The Carpathian Persian Walnut
The Carpathian Persian walnuts in Indiana are practically all seedlings. Many of these seedling trees show great promise, while others under observation for the past few years are being discarded because of lack of hardiness and production. Some few seedlings made vigorous growth and produced fair to good yields for the past 10 years, but some weakness was evident after the 1950-51 winter. It appears now that those trees that have survived and are in production this year are worthy of further study and propagation.
The oldest known Persian walnut in our state is the Haderle seedling. A few nuts, from a friend in California, were planted in 1924 and 10 years later fruited. This tree has produced as many as 350 pounds of nuts in a single year and has survived all test winters since planting. The nut from the Haderle tree averages 32 nuts per pound, medium shell, good quality and 44.6 per cent of the total weight is edible. The nut cracks well. Several other such Persian seedlings have been classified as existing prior to the general distribution of Carpathian nuts from the Wisconsin Horticultural Society in 1936 to 1938 and later.
Several individuals in Indiana took advantage of the nut sale and importation from Poland during the years mentioned and about 10 per cent of the original seedlings are now alive. Many of the trees planted 10 to 15 years ago are fruiting and classified. Outstanding groups of seedlings, which are referred to by name, such as Bolten, Fateley, Eagles, Barnhart, Kraning, Behr, Zollman, and others are found from the extreme northern area to the Ohio River, and are distributed over nearly one-half of the 92 counties in Indiana.
The use of eastern black walnut as understock has been practised by several orchardists and nurserymen, and a few will have trees for sale in the near future. The fruits from these trees compare with the best.
The largest nut is in the Fateley #1., with some fruits two inches in diameter, and averaging 23 nuts per pound. The nut is high in quality, has an appealing taste, and a well formed kernel. It cracks easily and has a very thin shell for such a large nut. This tree has borne 50 pounds of nuts or more annually for the past few years and has a nice crop this year after the severe test winter. The Fateley #1 seedling as well as the #2, #3 and #4 seedlings, are grown on a city lot, under crowded conditions and provided with only moderate care.
Several crosses have been made at Purdue with the Persian walnut, and approximately 100 seedlings have been distributed to various persons throughout a large area of the state. The trees do not seem as susceptible to insect and disease damage as the native black walnut, and growing well in sod should make good lawn trees. Some of the nut trees were sprayed with "Nu Green"—five pounds per 100 gallons of spray material was used on the orchard crops, and great growth response was noted for the sprayed over unsprayed trees. As the home owner is forever looking for new trees to plant, and trees with clean habits, the Persian and particularly the Carpathian selections may be the answer.
The speaker exhibited photographs to illustrate his talk. They pictured several of the different trees he had mentioned. The photographs showed the conditions under which the trees grew, the effects of fertilizing, and the injuries resulting from the winter cold. The reading of the paper was followed by a short discussion, after which Dr. Rohrbacher called upon Mr. Ira Kyhl, of Sabula, Iowa, who talked on the subject "Nut Growing in Eastern Iowa."
Nut Growing in Eastern Iowa
Ira Kyhl, Sabula, Iowa
About five years ago, I became very much interested in nut trees and having hundreds of wild black walnuts and hickories I attempted to graft, or rather top work, the black walnuts to Persian walnuts and heartnuts, and the hickories to pecans and hicans.
My favorite, of course, is the Persian walnut, and in addition to top working them on blacks I planted several grafted trees and several hundred seed nuts. To my surprise and pleasure, nearly every seed grew and the seedlings are still doing very well. I now have 35 to 40 varieties.
I have had very little winter injury, except with the Broadview variety. The tops froze back a little and I had a little trouble with the bark splitting on the larger trees. I covered the splits with tree wound dressing and they are all doing well now. I consider the Schafer about the best and most promising variety I have and the grafts take very well. Most of the Carpathian varieties are also growing nicely and especially the Illinois number 10,[4] which is a very rapid grower.
In top working, I use the bark slot method, usually setting two to three grafts on a three inch stock, as at least one scion is almost sure to start. These scions are fitted and nailed in place with a seven-eighth or one inch nail and then well wrapped with one-inch industrial adhesive tape. This seems to break or deteriorate with the growth of the graft. I then thoroughly wax the taped part as well as all of the scion, covering the buds rather lightly. After the scion has started to grow well, a one by one strip is nailed to the stock. This extends from two to three feet above the top of the stock. The growth is then tied to the stick with soft cord. If growths are not tied this way, most of them are broken off by the wind. After the grafts are set, I cover with a paper milk bottle, or rather, container, and cut four small holes in it for ventilation. It sheds the rain well. I use a small tack on two sides. The containers usually stay there until removed when the graft starts. This method works much better than paper bags, as they are easily water-soaked and the wind blows them against the scion, which is easily loosened and therefore fails to start.
