How to plant a walnut from a nut and sapling? How to properly plant a walnut at home? How to plant a walnut correctly

Walnut is a favorite delicacy of both children and adults. Few people will refuse aromatic and tasty fruits. Nowadays, in many summer cottages, you can find a magnificent spreading walnut tree. The fact is that now varieties of this plant have been bred, zoned for the climate of middle latitudes. But novice summer residents are still thinking about how to grow a walnut from a nut without much hassle. It's actually not that difficult.

Selection and preparation of planting material

If a gardener has a desire to grow a walnut tree on his site, then he needs to remember that not all fruits are suitable for planting... So, it is better not to use the last year's harvest, due to the fact that during storage the germination rate of nuts greatly decreases. That is why it is not recommended to buy material for planting in a store or in the market. Nobody knows how it was processed and how it was stored.

In addition, no one can guarantee that the nuts came on sale from a tree of a zoned variety. The fruits of southern trees, even if they germinate, it remains to be seen whether they can bear fruit in our climate.

The best option is the fruits of this year, collected by your own hands. Better yet, before planting, try the nuts and choose the ones you like the best. Having chosen a variety, you must carefully examine the planting material:

1. The shell of the fruit must be intact, without damage, and also free of mold.
2. The nut doesn't have to be light. If the fruit is weightless, then this indicates underdevelopment or damage to the kernel.

Having decided on how to grow a nut from a nut, you need to decide where to plant it. The fact is that the walnut is a very tall tree that grows up to 25 m without problems and has a very developed root system that goes to a depth. Therefore, at the site for planting a tree, groundwater should not be located too close to the soil surface.

It is best to choose a well-lit place, away from other plants, because the walnut will easily shade them, and also from buildings, since the root can destroy the foundation. If several walnut trees are planted on the site, then there should be a distance of five meters between them, in this case they will not interfere with each other.

Young tree care

Having chosen a way to plant a walnut tree from walnut, finding a suitable place and even planting, you should not think that the work is finished. A young tree must be carefully looked after:

Growing in a flower pot

It depends on how to grow a walnut at home whether the summer resident will wait for the harvest or not. To be sure that the seeds will germinate, you can plant the fruit in a pot and plant an already grown seedling on the site next year.

If you plant a walnut correctly and provide the plant with appropriate care, then after seven years it will delight its owner with delicious fruits. Do not be upset if this time stretches for up to 10-15 years.

In any case, by surrounding the plant with care, the gardener will be rewarded with a bountiful annual harvest.

Many gardeners dream of planting a walnut on their site, but most abandon this venture right away, fearing difficulties. In fact, it is quite possible to grow a nut, and this task is within the power of even novice gardeners.

How to plant a walnut correctly - the basics of agricultural technology with seedlings

There are two options for planting walnuts: seedlings and seeds (nuts). Let's consider each of the options in more detail:

• Saplings.

In order to plant a tree on your site, you need to get a sapling. It can be purchased at specialized points of sale or you can take a young plant shoot from friends. If you buy a seedling, then pay attention, firstly, to the bark - it must be intact. Second, take a look at the root system - the main root should be intact. Only a strong two-three-year-old seedling, whose trunk is at least 1 cm thick, is able to quickly take root and avoid various diseases.

As for the landing time, there is no consensus here. Some gardeners argue that planting should be done only in the fall, since at this time the sap flow slows down in the tree, and therefore it is easier for even a weak seedling with bark disturbances to take root and avoid infection. Other gardeners believe that planting a walnut in spring is the only correct option, and planting work should be done in early spring, before the buds swell. Since there is no consensus, it is worth focusing on the climatic zone in which the site is located. So, for residents of the southern regions, thanks to the warm climate even in winter, it is better to plant seedlings in the fall, for residents of the northern regions it is better to do planting work in early spring - a young tree planted for the winter may not withstand severe frosts and die. All are better for the inhabitants of the middle lane, since they can plant seedlings both in early spring and in late autumn: in this case, the young tree has equal chances to take root and grow.

Planting a seedling is carried out as follows: in the selected place, pits are prepared with a depth of about 50-60 cm, with a diameter of 1 m. Potash and phosphorus fertilizers, humus are laid in the pits, after which the future tree is placed in them so that its root collar is 3-5 cm above the ground. The hole is covered with earth, which must be tamped tightly around the plant, after which abundant watering is carried out.

Growing a nut from seeds

Planting a walnut with seeds is more laborious, but interesting in terms of at least a summer cottage experiment. First you need to choose the planting material. For planting, we choose only high-quality nuts, the shell of which is neither too soft nor too hard. In addition, the shell must not be damaged and the nuts themselves must be large enough.

