Black Walnut based Food Forest

Rick: Haven't read your book yet, but I've been planting native California black walnuts in the wild zones away from my home and orchard. I live near Santa Cruz, CA in the dry (especially lately) oak woodlands. With one or two extra waterings in the summer, the native walnut seedlings seem to make it through the first few years just fine. My plan is to graft them to the Colossal commercial English walnut that I bought at a nursery. Comments?

i.e.: suggested guild plantings?; even with the drought, would the trees produce the larger commercial walnut as well as their ungrafted neighbors that produce the small-meat, thick-shell native nut?

Don Eggleston

If you're still looking for a response from folks who live in your region, try connecting with folks in the Santa Cruz Permaculture Guild: https://www.facebook.com/groups/santacruzpermacultureguild/

Your climate is very different than mine, but it sounds like a good plan to me. If the walnut roots get down to the water table, it could work great. Might work anyway.

Keep juglone resistance in mind when planting near them.

Just realized how old the post is. How about an update?