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Post by blueadzuki on Mar 14, 2012 20:35:59 GMT -5
Found today at a market in Chinatown  It looks like, as with a lot of other foodstuff, the varietal diversity of walnuts in China is far more than it is here. None of these wlanuts looks exactly like the "standard" types sold in this country (whatever types are grown by the people who supply the big walnut producers like Diamond) I'm fairly sure at least some of these actually are from hybrids with other walnut species (or possibly even pure examples) If I am lucky, a few of these may even be from J. regina sillagata , the chinese Iron walnut (some of them do have the super puffy shape nuts from that are supposed to have. To my relief, while the bind I bought these from said "cooked" (Chinese produces often do roast nuts in the shell), I've opened and eaten enough of them to determine they are uncooked. So it is still possible that if I plet them some of these will grow. |
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Post by castanea on Mar 14, 2012 21:03:50 GMT -5
Plant them! Plant them!
Where did you get them? City and steet?
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Post by blueadzuki on Mar 14, 2012 22:00:26 GMT -5
Plant them! Plant them! Where did you get them? City and steet? Manhattan, NYC. Canal Street, Between Centre Street and Mulberry (I'll try and post the name of the store tomorrow, after I've dug through my backpack and found the receipt. Yee or Yi something, I think) Actually, the odd thing is that because the chinese think walnuts are good for your circulation, the bin with the nuts was located in the herbs/drugs area of the store. Now I just have to try and find the chinese hickory nuts (I've found them many times, but I mean find ones that HAVENT been boiled in salt.) |
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Post by castanea on Mar 14, 2012 22:37:52 GMT -5
Thanks. I'm nowhere near Manhattan, but we have hundreds of Asian markets here in California and generally speaking, they often carry the same stuff.
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Post by blueadzuki on Mar 15, 2012 6:37:00 GMT -5
Found the receipt The place was called New Kam Man, 200 Canal.
The one thing I should warn you about about the nuts is that, while they all LOOK big and beatiful (well beautiful, some of them are actually smaller than normal size. There are walnuts in the lot that go from about the size of a muscadine grape to that of a small apricot) , based on the ones I actually ate, a lot of them are not exactly as "full" as could be desired. Out of the 15 or so I ate, only 2-3 did not have kernels that were rather withered, and quite a few tasted terrible (though this last part should be weight against the fact that I was confining myself to eating those nuts that had already cracked, so some of them may have had enough air get in to turn the kernel rancid.) and quite a few of the ones left feel a little light for thier size.
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Post by traab on Mar 15, 2012 8:32:35 GMT -5
What a great find. What strafification will you use? Do you have a walnut to graft seedling material too if they grow? Sounds fun!
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Post by blueadzuki on Mar 15, 2012 9:04:44 GMT -5
I'll probably do all of the germ ination work indoors; we have WAAY too many squirrels for me to be able to plant nuts outside and be confident they won't all be stolen (or due to the situation below that the tree that comes up will be from the seed I planted. Squirrels can PLANT nuts as well as remove them).
I never gave grafting any real thought. I have no planted walnut trees I can graft to, but there are a handful of natural planted Black walnuts I could use. In fact that is probably a good idea, since I don't really have room for more than 1-2 trees, and as you can see I have several dozen nuts, each of which is different enough from the others to make me want to grow it. And that's not counting the Hind's Walnut (a subspecies of the California Black walnut, which unlike the normal one has shells that are not grooved, so they clean easier. In my opinion they taste better too (I don't really like the taste of standard black walnuts)) seed I already had. Guess I better bone up on my grafting.
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Post by blueadzuki on Apr 10, 2012 7:01:44 GMT -5
Little update I still have not planted any of the nuts (it's remained quite cold outside) and until it warms up enough for me to move the inside vegetable seedlings out, I don't have ROOM for the pots I'll need to plant trees. And of course the actual walnut choices have changed (since I've been going back to the same market each week and picking up more nuts) New, "better" nuts get added, and less prime examples get removed and eaten (In fact, since I am nominally Jewish, and Passover started this previos Friday night. I actually let my dad use a bag of my "rejects" as the base for the haroset. He said they were of unusually good quality and that was AFTER I'd picked through the bag and eaten what I considered the "best" quality eating nuts (I like my walnut kernels with as light colored a skin on them as possible, as the dark ones tend to taste bitter to me, and make my throat sore) The reason for this update was a little picture I found last night while websurfing. You know how, in the orginal post I mentioned the fact I though that, due to the extreme diversity of shapes of nuts, some of them may have come from trees that hybridized with other walnut species (besides regina), Well I think I have found another parent. Below is a picture of Manchurian Walnuts, Juglans mandshuricawww.biolib.cz/IMG/GAL/12785.jpgwww.sadspb.ru/Asyst_test/published/publicdata/WWWSADSPBRUSHOPTEST/attachments/SC/products_pictures/Juglans_mandshurica_nuts_2_enl.jpgSome of the nuts I have found have had enough similarities to the appearnace of these to make me thing that they may be part mandshurica (actually, I've seen a few that looked enough like this to make me think they could be all mandshurica but I'm working on the assumption that any commercial trees in a commercial grove would have to be at least part regina) they have those odd "super deep" pits on the side. Some have that super tapered shape. And a few of the smaller ones have (had) that internal structure that looks more like the insides of a black walnut or heartnut (this actually makes sense since the Japanese walnut (of which the heartnut is a subspecies) is itself considered a subspecies of the manchurian) Though a part of me hopes that ones of that configuration don't make it in to the growing mix, the combination of the thick walls of the cell with the standard walnuts more inflated and rugose kernel result in a walnut where the kernel basically "locks" in the space, and becomes almost impossible to remove (the thickened walls also make it harder to open by smashing) Speaking of opening nuts, one quick question. Do you think opening the nuts is a good idea before I plant them. Obviosly I don't want to put them in a nutcracker to try and remove the shells, that would be basically guranteed destruction. But it occurs to me that, when I open walnuts the way I usally do (stick a sturdy knife in the top and twist, which splits the nut along the seam, the intial crack basically does not damage the kernel at all (it doesnt break in half until you pull the two sides apart) so it occured to be that, if I did the knife trick but left the nuts otherwise as is, it might help water uptake and make it easier for the germinating hypocotyl to get out (since the space would already be open) thereby making germination faster. Your thoughts? |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Apr 10, 2012 8:44:09 GMT -5
