possible? I'm worried about planting it and having the potting soil fall apart as I plant it. But I'm also worried about not keeping the pot watered enough during summer and also having the roots circle.

I would stick it out now

I understand that (some? most?) nut trees have a long tap root that doesn't like to be disturbed. Plant in place as soon as practical.


Last fall I put hundreds of (husked) hickory and white oak nuts in the ground. At the last check I don't see any that came up.
Of the 50 or so walnuts in the same place there might be 6 sprouting.

Thanks for sharing your technique. I'll try that this year.

Thanks gents, I'll get it in the ground as soon as possible. Food forest, here I come!!!

Pics or it didn't happen Thanks for the good advice Roy and David! The potting soil held together good enough to gingerly plant them. And the tap root had hit the bottom of the 6" deep pot and started to coil around a bit. Next time I'll probably try to find a taller pot. Maybe a piece of downspout...

Mike Haasl wrote:Pics or it didn't happen   Thanks for the good advice Roy and David!  The potting soil held together good enough to gingerly plant them.  And the tap root had hit the bottom of the 6" deep pot and started to coil around a bit.  Next time I'll probably try to find a taller pot.  Maybe a piece of downspout...

Hey Mike, any updates? how are the trees doing and how much management do they need from you?

Of the 4 I planted (one I think I broke the circling tap root), two are still alive and they're about 6' tall.  I have them in an extremely well drained site (sandy) but we get reasonable rain here.  The only management has been that the past two years we've thrown a shovel load of chicken bedding near them each summer as a bit of fertility support.  I think they'd be doing just fine if I didn't fertilize them.

Oh, the first summer I watered them weekly since it was a dry summer.

Ooh, nice to hear! I have five butternuts, as well as a bunch of hickory nuts, stratifying in the fridge at the moment, and just yesterday I had an idea about how to solve the deep-pot-without-soil-going-to-pieces-at-planting dilemma. I can get reasonably deep plastic buckets, probably 40 cm or so, from the food store dumpster (they always throw them, no idea what they use them for, but they are seemingly clean) and I figure that depth is probably about right for walnuts. However, there is no way I have the space to keep 20 of them in front of the window, especially with all the other seeds I plan to start this spring. Also, with the diameter that these buckets are, it's way too much soil for a single seedling to root through. But if I sow several per bucket the roots might tangle and be impossible to separate without damage at planting. So I thought, what if I make several tubes out of newsprint or similar paper, as deep as the bucket, close off the lower end of the tubes, put them in the bucket and fill up the tubes (as well as any space between them) with soil and sow one nut per tube? More stable and less prone to dry out than if I make individual newsprint pots, while allowing for minimal root disturbance at planting. (I'd probably have to cut the bucket open to get the tubes out safely, but since they come from the dumpster anyway I think I can live with that waste.) What do you think? Would it work? Have you done anything similar?

That could work as long as the paper you use will hold together as you try to take it apart.  The tap roots are very fragile and easy to break.  

An even easier approach would be to just plant the nuts where you want the tree to appear.  Let them cold stratify as nature intended.  Cover them with something squirrel-proof so they don't get dug up.  I'd probably use metal rabbit fencing or something like that.  The seedling could grow through the fencing for a while and then in summer you could cut the wire away and remove it.

Thanks! I thought of using multiple layers of newsprint so it's a bit more stable.

Yeah, if they were native here, or just a bit easier to get, I'd definitely put them directly in the ground. But when you have paid quite a bit of money for them, and waited for two months for them to be shipped from Russia (Actually, back and forth to Russia twice, for reasons unknown the post returned them to sender the first time. It wasn't customs related, they claimed that they had "attempted to deliver" it the first time. What does that even mean? Swedish post sucks!)... Anyway, with all that you kinda want to make extra sure that they don't get eaten by voles, rot in the ground or anything else. If these trees ever give any nuts, or if I find a reliable source within Scandinavia, I'll try direct seeding for the next generation.

Eino,
I've seen an interesting technique for taking fruit bush cuttings that might work for you: Lay some plastic sheeting (eg. old compost bags) out and cover with a layer of potting compost. place the cuttings (or seeds!) accross the bags and roll up. Then you can put the rolled bag into your pot, or tie and stand/prop up. The roots get much less tangled since they are spaced apart by the plastic.
If you don't want to use plastic, then paper newspaper would probably work as well, although would be harder to handle later.
When you want to plant out the seedlings, you can unroll the sheeting and pull them apart without too much tangling. I suspect that you wouldn't want the seedlings to be in there too long, or they would tangle too much.
I haven't done this myself, but thought it was a good space/compost saving idea for propagation.

That sounds good! If the paper doesn't work I'll use plastic, though I would prefer not to. Well, the pots are plastic anyway, but not more than necessary... Thanks!