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Walnut

DAN WILSONDAN WILSON Posts: 122
in Problem solving
Evening all,

I have some squirrel that like to bury walnuts in my raised beds and every year I get 4 or 5 that start to grow that they obviously forgot. I have replanted some of these around the garden and some are now 5 foot tall or so. This week I have noticed that the leaves have died back - I have two walnuts about 5 foot from each other and both are affected.

We have had some hard late frosts this week so Im wondering if that is the cause? Really want to save them if I can so am I right about the frost causing it and is there anything I can/need to do.

Kind regards,

Dan

Posts

  • KeenOnGreenKeenOnGreen Posts: 1,819
    I have never seen our Walnut get this kind of damage, either when it was a sapling about 5 years ago, nor now as a mature tree.  That makes me think it is something else that caused this.  Perhaps others with Walnuts can suggest the cause.

    Walnuts become big trees relatively quickly.  We started off with a tree not much bigger than yours, and it has become a beast over the past 5 years.  It's canopy is about 4 metres wide.  I would recommend you don't keep them in your planting beds, as if they are shrubs, or small ornamental trees (they are anything but).  If you are keen on having a Walnut tree permanently, then you will need a spacen that can take a tree that will reach 20 metres in a decade or so.  Even within about 3-4 years, your trees will crowd out everything else around them, create quite a lot of shade, suck up all water and nutrients, and may compromise the fence that is nearby.  They don't like to be pruned, so that's not really an option to keep them in check.  One final point, don't expect to get any Walnuts, the squirrels will get them all!

    Sorry to sound all doom and gloom.  I wish we had bought something else, didn't realise quite how big ours would get, but it was bought as a present from someone we love dearly, so there is no way we would get rid of ours.
  • DAN WILSONDAN WILSON Posts: 122
    no worries - 30 meters or so from the house and a meter from the fence so should be OK and if I have to take it down its not the end of the world we have plenty of trees. I am happy to lose the stuff proximate to it anyway. I am just worried bout the die back...
  • pansyfacepansyface Posts: 22,297
    Yes, that’s frost damage.

    I bought a walnut tree some years ago and, silly me, planted it in a frost pocket.

    This happens to mine every year. And every year it recovers.
    Apophthegm -  a big word for a small thought.
    If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
  • KeenOnGreenKeenOnGreen Posts: 1,819
    It might be a metre from your fence, but it's canopy will eventually hang over your neighbours garden by metres, and make planting anything on their side of the fence more problematic.  I wouldn't plant a big tree that near to a neighbours boundary, but as you are happy to lose it, then all's good.  Once they get mature, they produce beautiful catkins, we had the biggest show of them this year.
  • DAN WILSONDAN WILSON Posts: 122
    Excellent news - Thanks all  :)
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