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Starting Out! Nuts from Seed

Melonie Corder

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posted 3 years ago

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Can I start nut trees from seed?

We have a neighbor with a Black Walnut as well as another with some sort of Chestnut. Obviously we end up with nuts in our yard. Just moved here and wanting to start a food forest, can I sprout the nuts I can collect or is it not worth the effort?

I understand they need to freeze, maybe starting them outdoors?

If I find walnuts obviously from last year and they haven't sprouted are they no good or still worth a try?

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Humm Birdie

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posted 3 years ago

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You most certainly can! For chestnuts, the video that explained it to me best is one using a bucket method:

I'm not entirely sure if this method works for walnuts and hazelnuts, but I think it's worth a try since it doesn't take much.

you can also just spread the seeds on a prepared seedbed in autumn, and cover them up with a bit of soil/mulch, then cover them up with a dense steel mesh, so it's protected from mice, squirells, and the rest.

Also, plant many of them, don't put all your faith in just a seedling or two. And by next autumn you get some free trees, what's better than that?

greg mosser

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they don’t need to freeze. you can overwinter them in soil or mix in the fridge and avoid the winter-long rodent predation problem.

S Bengi

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Most nut trees from nursery takes, 4yr+ to produce a few nuts and 10yrs+ really get into the swing of it. If you grow from seed it is going to take 10yrs+ to give a few nuts and 16yrs+ to really give a nice harvest. If "I" only had a 1/4lot I wouldn't do it, but if I had 5 or 10 or 100acre. I would be planting 3seeds+ in every hole ever 10ft for every nuts and fruits I can find. And then cull the ones that I dont like if they didn't die themselves.

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Jay Angler

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S Bengi wrote:Most nut trees from nursery takes, 4yr+ to produce a few nuts and 10yrs+ really get into the swing of it. If you grow from seed it is going to take 10yrs+ to give a few nuts and 16yrs+ to really give a nice harvest. If "I" only had a 1/4lot I wouldn't do it, but if I had 5 or 10 or 100acre. I would be planting 3seeds+ in every hole ever 10ft for every nuts and fruits I can find. And then cull the ones that I dont like if they didn't die themselves.

This is a point. A counterpoint is that at nursery tree is likely a clone, and I worry that if all our food trees are clones, what hope have we got if some virus mutates or is introduced such as happened to the American Chestnut.

So yes, if you're on a small property, can afford the price and need food now, don't feel bad about nursery stock. I bought an espalier Asian pear that is exactly that, as I needed something small in a spot I didn't want more shade.

However, in another location, I started two Hazelnut trees from locally grown nuts. I can wait. If I get impatient, I have a friend who's has some trees I could take cuttings from, but at the moment I don't have a suitable spot to plant them anyway.

I would research each type as there are some diseases out there that if you don't plant a resistant variety, you may not have any luck with them. That said, just growing in real dirt without chemicals and with mycorrhizae and a polyculture to support the plant, will lower disease risk.

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Anton Jacobski Hedman

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posted 3 years ago

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Melonie Corder wrote:Can I start nut trees from seed?

We have a neighbor with a Black Walnut as well as another with some sort of Chestnut. Obviously we end up with nuts in our yard. Just moved here and wanting to start a food forest, can I sprout the nuts I can collect or is it not worth the effort?

I understand they need to freeze, maybe starting them outdoors?

If I find walnuts obviously from last year and they haven't sprouted are they no good or still worth a try?

They don't need to freeze, they need to be stratified ie exposed to low temperatures which can be done in the fridge. In fact I am not even so sure about the need for stratification because I've made English walnuts sprout in under 2 weeks by giving them a good 24+ hour soak and keeping them in fridge for like 12 days or so and carefully cracking and removing the part of the shell around the pointy end/germ and I'm not even sure the fridge step did any good. I tried doing like this guy did and it definitely works:

It's not even been a month since I picked the fresh walnuts from the ground and they are already about to emerge above the soil as small seedlings in my pots.

I am guessing it probably works well on black walnuts or any species of walnut or hickory nut too if you carefully crack the end of the nut where the germ is. Might be easier said than done but I found that gently hitting the pointy end with a hand sledge until the nut shell cracked open enough for me to pry it open with my fingers worked well enough; and it may be enough to just get a good cracking in than prying it open because the sprouting part in itself will eventually bend the nut open enough on its own, I think I did the prying part because I just wanted to see if they had actually sprouted and if it worked to do just like in that Youtube video. Be careful to not remove too much of the shell though because that is likely to split the entire nut in half and likely ruin its ability to grow into a seedling.

If you plant the nuts outside you definitely need to cover them with some protection because birds or rodents like squirrels and mice will otherwise dig up the nut and eat them, even birds can dig down quite far in the soil if they smell something as good and tasty as a fat nut. If you don't want to plant black walnuts from your neighbour or nearby area you can get ahold of various type of walnut seeds online. You can also grow walnuts from cuttings and for example clone your neighbour's tree(s) although they aren't that easy to root and their root system may end up much weaker than those grown from seed.