It is curious that opinions about the preparation of nuts for planting differ quite widely - some believe that to ensure germination it is necessary to remove the outer shell, while others are sure that nuts should be planted only in their original form. Alas, they have not yet put an end to the long-standing dispute, therefore, if you are planting a walnut for the first time, you can use both methods. The only condition that applies equally to both methods is the choice of seeds. The easiest way to do this is by placing the nuts in a container of water. Some of the seeds will go under water, some will remain on the surface. And despite the fact that both are suitable for planting, drowned seeds have a much higher chance of germinating, since they have a whole and large kernel. By the way, this method is perfect for the selection of peeled seeds, but it must be used only on condition that the shell is not damaged.

Then you can go one of two ways: the first is to plant the selected material in pots or special containers, and after a couple of years, with proper care, you will have an excellent seedling ready for transplanting into open ground. The second option is to plant the prepared nuts directly into the open ground.

When planting a nut in pots, it is necessary to do the following: 4 months before planting, it is necessary to place the nut in wet sand and make sure that the environment in which the planting material is placed does not dry out, but is not too wet.

A container with sand and nuts planted in it must be placed in a cool place. Ideally, if it will be the bottom shelf of the refrigerator, or you can use the basement or finally the balcony.

Thus, the nuts undergo stratification, which improves their germination, and subsequently the fruiting of the tree. When it's time to plant a nut, you need to get it out and place it in a pot with prepared fertile soil, deepening it by 4-5 cm.The plant does not require specific care, it is necessary to carry out timely watering, loosening the soil, and removing weeds within two years.

On the question of how to plant walnuts in open ground in the middle lane, all gardeners agree that if the seeds are placed at a depth equal to their greater length, then they will not simply survive not only winter, but even spring frosts (if disembarkation for some reason is done in the spring).

The nuts are deepened to a depth of 1/2 - 2/3 of a shovel bayonet, since this is the only way to protect it from the extreme effects of low temperature. And only in the southern regions, the rule for choosing the planting depth for a large seed length is relevant. But in the northern latitudes, planting in the autumn is out of the question, and you will have to do germination at home.

When planting in open ground, the seeds are placed three at a time, with a distance between them of 12-15 cm.Thus, you can ensure the best germination, but if all three sprout, then after two years you will have to choose one, the strongest seedling, and the rest either deposited in other places, or removed altogether.

Soil preparation

Of course, you cannot sow seeds anywhere, since good germination, confident growth and fruiting seriously depend on how correctly the place was chosen and how well it was prepared.

First of all, it should be remembered that this plant is thermophilic, and therefore you will have to choose the land from the well insolated places of the backyard territory. In addition, the walnut does not tolerate crowding, therefore, around the future tree there should not be tall trees and shrubs (like pears, apple trees, overgrown cherries), but small shrubs (currants, raspberries, gooseberries) within a radius of at least three meters may already be present ... Walnut planting interval - at least 10 meters.

Soil preparation is quite simple, but prolonged. It begins in late spring with a deepening of the fertile layer - the soil is removed to a depth of 0.7-1 m and a width of 0.5 m. A fertile soil layer taken from the same area is poured into the resulting hole. Further, throughout the entire time until late, the planting site is loosened to improve aeration and remove weeds.

Finally, it should be said that even with careful observance of all conditions and rules, the taste and abundance of the harvest on a new tree can seriously differ from the mother's, both for the better and for the worse, and even seedlings grafted in nurseries are not a guarantee of tasty and large walnuts. ... However, even if the fruits disappoint you, the tree itself will become an excellent decoration of the site, moreover, from its seeds it will be possible to make attempts to achieve your goal again and again.

Planting a walnut is not such a strange idea, because tasty nuts from your own garden is a completely feasible dream. To do this, you just need to plant the walnut correctly and treat it as carefully as you would for other plants in the garden.

Planting a walnut: the nuances of agricultural technology

Walnut is a long-lived tree. Nowadays, walnut trees are found all over the world, which are more than 500 years old. For centuries, they gave people useful fruits and continue to do so even at such, to put it mildly, venerable age. So why not start this tree on your site? May it grow and benefit the next generations.

Walnut planting methods

Choosing a place to plant a walnut tree is a responsible business. It is important to consider the distance to the nearest objects here. The walnut has rather spreading branches, so more space will be required so that it does not interfere with other plants in the future. It is not worth planting it near buildings, otherwise, later, as it grows, it will destroy the foundation with its powerful roots.

Berry bushes will be good neighbors for the first few years, they will improve yields. When the walnut tree grows older and stronger, they can be removed. And they will not want to grow under a nut - the effect of allelopathy is too pronounced.

