Heart nut tree and first fruit

[Smart Red]

The large green tree and the small green thing near my bluebird house are my Heart nut trees.

I got my first ever nut from the tall tree this year. This is the nut complete with hull from the tree.
This is the nut de-hulled.

This is the nut cracked open. It is a tough nut to crack.
I sent it flying all around in my kitchen before I got it partly opened and saw the nut meat. Yum! A bit walnut-like, but different in a tasty way. Not going to be easy to get the nutmeats in few pieces.

 

[Carol Dee]

Interesting. Is Heart Nut a common name for something else? I have never heard of a heart nut!

 

[Smart Red]

The Heart nut tree is a cross between a Japanese "walnut" and a butternut. Hence the buttery walnut flavor. The Heart nut has been shown to not be affected, unlike the American butternut which is affected by a fungal canker that kills the butternut tree in a few short years. We had two grown butternut trees just starting to set fruit (out of 100 nuts planted) when they died. I am constantly on watch for a disease resistant butternut tree to come on the market.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

No, that would be a Buartnut. The pure heartnut is a subspecies of the Japanese Walnut(Juglans aliantifolia) (which is itself a subspecies of the Manchurian walnut J. mandashurica).

Opinions are mixed. Many people believe the heartnut to be superior to it's parent as a nut producer (the lack of crenellations on the kernel tend to make it easier to get out of the shell without shattering. Other however thing the original Japanese (which has round to oval nuts) has a superior tasting nutmeat. I suppose it is a matter of taste, like my assertion that the Northern Californian Walnut or Hind's Walnut (J. hindsii) is a better nut than the standard black walnut (J. nigra, or J. texana or J. Californica etc. depending on which species grows near you) in both kernel taste and ease of collection (unlike most of the black walnut complex Hind's walnut has a smooth shell, so getting them clean without staining your hands brown for months is a lot easier.)

 

[thistlebloom]

How old are your trees Red? I was interested in heart nut trees some time ago, but still haven't ordered any.

 

[Smart Red]

They are close to 20 years old. They took a long time to get comfortable and grow. The smaller one died back with our past cold winter.

 

[Smart Red]

No, that would be a Buartnut. The pure heartnut is a subspecies of the Japanese Walnut(Juglans aliantifolia) (which is itself a subspecies of the Manchurian walnut J. mandashurica).

When purchased, they were described as a cross between two nut varieties. What I'm calling a heart nut may in fact be a Buartnut "by any other name".

 

[thistlebloom]

20 years....and one nut. I guess you won't be taking nut orders for awhile?

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Probably it is. Pure heartnuts are often a little bitter (or why some people prefer the Japanese walnut, which isn't) so most people go for the cross.

Incidentally, there is a Chinese grocery I visit from time to time. The sell walnuts in the shell buy the pound, which is pretty normal for Chinatown . What isn't so normal is that, wherever they are getting their nuts (probably China) it is pretty obvious that there is a lot of interspecies crossing going on. Most of the nuts are pure J. regina (English/Persian walnut i.e. the one that most people eat) However there are a fair smattering of ones that show signs of being part J. mandashurica, including a few that may be pure Manchurian (Manchurian nuts are Top shaped (though longer than English) and have large pits on the shells. There are also some with extremely puffed out sides, which I am fairly sure are a subspecies of the English known as J. regina sillgata, commonly known as the Iron Walnut (it's a much taller and straighter tree than the standard English and is popular in China as a park tree. And then there are some I can't really identify like the nearly spherical one. Don't know why but they have probably been at it for a while (there are a lot of nuts with three or more seams, and according to what I have read, those kind of nuts normally only show up on trees that are 100 years plus old.

 

[Smart Red]

I love this site! I learn something new every day! Thank you @Pulsegleaner.

My sole nut was almost heart shaped, or perhaps top shaped if the top were a bit flattened. Not at all like a butternut or walnut I've ever grown.