Speaking of opening nuts, one quick question. Do you think opening the nuts is a good idea before I plant them. Obviosly I don't want to put them in a nutcracker to try and remove the shells, that would be basically guranteed destruction. But it occurs to me that, when I open walnuts the way I usally do (stick a sturdy knife in the top and twist, which splits the nut along the seam, the intial crack basically does not damage the kernel at all (it doesnt break in half until you pull the two sides apart) so it occured to be that, if I did the knife trick but left the nuts otherwise as is, it might help water uptake and make it easier for the germinating hypocotyl to get out (since the space would already be open) thereby making germination faster. Your thoughts? Walnut seedlings grow as a weed for me, (outside under the tree) without opening the shell ahead of time. The freeze/thaw cycle doesn't split the shells, I think that the spring rains or the swelling seedlings do that. I think splitting the shells with a knife may help with uniformity of emergence. (I'm itching to try the knife splitting technique after work today.) I have excess dried nuts laying around, if it'll be a while before you plant yours, I can try germinating some under both conditions. I read that walnuts require damp cold stratification for 3-4 months, but I don't know if that's fact or just something that someone said once that gets repeated over and over again. |
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Post by blueadzuki on Apr 10, 2012 12:16:53 GMT -5
Speaking of opening nuts, one quick question. Do you think opening the nuts is a good idea before I plant them. Obviosly I don't want to put them in a nutcracker to try and remove the shells, that would be basically guranteed destruction. But it occurs to me that, when I open walnuts the way I usally do (stick a sturdy knife in the top and twist, which splits the nut along the seam, the intial crack basically does not damage the kernel at all (it doesnt break in half until you pull the two sides apart) so it occured to be that, if I did the knife trick but left the nuts otherwise as is, it might help water uptake and make it easier for the germinating hypocotyl to get out (since the space would already be open) thereby making germination faster. Your thoughts? Walnut seedlings grow as a weed for me, (outside under the tree) without opening the shell ahead of time. The freeze/thaw cycle doesn't split the shells, I think that the spring rains or the swelling seedlings do that. I think splitting the shells with a knife may help with uniformity of emergence. (I'm itching to try the knife splitting technique after work today.) I have excess dried nuts laying around, if it'll be a while before you plant yours, I can try germinating some under both conditions. I read that walnuts require damp cold stratification for 3-4 months, but I don't know if that's fact or just something that someone said once that gets repeated over and over again. Oh I'm in no hurry, I really need to figure out where to put the trees before I start, and that will probably take most of the year (little space, little room) If it really does take that long, maybe I'll pot them this Autum and let them spend the winter in the basement (where it gets cold, but does not generally drop to freezing). As for the knife trick the only thing I can say is, make sure the knife is sturdy but has a sharp point. I actually use an old letter opener. Stick the point in at the middle of the top of the seam (where it gets that little button) wiggle it until the blade is buried deep enough that the nut is stuck to it, then give a sharp twist. 90 % of the time the nut will pop open on the seam (if it doesn't you'll still probaly break enough shell off you can then crush the thing open. If it doesnt pop all the way around, work the blade around the edge until it does. Then wiggle the two sides apart. I find this method, while slower than using a nutcracker has four advantages. 1 you don't wind up with little fragments of shell imbedded in the meat (a probem when the nut is stubborn). 2. its a bit neater (you get two whole shells as opposed to a handful of fragments. 3. the peices are usually bigger (with the extra space, getting out quarters or halves becomes the norm and I did manage to get the entire kernel out in one piece once (though that was a withered kernel, with a lot of empty space around it) and 4. after the nut is eaten you still have the shell in recognizable appearance (handy for reference purposes) |
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Post by templeton on Apr 11, 2012 7:36:45 GMT -5
Re walnut grafts, I remember reading several decades ago that late graft rejection was an issue in walnuts - that they could fail a number of years after a successful initial graft - may be worth a bit of research - again, this might be hearsay.
T
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Post by MikeH on Apr 18, 2012 5:16:30 GMT -5
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Post by steev on Apr 18, 2012 21:26:10 GMT -5
Yes, so many projects, so little time..............
I can only regret my youth, chasing money and women, when I should have been grafting trees. Oh, well, next life.
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Post by 12540dumont on Apr 20, 2012 19:09:52 GMT -5
So Steev, was it worth it? On the off chance that Castanea is awake, Hey look at my Chestnuts! Also, Joseph the walnuts are doing beautifully. Whew it's hot. Back to hilling taters. Attachments:
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Post by castanea on Apr 20, 2012 19:32:25 GMT -5
So Steev, was it worth it? On the off chance that Castanea is awake, Hey look at my Chestnuts! ....... Cute little critters. They look very healthy. |
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