Small Walnuts

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beebb3, Mar 24, 9:50am
Advice please. My walnut tree is producing very small walnuts this year! It has been well watered from way back etc, and was wondering with the extreme frost or two we had here in Canterbury last winter, got down to minus ten to fifteen at one part and stayed like that all the next day, so wonder if this has had an effect! Anybody else having similar problems with theirs!. Otherwise its perfectly healthy. Have fertilised last spring, just a general mix round tree, root line, as its approx 20 years old. Would appreciate your thoughts, cheers.
cantabman1, Mar 24, 5:33pm
I have been out gathering a few and have noticed how small thay all look this year. [gathered from many sites]
luteba, Mar 24, 7:35pm
Interesting.We've had the best crop of walnuts in years from our tree - usually they're all mouldy and mangy.No size issues.We're in Wellington though; I think the tree has appreciated the drought.
cantabman1, Mar 25, 4:07am
Since the earlier post, i have gathered a supermarket bag full from more than ten trees around CH Ch. They all seem a bit smaller than usual.
les6, Mar 25, 7:09am
i find our tree drops the little ones,mangy ones with nothing in etc first,then all the good ones come on in a rush.just put the nets down under the trees on the weekend to make finding them easy,got the first bucket full.
gabbysnana, Mar 25, 7:12am
all dry and rotten on trees in hammy
gag5, Mar 25, 8:28am
hi. Interested in what you use for nets! are they specially designed for nut gathering! As we only have one tree (more than enough nuts though) we usually just try to keep grass mowed underneath but sometimes it gets away & we have to fossick around in the wet grass!
Homegrown walnuts are the best.
les6, Mar 26, 6:33am
just old bits of bird netting from vineyards,theyare about 5m wide and cover quite a bit of ground.you can just lift them up and the nuts all roll down to one point for easy pickup.used to be by hand but we got one of those cage roller nut picker things last year.brilliant!http://www.nutwizard.com/!gclid=CNvH66TimbYCFc0hpQod4UwAWg
quiz3, Mar 26, 7:31am
Here in the Horowhenua( Levin area ) it's our best ever year for walnuts.
Been on the property for 9 years and tree is loaded and walnuts are starting to fall. Trees are huge, two of them, which makes it easy. I mowed an area last weekend right out to the drip line, cut it down hard now when the walnuts fall I can see them so much easier.
I put the good crop down to very little wind when the flowers wereblooming and the fruit was setting, my theory entirely. Walnuts aren't really big but hey walnuts are walnuts!
bugin, Mar 26, 8:52am
Collected our fallen nuts today and we have twice last years volume and they are about half the size.My wife experimented with hand thinning (we are apple growers so this is common for us).Sizes on the thinned to single sites was much better.We also watered ours this year ,but don't think this contributed to smaller size ,I'm sure it is the crop load.However I do expect a god crop next year due to stronger bud formation .
Relating frost to small nuts ,is a human condition ,not necessarily true for trees.
gag5, Mar 26, 9:58am
I think walnuts have a good year then a not so good year. lat year lots of smalls & less altogether, the year before a bumper crop. Looks like being another this year - yum, cant wait. partner whos never been a lover of walnuts cant get enough of these!
gag5, Mar 26, 10:02am
your thinning method - you mean where there are 2 nuts you remove one! Does it matter when! We also have 3 apple trees & we tried thinning them last year. We didnt really know if we did it right but teh fruit did seem much bigger. Thanks for that tip - never thought of thinning the nuts. Wish it was as easy to thin chestnut trees! darn things.
beebb3, Mar 26, 8:36pm
Frost most definately has an effect on trees! be they ornamental or fruiting, it effects the whole eco structure of the tree, plus other factors, eg. where the tree is situated, soils, shelter etc, so guess each tree is in someways individual.Frost on rhododendrons - new leaf growth forming, long before it has 'hatched' so to speak, if frost has been an issue, the leaf comes out all wrinkly and slightly deformed, and you would expect to see aphids or such underneath, but nothing, yep, good ole Jack Frost.
bugin, Mar 27, 1:19am
I am a graduate ,horticulturist ,so familiar with the effect of frosts generally.
My comment disputing the effect offrost chill to small nuts was an attempt at humour ,but true none the less.
bugin, Mar 27, 1:24am
Also ,while collecting the nuts I had help from the dog and my wife .I was trying to remember the rhyme that connects them ,but for the life of me I cant.
Your turn.
pericles, Mar 27, 1:26am
x1
an old gardner ( he had a magnificent garden), told me to beat the livig day lights out of the trunk and you would get bigger nuts. I did, (don't know what the neighbours thought) and had a huge crop and the nuts were bigger than plums
beebb3, Mar 27, 5:59am
Good on you bugin, do love the humour, I hada feeling you were bringing a smile to faces lol, no worries. Cannot think of your rhyme! Your turn
les6, Mar 27, 6:43am
A dog ,a woman and a walnut tree,the more you beat them,the better they be!
bugin, Mar 27, 8:39am
So much for tip-toeing around the PC brigade .You are so going to get ripped for that sucker.
rona1, Mar 29, 7:50pm
And when collecting them, put in abucket of water, keep the sinkers and chuck the floaters.I tend to agree about beating the tree.I didn't this year and haven't got any, this in Tauranga.
beth39, Mar 29, 8:00pm
The longer and hotter the summer the better the crop !
cantabman1, Mar 30, 1:02am
Hmm, how do you figure that one, as we have had the hottest and longers summer in yonks. And my nuts; oh i mean the walnuts are are mostly small.
tui93, Mar 30, 5:28am
Small last year and half the amount, huge this year and twice as much - in the Wairarapa.
beebb3, Mar 30, 9:14pm
Long hot summers, small nuts! the mind boggles!
shortee2, Mar 31, 12:46am
All this talk about Nuts, you're crazy, the lot of you.LOL