Whew! Sounds like not a whole lotta' love for Walnut. Actually, when I said we, my wife and SisIL were the originators of the walnut tree idea. SisIL thinks her kids or grandkids will get rich having them milled. If we plant any from seedling or nut, most will go out back in the field, and maybe one or two somewhere in the yard(s). Don't waste too much popcorn on this one...........
Oh, The " Get rich fast walnut scheme " Let us know in a about 40 years how it worked Yea , give it a go, be fun to watch them grow & are delicious
[QUOTE="firefighter938, post: 589113, member: 2360")The hardest part is keeping the deer away from them when they are young.[/QUOTE] This . I planted some about 4-5 years ago and had to chicken wire them. Deer browsed them bad . 2 are already 10-12' tall. Grabbed a few handfuls out of a customers yard when I was on a delivery. Planted them that weekend . I mealed up the ground good and deep where I planted them and fed them the first couple years. That was it. They did well. A few I planted in some wetter soil never came up.
There are guides how to plant black walnut for profit. They suggest planting them in a certain layout and harvesting from about first ten years, if I remember correctly. I think there was a good plan in Backwoodsman magazine many years back.
Dave, if you want some walnuts for seed I will be able to get some next fall for you. Just let me know how many you want. A few bushel would be no problem. But waiting around for them to grow and watching them grow would be exciting. Right along with watching ground cracks dry up after a rain. We have some trees we planted probably around 35 years ago and our land is about like yours. I think the tallest one is perhaps 20' and so far we've not got any nuts from them. I also remember a neighbor planting a bunch of walnut trees thinking the old thought about getting rich in a few years. The place has sold twice since he planted them. The present owners cut them down a year or two ago. They too thought dollars. They too were disappointed. While it is true in the past some have sold a walnut log or two for some decent dollars, it takes a long, long time for a tree to grow to that size and few of them will bring in big dollars. Also, if a tree is planted in a yard, forget about it for lumber purposes as most mills won't touch them and rightly so. I remember one time when I was just starting to work in a sawmill and someone came and asked the boss what he could get out of a good walnut. He was told, "A dammed good fire."
