STORING AND PLANTING SEEDS
Most nut tree seed requires ideal storage conditions to preserve its germinating power or viability. Under natural circumstances, such nuts as black walnuts, English walnuts, butternuts, hickory nuts, pecans, hazelnuts, filberts and almost all other nuts, will be planted by squirrels, mice and other rodents. Although most of these will be eaten by the animals who buried them, a large percentage of the ones which are not eaten will sprout. The sprouts which achieve maturity and bearing age, however, will be only a very small percentage—some say only a fraction of 1%—of the number that sprouted. This is an expensive and wasteful method, horticulturally speaking, but it does indicate that it is best to plant nuts as soon as possible after they have properly ripened and been dried.
After walnuts, hickory nuts, butternuts and hazels have been gathered, they should be dried until the hulls have lost most of their moisture. The husks should be removed from filberts before they are dried. While this preparation is not essential, nuts are less likely to mold if they are dried somewhat before they are planted. However, I have planted freshly-gathered black walnuts and butternuts and most of them sprouted. If nuts are to be stored in large quantities, the drying-out process is absolutely essential and should be carried to the point of completely drying the hulls. The system I followed in doing this is to gather the nuts after they have fallen and spread them out in the sunlight on roofs or floors where air can circulate around them. After the hulls are dry, such nuts as black walnuts, English walnuts and butternuts may be put in barrels or burlap bags and stored in an unheated basement without seriously deteriorating. English walnuts are most safely stored when they are hulled before being packed in burlap bags. These bags should be suspended above the floor of the cellar by a rope or wire. These are additional precautions which allow better circulation of air, further prevention of mold, and safety from mice and squirrels.
Chestnuts, beechnuts and acorns require more care when they are to be stored, for their viability is very sensitive to dryness. I have found that these soft-shelled species of nuts should be treated in a different manner than the walnut and hickory types of seeds if we are to get the most out of their germination. Since chestnuts are very prone to molding or rotting, the best way to maintain their viability and freshness over winter is to stratify them in a can or box between layers of a peat moss. This peat moss must be decidedly on the acid side and must be dampened, but must not be so wet that you can wring any water out of it. The best way to prepare this dry peat moss is to soak it in water and wring as much water out of it as possible by squeezing with your hands. Then mix it with half as much of the undampened peat. This will give you approximately the right moisture coefficient. If stored in cans, the bottom of the can must be punctured with a few holes about 1/4 of an inch in diameter, well distributed on the bottom to act as a drain and to admit some slight circulation of air. The same thing should be done with the cover.
First, put down an even layer about 1-1/2 inches of this dampened moss, then put in a layer of chestnuts or other nuts to be stratified, placed evenly or well distributed but not touching each other. After the first layer, carefully sift in more dampened moss about 1 inch thick and repeat the process until either the can is full or all the seeds have been stored. The last layer should be a 2-inch layer of peat moss before the cover is placed on. Now the important thing about all this is to place this can in a storage room of low temperature and yet it should not freeze solid. But in a temperature of from 32 to 40 degrees is ideal and preferably it should be on the ground floor so as to maintain the moisture that is already stored in the seed and the moss. A mechanical refrigerator which would constantly dehydrate might eventually dry them out too much for good germination; otherwise such a refrigerator would be ideal for the storage of small amount of seeds of this kind.
It would be well from time to time to inspect these seeds to see whether they were in good condition and check the temperatures as well. If they start to sprout all the better; they can then be planted with the sprout downward and the nut barely covered with earth. Some years I have had sprouts nearly six inches long on my chestnuts which had been so stored and care will have to be taken not to break the sprout when transplanting the nuts.
In planting nuts, great care must be taken not to plant them too deeply. Large nuts, such as black walnuts, butternuts and English walnuts, are often planted with a small part of the nut still exposed. Certainly, the depth of the soil over a nut should never exceed the thickness of the nut. Most seeds develop best when they are planted just under the surface of the soil. The earth should be lightly tamped around the planted seeds to eliminate air-pockets. A thin coating of manure, not more than three inches deep, is valuable if large seeds are planted but it is detrimental to the development of small seeds and manure should never be used for evergreens. Seeds of the nut pines, usually purchased from seedsmen and received in a dry state, should be planted no deeper than their own diameter in a light, sandy loam. A seed bed, incidentally, is a very necessary protection against rodents in the case of nut pine seed. I have used a mixture of bone meal on such seeds with good results. Four quarts of bone meal carefully worked into the first two or three inches of the surface soil of a 4 x 12 seed bed greatly increases its fertility. Sifted hardwood ashes scattered over the bed after the seed is in, will discourage cutworms and increase the potash content of the soil.
Proper drying and storage are of no use if nuts are not planted where they will have protection against rodents, improper drainage, and other hazards. To keep them from being eaten by rodents, nut seeds should be planted under wire screens inside a deep frame. The seed beds I have made for use in my nursery are four feet wide and twelve feet long. By using heavy galvanized hardware cloth 2 x 2 mesh, which means that it has 1/2-inch square holes, is ideal for the top and sides of this frame. By using this wire cloth 2 feet wide, 18 inches is sunk under the ground surface, and only 6 inches protrudes above. This is to prevent burrowing rodents from going underneath and extracting the seeds which you will find they will do unless the screen protection goes down deep enough into the ground to discourage them. A stout frame of rot-resisting wood, such as cedar or fir should be placed on the inside of this countersunk screen. This should also be 4 feet wide, 12 feet long so that a similar frame, which is removable, can be placed over this. The edges of the frame should match perfectly so that no rodents can reach the interior of the seed bed without going down 1-1/2 feet under ground to burrow under the countersunk screen. Several thousand evergreens or several hundred walnut trees can be raised in a seed bed this size.
The soil is now removed from the inside of this enclosure or stationary part of the bed to the depth of 6 inches so that the plants will have head room to develop leaves and stems and still be protected under the top or removable frame part. The top frame made of the same material and covered also by the 2 x 2 hardware cloth should be about 6 inches in height so that there will actually be 18 inches of head room for the plants to grow in before touching the screen.
This 60 x 30 foot corrugated galvanized iron fence 3-1/2 feet tall and sunk 6 inches into ground protects valuable hybrids against invasion by rodents. Photo by C. Weschcke.
There are several important points to remember in starting a seed bed. It must be in a well-drained site, so that the seeds will not be under water or water-logged for any length of time. It should be in an open place where sunlight is plentiful, unless evergreens are being grown. Evergreens must be in half-shade the first season to avoid a condition known as "damping off." The top six inches of soil in the bed should be the best garden soil obtainable, the growth resulting from using good, clean soil, free from weed seeds, being worth the trouble of preparing it. By having the bed in two parts, with a cover that may be taken off, proper weeding can be done when necessary. The cover should always be replaced afterward, though, as rodents will sometimes attack the young shoots and the remainder of the seed kernel.
In the spring of the second season of growth, the young plants may be dug up and lined out in nursery rows. After two or three years more, they may be planted in permanent locations.