Japanese heartnut: any experience with this tree?

I need a pretty large but not enormous deciduous tree to shade my yard while providing food.

Walnut's too big and will prevent surrounding fruit trees thriving. I can buy Japanese heartnut in my area, but I've never tasted a heartnut so not sure if I should spend years growing it. All the fruit trees from my club are dwarf varieties

Anyone tasted Japanese heartnut? Is it basically the same as a walnut?

I haven't tasted it personally, but I have a friend who loves them and swears by them. They're supposed to be like walnuts but a little richer. But, I believe they need another tree for pollination. Also, I believe they produce juglone, though I don't know in what quantities as compared with other walnuts.

I had them years ago in Georgia.  It grows quick, quicker than either black or English walnuts, and will start producing in just a few years, even from seed. The nuts form in clusters, and each cracks neatly in half, so they are pretty easy to shell too.  The only drawback was that, like many fast growing trees, they didn't live very long....ten years or so and they started to die back, one came back from sprouts as I recall.  Possibly in a cooler climate they would grow slower and live longer.

My nursery describes it as a "medium" speed growth tree. I'm in a Mediterranean climate. I actually want it to grow as fast as possible.

I've looked at many sources online and can't find non-conflicting or credible information. It would be the top of my kind of food forest, with regular fruit trees beneath it, and even the nursery doesn't know whether the juglone will prevent other trees from succeeding. Eg. I read on one site that Persian walnut is toxic to trees but English walnut isn't. Yet Heartnut is a sub-species of a Japanese walnut... no idea.

All Walnut Trees contain Juglone.
Juglone is also the Identifying/Latin word for Walnut
 
!Caution!

Walnuts can be Tapped for Syrup just like and at the same time as Maples. Because Walnuts are Nuts people with Nut Allergies can suffer reactions from the Syrup. Their Syrup also contains a Natural Pectin[I believe a Natural Preservative] so if you do not filter out the pectin from the Syrup water before you Boil it the syrup will turn into Jelly. Unless you want to make a Crushed Walnut Butter / Syrup Jelly Spread as a peanut butter replacement It is going to take a lot of work to process Walnut Syrup.
P.S. If someone makes the Walnut Butter/Jelly Spread, Make a video or take pictures and tell us how it tastes and textures and stuff.  

The Walnut Neighbourhood
The best companions plants that can grow and sometimes thrive in Juglone soils:

- Black Raspberries [Thrives]
- Black Locust
- Currents
- Grapes
- Goumi
- Elderberries
- Rugosa Rose
- Persimmons
- Sweet Corn
- High Bush Cranberries
- Paw Paws
- Beans
- Most Grasses
- Mulberries
- Onions

Poor/Unwise Choices

- Apples
- Pears
- Blackberries [Splitting Hairs]
- Red Raspberries [Splitting Hairs]
- Tomato's
- Alfalfa  
- White Mulberries [Splitting Hairs]

I'll Likely repost this information in greater detail latter but I hope this helps.

Hi
I have two grafted heartnut trees that are about ten years old. They are beautiful trees. I haven't gotten any nuts from them yet because of the squirrels. The first crop of nuts the trees produced when they were nine years old. They should have been producing sooner, but we get a lot of rain here in Kentucky in the spring and the trees need dry weather for wind pollination.
I didn't know when the nuts matured so I was watching them closely. Every few days I checked to see if they were ready to fall. Then in the middle of October I went to check on them and every nut was gone!
Last year they produced another crop. I determined that I would pick them October 1st and beat the squirrels. In the middle of July, I was mowing under the trees and noticed nut hulls. I looked up and again all the nuts were gone!
They weren't even close to ripe.
This year I'm determined to use repellant and beat those squirrels.
They must be very tasty nuts!
I discovered that the heartnut will pollinate with the butternut or white walnut tree.
My trees are ten years old and about twenty feet tall. Butternuts get about thirty feet tall. The bark and trunk of the two trees looks very similar.

Well I'm excited about this then. Two years ago I ordered seed from Burnt Ridge Nursery (they still have some--I just checked last week) and they are about 2 feet tall in pots in my hoop house right now and budding out. They will be going into the ground with their other nutty friends in a month or so. Burnt Ridge also carries English Walnut, Pecan, Hickory, Mixed Chestnut and Butternut seed. At one time they also had Hican. After purchasing bare root trees of them from various sources over the years and having them die off (they were kind of spendy) I decided to give it a go and bought a pound of each. Also bought a bag of almonds in the shell around Christmas, put them in the fridge to vernalize and planted them along with the other nuts (which were already vernalized) in April. I put each seed in a 4 inch pot. My deck was filled with trays. Each day I'd water them, pull the seeds forward that had sprouted and when they were up about 4 inches I potted them up into gallon pots. If they made it through that first season, I potted them up into 3-gallon pots. The Butternut is actually the second tallest plant -the almonds are extremely healthy--I planted about 20 of them last fall and they are about 3 feet tall now. But I didn't know that the heartnut would produce so early. Nice! Thanks for all of the input everyone. I also have Pistachio that I ordered from Sheffeld's. I'm not doing as well with them but I do have 7 seedlings so far. That one's a reach.

Does your heartnut trees have the same toxic effect on nearby trees the way English walnut does?

I have a lot of black walnut trees that I would love to graft into the Japanese heartnut. Does anyone know of any Japanese heartnut graft wood I can buy? I can't seem to find any online anywhere, bummer.

If you go to Burnt Ridge's website and go to the section "Scionwood" (which is categorized under "Other" when you first get to the website) you can find heartnut scionwood under Walnuts for $4.00 a foot

Are the hulls as messy as black walnuts or more like English walnuts?

How big do the trees really get? I think Starks says 30’. Wikipedia says up to 98 but they said that was not common.

Shaun Richter wrote:If someone makes the Walnut Butter/Jelly Spread, Make a video or take pictures and tell us how it tastes and textures and stuff.  

I've just madey first two batches of Black Walnut Syrup, and I filtered the pectin out and canned it. On the first batch I filtered it out pretty early on the process and the jelly is nearly clear with a very mild syrup flavor but the pectin I filtered from the second batch at the end of reducing is incredible. It's a very firm jelly, like a store bought grape jelly, is dark, rich and extremely sweet. Tastes just like Black Walnut Syrup but spreadable. I'll try get some footage of my next round of toast for you.