Growing Black Walnut From Seeds

I have a black walnut tree in my yard, and I would like to try to propagate more trees from the seeds. Does anyone have an idea of how to do this? Do I need to cold stratify them first?

This Minnesota Extension site tells you how. I did not notice it in here, but I think I'd want to keep the humidity high enough so the nuts did not dry out if I stored them in the refrigerator.

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/naturalresources/DD0505.html

I had a friend that claimed a much better germination rate than the 50% mentioned here by soaking the seeds in water for a couple of days, then putting them in the freezer for two or three days, and slightly cracking them just before he planted them. He did plant them in the fall in Nebraska, so they did get stratification by nature in addition to the time in the freezer. He claimed 5 out of 5 nuts sprouted.

I have not tried black walnuts, but I got about a 50% germination rate on hickories by gathering them soon after they fell, taking the hull off, soaking them in water for three days, keeping them in the refrigerator in a covered plastic yogurt cup with just enough water to keep the humidity high to keep them from drying out, then planting them in February. I did not crack them. I did the float test as recommended and cracked the ones that failed. Most were bad but a couple were full of hickory meat. It was the type of genetics I would have wanted to pass on, but I would have planted a lot of bad seeds to get one tree from a meat-filled nut, if it had even sprouted.

Good luck!

The squirrels plant mine all the time. I had at least 20 growing all over the property this summer. I dig them up and transplant them, and they take really well. Even in the chicken yard! Look around, my bet is nature has already started some small trees. Good luck!

I would love to grow some walnut trees but nurseries won't ship to Texas.....

There is at least one, possibly more, older threads on exactly this subject, try the 'search' button above... IIRC they had some pretty useful info and links.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

lesa said:

The squirrels plant mine all the time. I had at least 20 growing all over the property this summer. I dig them up and transplant them, and they take really well. Even in the chicken yard! Look around, my bet is nature has already started some small trees. Good luck!

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The squirrels plant them here too! Seems like I have to pull several out of the beds every spring...

I have heard that it is good to plant them in a coffee can then bury the coffee can in the ground. I guess it helps protect them. I have never had to plant one either...squirrels.

I was wanting to get some started too. My dad has a large tree in his yard so I can get them from there. He is planning on having it cut down, its old and most definitely hollow, if it goes it will be on my grams house. But there are several smaller ones near by, maybe 10 - 15 years old.