How to plant a walnut from a fruit

Most often, the nut is propagated by seeds, because it is easy to predict from them what fruits the tree will bear in the future. You can, of course, buy seedlings in the store, but then you have to take the seller's word about their high fertility. In the first method, massive fruits of the correct shape with a thin shell and a hard core are selected for planting.

If planting is planned in the spring, then they must be dried, after removing the green shell. Drying consists of two stages: first in the sun, and then in a shaded place in a draft. In this case, nut seeds should be located in one layer. Drying on batteries and other heating devices is categorically impossible.

When planting in autumn, drying the fruits is optional, and even undesirable. It is better to land them immediately in the designated place to avoid possible injuries. As for the planting of seeds directly, small dimples are enough to seal them - the planting depth of walnut fruits is not more than 20 cm.

In one large planting hole, place 4 fruits in a square so that there is about 25 cm between them. Place the seeds correctly with the tip down, so the seam of the fruit is on top. If you ignore this planting rule, the grown tree will begin to bear fruit 2-3 years later. When the seedlings grow a little, the strongest one is selected and left, and the rest is removed. You can distribute it to neighbors and work colleagues.

How to properly plant a walnut seedling

An alternative planting method is ready-made seedlings. It is better to plant them in a permanent place at the age of two. Saplings are carefully dug out of the ground, trying not to touch the side roots with a shovel. Since the vertical root by this time grows more than a meter, it can be cut in the middle, leaving at least 40 cm. The cut is covered with clay. And if you managed to get seedlings with a closed root system, then when planting you need to "fluff" the lower part of the earthen root.

Some gardeners spread in their environment erroneous information, which is often "led" by beginners. Say, in order for the roots to grow and strengthen quickly, when planting a seedling, you need to put a flat wide stone under its root system. This impenetrable lump, on the contrary, will only inhibit their growth. But it is possible to impose stones on the near-trunk circle from above - moisture supply will improve due to condensation. This is often done in Dushanbe.

A hole for a nut is dug quite large, up to 1 meter deep with the same diameter. The excavated soil should be mixed with completely rotted manure and filled back. Thanks to such actions, the soil for planting will become loose and containing the nutrients necessary for the tree.

In the hole, the roots of the seedling must be given the same position as they occupied before the young plant was dug up. Then everything is as usual: backfilling, compaction, watering and mulching the soil around the seedlings.

Walnut: cultivation and care

Caring for a walnut tree comes down to one thing - pruning. However, in the first year of the growing season, it is better to refuse this event, even if the mass death of crown branches has begun due to severe frosts. It is more expedient to wait until next spring, when young shoots begin to appear on the affected areas of the tree, allowing the formation of new branches and restoration of the crown. Damaged branches are trimmed to living tissue. Together with them, tall vertical tops are cut off around the shoot that was chosen to continue growing.

If the tree is not severely damaged in winter, you can limit yourself to ordinary sanitary pruning: remove diseased and dry branches, thin the crown a little if necessary. Like others, it is recommended to prune the walnut in February-March, while it is still dormant. It is important to have time to do the pruning before the sap flow begins to avoid sap release. With an abundant release of this fluid, trees can infect fungal diseases.

Re-pruning can be done during the season. It is best to do this in the second half of summer, at this time of the year the intensity of sap flow decreases. Summer pruning is desirable either in cloudy weather or late in the evening. Particularly large wounds must be cleaned and covered with a mixture of clay and mullein.

That, in fact, is all that an unpretentious walnut needs. But if you have a small plot, it is better to forget about this tree, otherwise it will grow and "take away" the entire area - its diameter is not less than 10-12 m. Our neighbors planted it this way, now there is almost no room left for a vegetable garden. So planting a walnut requires not only proper agricultural technology, but also a banal area.

Many gardeners, summer residents want to grow walnuts on their plots, in connection with these they have questions: "How and when is it better to plant these trees?", "What care do they need?" Some experts believe that planting a walnut is better in the fall, while others argue that planting a walnut in the spring is a more reliable way to grow a healthy, fruitful tree. In fact, growing a walnut is not that difficult. One has only to adhere to some rules and recommendations. Since the plant is a walnut, planting and caring for it have a number of features.

Characteristics and description of walnut

Walnut (voloshsky) nut is a rather tall tree, reaching a height of about 25 meters. It has a developed, strong root system that can spread up to 20 meters around. The trunk of the tree is straight, thick, covered with dark gray bark with a lot of cracks. Numerous branches form a wide spreading crown. Walnut leaves consist of 5-9 oval, elongated plates, have a specific smell.

The tree blooms from the second half of April to early May. The flowers are greenish, small, can be masculine and feminine. Male earrings are collected in large earrings, female - single or collected in two or three, located on top of annual branches. The plant is pollinated by the wind. The pollen can be transported up to three hundred meters.

