Propagation by Budding
The shield or T bud has not been considered suitable for thick-barked trees such as hickory and walnut due to the difficulty of preventing "air-pockets" beneath the bark. Shaving the edges of the bark at the side of the shield may eliminate this difficulty. Joley (9), reported variable success in shield budding of walnut in California. Patch budding, either by the annular method or with the Jones patch-budding tool was described by Reed (17), and is reported by Chase (6), Zarger (30), and others to be the most practical method of propagation with walnuts. Pecans and hickories are commonly patch-budded in summer in commercial nurseries. The thin-barked Chinese chestnut is usually budded by the shield-or T-bud method as reported by Hardy (8) and McKay (12).