Rex Trulove
I’ll refrain from pointing out that walnuts aren’t nuts at all, despite the name. The point is that the walnuts that people put in desserts or buy in stores in the US late in the season are “English walnuts”, only, they aren’t actually English walnuts.
To be more precise, English walnuts aren’t particularly hardy and they are prone to a number of diseases that can kill the trees. However, there is another kind of walnut that is both quite hardy and is resistant to the diseases that affect English walnuts. This is the black walnut.
Black walnuts don’t have a very good market value because the shells are difficult to crack without pulverizing the ‘meat’ inside the walnut. However, long ago it was discovered that if an English walnut was grafted onto the rootstock of a black walnut tree, the resulting tree would be nearly as hardy as a black walnut tree and would have the disease resistance that black walnuts have. They also tend to produce heavily.
For this reason, in the US, nearly all of the walnuts that are sold in stores come from grafted trees. There are also wild black walnut trees, but again, the fruits of this tree are not commercially valuable.
The point is that grafting a tree results in a tree that has traits of both of the original trees. Thus, a grafted English walnut isn’t actually an English walnut, though it also isn’t a black walnut.
When I first learned this, we had two English walnut trees that produced about 500 pounds of walnuts each, every year. Imagine my surprise when one of the trees grew a branch that produced what looked like black walnuts. Both trees were over 75 years old, but both had been grafted.
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Did you know that most walnuts come from grafted trees?
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Yes
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No
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I don’t like walnuts so I don’t care
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Wow, 500 pounds are a lot.
Yes, it is. But walnut trees also get to be very large.
Very nice and Sweet..very healthy living thank you for the interesting information. I have had walnuts straight from their shells but I mostly love peanuts, cashews. and pistachios, which if they were not so expensive I would eat every day.
A walnut tree is usually a heavy producer, more so than the others. Our neighbor’s black walnut tree probably produces well over 200 pounds of walnuts each year.
thank you for the interesting information. I have had walnuts straight from their shells but I mostly love peanuts, cashews. and pistachios, which if they were not so expensive I would eat every day.
A person can grow all of those, but there are few trees that are hardier than a walnut.
I love walnuts but it’s seldom that we have walnuts in a shell.
Most people dislike having to crack the shells to get the meat out.
I had no idea the walnut trees were grafted. We had several black walnut trees that we planted at our old house for the wood value. They are very slow growers.
Yes, they are. Just think, you could have grafted an English walnut on one of them and you would have had both kinds of walnuts. Most people don’t realize how heavy a single tree will produce, though.
Interesting post sir,I like walnuts and use it in different sweet dishes.
A huge number of walnuts are eaten every year, all around the world. I’ve just been fortunate to live in a few places where I had easy access to them.
Whatever they really are I still like them, a lot!
I just wish that I could still eat them. The neighbor across the street has an immense black walnut tree that is packed every year. They usually rake up the walnuts and take them to the dump.
I love Walnuts in winter ….
I used to eat a lot of them. Filberts and hazelnuts, too.