Walnut trees from seed

[Martin Baxendale]

Does anone know how long it takes walnut trees to start producing nuts when grown from seed? I thought it was about 20 years, which is why grafted named cultivars are usually planted. Can anyone confirm or tell me otherwise?

[Lesley Cox]

Can't confirm or deny but probably not far out. And the subsequent walnuts may not be up to much either if the seed nuts have come from a cultivar.

Partly it may depend too on where you live. As an example I understand Magnolia campbellii can take up to 30 years to flower from seed in the UK. Here they will take from 7 to 12 or 13. So walnuts may take longer for you than they would for me. Local farmers plant walnut trees though, for the benefit (retirement income) of their as yet unborn grandchildren, expecting a timber harvest 70 years down the track.

[Robert G]

Martin, For whatever it is worth here in a harsher climate than where you are our trees of various species seem to require at least 20 years+ to create seed. It is really the 'big boys'(50+) that produce any real amount of seed. I and the squirrels know...every year we compete for the nuts. At best it is a draw. I am including Carya in the observations and most of the Juglans we grow are not the English/European species.

[Gerdk]

Does anone know how long it takes walnut trees to start producing nuts when grown from seed? I thought it was about 20 years, which is why grafted named cultivars are usually planted. Can anyone confirm or tell me otherwise?

Martin,
According German data for seedlings about 15 years, grafted ones 7 to 8 years until fruitset.
Because of bacterial and fungal diseases it was recommended to plant special
clones (which are less sensitive than seedlings).

Gerd

[Martin Baxendale]

Thanks for the responses. Very helpful.

[johnw]

Can anyone tell me if Juglans regia's roots produce the same toxin that kills plants underneath J. nigra.  I had a friend who planted vegetables and rhodos near a J. nigra much to his later regret.

johnw

[ruweiss]

Martin,
in my opinion it is better to plant grafted walnut trees. They are rather expensive, but they give you the nuts
you would like to have (taste, size,good hardiness and suitable flowering time because the late frosts).
You can expect the first harvest in a shorter time and the trees don`t grow so big as seedlings.
It is frustrating when after 12 years or so the resulting seedlings occupy a lot of valuable space and carry only
poor fruits

[Anthony Darby]

I have a walnut tree in a half barrel that flowers every year. Not had any nuts from it yet. I suspect the roots have gone through the base, but the tree's trunk is about as thick as my wrist and it must be less than 10' tall? Needless to say, I grow it for caterpillar food.

[Guus]

Hi all,
I have a walnut tree which is about 16 years old now. The tree is producing walnuts for more than 4 years now. The first year about 10, last year more than 500. (two plastic boxes of 40x30x25 cm full) I am in The Netherlands. The tree grows in heavy clay soil. It was planted as a walnut by a friend of mine.
Greetings, Guus

[Ragged Robin]

The squirrels planted walnuts in my veg patch England and they grew perfectly in green sand -  I gave a two year old tree to my brother in Scotland to mark the occasion of his first daughter's wedding about 9 years ago; going by Guus's account it should be about to go nuts!

[johnmccanister]

It takes juglans regia about 8 years after it's planted. However, nurseries graft some really high productive cultivars on it nowadays. If you buy it as a 2 years old walnut sapling and plant it on your land, it shouldn't take longer than 5 years. For example, it takes Chandler variety only 4 years to start producing walnuts about 4 kilograms. On this website, they have a table showing how many kilograms of walnuts you should expect at a given age from chandler walnut tree.

[François Lambert]

I missed the start of this conversation (2009 - wasn't member yet). But I have a 'wild' seedling in the garden that must have started bearing his first walnuts about at the age of 10, maybe even a couple of years younger.

Seedlings may not come true from seed, but I have another 'wild' tree estimated about 15 year old that gives a huge harvest of large nuts.

And for those who need a very late flowering variety I have a tree of St Johns walnuts.  Usually this tree only starts to put up leaves end of may or even early june, one year this tree only started to put up leaves on June 21, catkins were fully developed a few days later on St Johns day - which explains the name of the tree.  This tree is rare because often people have cut these down thinking they have a dead walnut tree with no leaves while all the other walnut trees are already growing at that time of the year.   This tree won't cross with any other walnut tree because it flowers later, after the other walnut trees already lost their catkins.  An ideal tree if you want to grow sun loving spring flowers that like cool shade in summer.