Harry R. Weber, Cincinnati, Ohio
Influence of Stock on Scion
At my farm home in the northwestern part of Hamilton County, Ohio, at about 800 feet elevation, on clay soil, the Carpathian walnuts commence growth too early in spring for their own good and my comfort, well knowing what lurking Jack Frost can do to them. These Carpathian walnuts are uninfluenced by their black walnut understocks, the Schafer variety alone excepted. I also have two Schafer trees that came grafted apparently on Carpathian understock; but these start as early as the others.
The Schafer exception, to which I refer, is grafted on a native black walnut stock to which the Broadview variety also had been grafted. (The Schafer variety is patented. I had permission to use the graft as I did.) With these two hardy varieties in the same tree, which itself is a late starter in the spring, I unwittingly laid the foundation for an unanticipated result. This became apparent after a severe early spring frost in 1945 caused me to examine all my hardy (Persian) walnut trees to note the effects of that freeze. The new growth of Broadview on the same tree with the Schafer was frozen, while the Schafer with the rest of the tree was dormant. The new growth of the other two Schafer trees; of Breslau top-worked on two trees; of Broadview on another tree; of an unknown variety on still another tree; all trees being native black walnut, all were frozen. The same was true as to Breslau seedlings and also a Kremenetz on Minnesota black walnut. Of course, all these trees staged come-backs with no bad after effects.
In April, 1945, we had a severe hail storm that clipped clean the second new growth from these trees. The topworked Schafer was still dormant, while its companion Broadview in the same tree suffered like the rest. The spring of 1946 showed the topworked Schafer still dormant, while all the others were active. The Broadview on the same tree with the Schafer was almost in full leaf before the Schafer and the rest of the understock showed signs of growth. A number of persons thought the rest of the tree was dead.
The Keystone Black Walnut
I have a cut leaf black walnut tree, of value as an ornamental, which originated in Pennsylvania. Although it had catkins for several seasons, not until the past season did it produce, and then only one lone nut. The husk of that nut had a smooth exterior similar to that of a Persian walnut; but it lacked the characteristic black walnut odor. In fact, it had none. If this tree has any Persian walnut blood in its makeup, that hybrid strain may have manifested itself in the foliage; in any event, there was an influence of some kind that caused the change in the usual type of foliage. I was more interested in planting the nut to see what kind of foliage the seedling will have rather than in cracking it for examination to determine its value as a nut.
Throp Walnut
The parent Throp tree stood bordering a road along the Ralph Throp farm in Indiana, 40 miles from my home. About six years ago, with the permission of Mr. Throp, and being a very old tree, it was cut down as its branches interfered with overhanging wires. When I last saw the stump early in 1942, it had staged a come-back by throwing numerous suckers. However, the main point in mentioning this tree is to register the fact that it bears two kinds of nuts, single-lobed, or peanut type, and doubled-lobed, with the peanut type predominating. A Throp tree of mine showed this variation, and on my next visit to the Throp farm, in the presence of Mr. G. A. Gray, one of our members, Mr. Throp definitely confirmed the fact that the parent tree bore the two kinds of nuts aforesaid and that the peanut type predominated.
I am prompted to make this statement for the reason that one of our prominent members, well versed in the performance of our best varieties of northern nut trees, had not been aware of the dual performance of the Throp tree, until I called it to his attention.