S Bengi wrote:Most nut trees from nursery takes, 4yr+ to produce a few nuts and 10yrs+ really get into the swing of it. If you grow from seed it is going to take 10yrs+ to give a few nuts and 16yrs+ to really give a nice harvest. If "I" only had a 1/4lot I wouldn't do it, but if I had 5 or 10 or 100acre. I would be planting 3seeds+ in every hole ever 10ft for every nuts and fruits I can find. And then cull the ones that I dont like if they didn't die themselves.

Some nuts like heartnuts and white walnuts/butternuts can produce as early as in just 2-3 years from seed! I've heard some say that heartnuts are among the best tasting walnuts, but they aren't that big and white walnuts aren't that easy to crack I think. But if you want something that crops fast and/or something a bit unusual like heartnuts or like the taste of white walnuts these should be pretty good options to things like black walnuts and English walnuts that often take much longer to produce. You can also grow many different walnut species together for variation if you have the space, they can even help to pollinate each other.

Freyda Black

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Location: Chemung, NY

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posted 3 years ago

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When someone gave me chestnuts from a native chestnut (repsprouting after blight) to eat, I planted them in a garden bed instead with hardware cloth over them. I got 37 seedlings from 40 nuts. I also find American hazelnuts planted by the squirrels and forgotten growing all over the homestead. Just make sure that, if you plant directly in the ground, that you move the seedlings from the crowded nursery bed asap before they develop huge tap roots. After a few years, I discovered that my chestnuts were not pure American chestnut, as the tree was apparently pollinated by another species. By then, their roots were so extensive they were literally impossible to kill! So my advice is, make sure of your seed source. Nut trees are fast growers given good conditions and I know of one nursery that sells one year old seedling trees at top prices. For a food forest or orchard with dozens of trees, I'm planting hybrid chestnut and American hazelnut from the nuts!

One cautionary note, holding seed in a refrigerator hasn't been successful for me. There are a lot of molds that develop in the average fridge and I have had seed I was stratifying over winter go moldy even in a sterile mix. Imho, Nature knows best how to get those seeds ready to sprout outdoors.

Mark Reed

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posted 3 years ago

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What is easiest and works best for me with seeds like black walnut, pecan and hickory as well as many other tree seeds is to just plant them in the fall in the spot where I want the tree(s) to grow. A lot of soil prep is not necessary, I just roughly scrape off the sod or weeds and put the seeds in an inch or so deep. I cover the spot with old boards, big rocks or whatever I have handy. That prevents more tenacious weeds such as grass from re-growing and also prevents squirrels from swiping the seed. The next spring while it is still frosting at night I remove the cover. I generally wit walnuts for example will plant 1/2 a dozen or so in close proximity and thin down to just one. Extras of those that have large taproots are cut and killed to prevent disturbance of the ones I'm keeping. With others, like apples or pears I can transplant the extras or pot them up for sale.

Before I discovered this technique I did all the other things like storing in the fridge and such, with mixed results. This way is just so much easier and effective for me.

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Melonie Corder

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Location: Middle of South Dakota, 4a

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Humm Birdie wrote:

Also, plant many of them, don't put all your faith in just a seedling or two. And by next autumn you get some free trees, what's better than that?

Thank you for the video. I wasn't sure if all nuts were similiar. I hope to find many on the ground and will try to plant them all.

Now that I see how long they take until harvest I'm thinking I'll invest in some bare root plants from the local conservation district, anything sprouted will be used as filler or replacement of any that don't make it.

“The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you.” – B.B. King

Melonie Corder

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Posts: 210

Location: Middle of South Dakota, 4a

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posted 3 years ago

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Mark Reed wrote:What is easiest and works best for me with seeds like black walnut, pecan and hickory as well as many other tree seeds is to just plant them in the fall in the spot where I want the tree(s) to grow. A lot of soil prep is not necessary, I just roughly scrape off the sod or weeds and put the seeds in an inch or so deep. I cover the spot with old boards, big rocks or whatever I have handy. That prevents more tenacious weeds such as grass from re-growing and also prevents squirrels from swiping the seed. The next spring while it is still frosting at night I remove the cover. I generally wit walnuts for example will plant 1/2 a dozen or so in close proximity and thin down to just one. Extras of those that have large taproots are cut and killed to prevent disturbance of the ones I'm keeping. With others, like apples or pears I can transplant the extras or pot them up for sale.

Before I discovered this technique I did all the other things like storing in the fridge and such, with mixed results. This way is just so much easier and effective for me. [/quo

I'm going to try the outside method but in a pot so I can screen off from rodents, hopefully. I wish I knew where they were going now, that would be even better. Until next year I haven't a clue.

“The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you.” – B.B. King

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