I am also well pleased with the results I have had with heartnuts on black walnuts. I consider them the most rapid-growing of any of the nut trees. I have had grafts bear a few nuts the next year after being set. I now have seven or eight varieties, of which I consider Fodermaier, Aloka, Rival, Mitchell, and Wright as the most promising, along with Goettler. Squirrels seem to prefer heartnuts to all other sorts. I have eliminated this trouble by tacking a length or two of stove pipe around the trees.
Last summer my attention was called to a tree about 30 miles from my home, which bore a very large crop of heartnuts. The man that owned the tree called them filberts. The tree is about 40 feet tall with a spread of 40 or 50 feet and is 18 inches in diameter. It is perhaps 20 to 25 years old and bears from three to four bushels a year, I am told. I have heard that the tree grew from a seed brought over from Germany. I have named the tree Goettler, in honor of the man bringing it to my attention. The nut seems to resemble the Wright and is one of the best cracking nuts I have found. I received permission to get scion wood from the tree and have a few grafts growing well.
Hickories are, of course, a native of this section as is pecan, which grows wild on the Mississippi River bottoms about as far north as the mouth of the Maquoketa River. The pecan grafts take off nicely on hickory stocks but the graft seems to outgrow the stock. I have found, however, that hican, being half hickory and half pecan, works much better on a hickory stock. My pecan grafts which seem the most promising are Major, Indiana and Greenriver, and of the hican grafts the Burlington and Wapello.
Chestnuts seem to do very well here, as well as filberts and native hazels. Of the chestnut varieties I have growing I prefer the Nanking, Kuling and Meiling. Most of my Persian walnut plantings I have interplanted with dwarf fruit trees and have clover and alfalfa growing between the rows. This is cut twice a year and used for mulch. The following spring it is spaded in and a small amount of high test nitrogen applied at the same time and the trees all seem to respond to this treatment very well.
DR. ROHRBACHER: Any questions or remarks?
MEMBER: Mr. Kyhl mentioned the Schafer. That is the one for the boys and girls in a hurry to get nuts. In three years you get nuts. I have experimented with it and that is the only tree that will do it.
MR. CORSAN: I would like to ask the convention if they have had the experience with the black walnut and the Persian. Down the valley would come a good strong wind and break off the tops. I had one that grew 20 feet from a little graft. When I put this on, it had three buds. One bud threw six feet and 20 feet of wood from that one seeding. I barricaded it so the ice wouldn't break it. The ice broke through my barricade and I have one that is growing as high as I can reach. Black walnut broke off with the wind. Sometime, the whole tree broke down. Not a twig was broken off the English walnut. The black walnuts worry me to pieces.
MR. DAVIDSON: In connection with this rapid growth, is there any difference in the quality of the wood? We have some that grow so much more rapidly. When the wood matures, will it have the same value for furniture and so on as the slower growing ones? Would they be more like the softwood?
MR. CRANE: Our highest grade native woods are those which grow more slowly. We haven't made any studies on the wood in black walnut, in relation to the growth rate.
DR. MacDANIELS: The strength and value of the wood depends on the proportion of large and small cells. In a very slow-growing tree you have a large proportion of the big cells. In rapid-growing wood you also have an undesirable result. It is between the very slow and very rapid that you get the best. If you get a rapid growth the cells are thin, even though they may be small. It is the in-between condition that makes for good timber. That is based on actual strength tests and evaluation.
MEMBER: Mr. Corsan wrote me about the wind damage. I never had that experience. I saw the cyclone in southeastern Iowa. Elms were up-rooted and torn to pieces and I didn't see any black walnut damage. Even the hickories were damaged and some snapped off. I have never seen any walnut give away.
MR. McDANIEL: We have wind damage in Urbana, and we can show you some places where black walnut trees were removed.
MR. CORSAN: Many years ago I was in a train going from Toronto to Montreal, and this is a section that is full of hickory trees. The Indians must have planted them. That is the only nut except butternut. I looked out the window and we had a six-inch ice storm and the oaks were stripped. Most of the other soft trees were down to the ground. There wasn't even a twig killed on the hickories. The shagbark hickory. They were just as sound.
DR. ROHRBACHER: The ladies who want to take a little walk and end up at Mrs. Colby's home where she is going to serve hot coffee meet at 1.30 in the main lobby. This is the regular time on which you are eating and sleeping now. The remainder of the group will meet here at one o'clock. If we go down to the cafeteria and get in before 11:40 we have a better chance.