Honeyberry vs. Black Walnut

Looking for personal or anecdotal experience about whether or not honeyberries can do well in close vicinity (within 30 ft, in my case) of a black walnut. I've googled a bit and read some more historical accounts about HBs doing just fine near BW, but for me, this just does not seem to be the case. I have two plants that were planted a 2-3 years ago, they have returned each year but are just not thriving while other plants in the area are just fine. Is it the BW or operator error?

Hello Krista!


You could try feeding the honey berry extra good stuff to make it super healthy.  
Lots of nutrient rich mulch.  
pee around the plants
a liquid fertilizer made by putting water through organic manure or other nutrient.  


You could try growing a bunch of sunflowers to suck up some of the toxins from the black walnut.  

A big black walnut can have roots 30 feet away.  They usually have few plants around them.  Black berries seem to do fine under them though.  

I think it would be interesting to note what is doing well under your black walnut tree.


I have dug up woody shrubs and perennials that are doing poorly.  Often a plant in poor condition, has a shallow root system so it is easy to dig up.   You could move them once they go dormant.   Maybe to a raised bed or hugelculture.   Do you have another area they could be happy in?

They go in depth in this movie about how to build a hugelculture and why you would want to.
https://permies.com/wiki/52912/World-Domination-Gardening-movie-set