Walnut fruiting begins 8 to 10 years after planting. The fruits ripen in autumn in September - October. High yields are obtained from free standing trees. The tree gives the largest yields in about 50 years.

It should be noted that the walnut is considered a long-lived tree, which, in favorable conditions, lives and bears fruit for up to 400 years.

The tree can be propagated both by seeds (nuts) and vegetatively.

Choosing and preparing a place for planting a nut

When choosing a place to plant a walnut tree in a permanent place, you need to give preference to a sunny, open area. You should not plant a nut on very swampy and compressed soils. The most suitable soil for planting walnuts is moist loam with a low content of groundwater and good drainage. From an excess of moisture, the roots of the tree will rot. This will lead to the fact that the tree will not bear fruit, and then it may completely die.

In addition, the nut does not like the neighborhood with other trees, so there should be no overgrown bushes and tall trees within a radius of 3 meters. When planting several trees, observe the interval between them 5 - 10 meters.

The young shoot still has a not very strong and developed root system, which does not allow it to receive nutrition from the deep layers of the soil. In order for a young tree to receive all the elements necessary for good growth and development, the soil at the site of its planting must be well cultivated and fertilized. It is best to do this a few months before planting. To do this, dig a planting hole and fill it with organic fertilizers or a mixture consisting of one bucket of ready-made (old) humus, one glass of wood ash and one glass of double superphosphate. After a couple of months (just before planting the seeds), weeds must be removed from the soil and loosened.

Before planting with seeds (which is more often carried out in the fall), you should not use nitrogen fertilizers to fertilize the soil. They are generally not recommended for plants for the winter.

Planting walnut seeds

One of the features of the walnut tree is considered to be its ability to retain the properties of the mother tree when propagated by seeds. Of course, this planting method is more laborious and time consuming. But it has its advantages:

• In the first year, the young shoot develops strong roots.
• In the future, trees planted in this way do not need special care, except for regular watering in dry weather.
• They begin to bear fruit earlier than those trees that are grown vegetatively.
• Have annual, stable fruiting, without interruptions.

In order for the planting of walnuts, carried out by seeds, in the future, to give positive results, you first need to select high-quality planting material (nuts) and prepare it. For this purpose, only ripe, large fruits with a whole, undamaged shell are selected. Before planting, it is advisable to stratify the fetus. To do this, it should be kept for three to four months in a place with a temperature regime of +1 ... + 5 ° С.

You can plant nuts in small pots, so that after a few years the finished seedling can be transplanted into open ground. Or you can immediately plant the nuts in a permanent place in the ground.

It must be remembered that seed germination in a nut lasts for one year. Therefore, some gardeners believe that planting walnut seeds in open ground is best done in the fall. In winter, the fruits will undergo stratification, and with the onset of spring, the most viable shoots will sprout. This does not apply to the northern regions, where the air temperature in winter drops below -25 ° C. In this case, it is better to grow seedlings at home. For spring planting, keep the nuts in a cool, dry place.

You need to plant seeds in open ground to a depth of 10-15 centimeters, and in colder regions - up to 20 centimeters.

In the prepared hole, it is better to spread the nuts with the seam up, 3-4 pieces each, making the distance between them 15-20 centimeters. If all the seeds sprout in the hole, then after 2 years only one, the healthiest and strongest shoot will need to be selected from them, and the rest will be planted or simply thrown away.

Planting walnut seedlings

Young walnut seedlings can be planted in the ground both in spring and autumn. It all depends on the climatic zone. But more often walnut seedlings are planted in the spring, before the buds swell on the tree. Since a tree planted in the autumn period may not have time to take root and will not be able to survive the cold winter.

For planting, choose two-year or three-year seedlings with a trunk thickness of at least one centimeter. At the same time, no importance is attached to the height of the seedling.

Before planting, handle the seedling carefully so as not to harm its root system. So that the roots of seedlings that are without soil for a long time do not dry out (for example, during transportation), they can be dipped in a special clay chatterbox. For its preparation, one part of already decomposed manure is mixed with three parts of clay, all this is mixed with water until it becomes sour cream. Before planting, the clay mixture is washed off so that the contact of the roots with the soil is closer. If the seedlings are a little dry (this is noticeable by the wrinkled bark), their roots need to be placed for a day - two are placed in water.

Just before planting, you should very carefully consider the roots. Remove damaged and diseased ones. The vertical root of the shoot is usually pruned two-thirds.

Experienced gardeners are advised to purchase shoots with a "canned" root system for planting. The necessary fertilizers have already been added to the root container, which contribute to the rapid growth of the young tree. Planting walnuts in this way is possible even in dry times. Such trees take root better and faster.

It is best to plant the young tree in a permanent location with the same side facing south as in the nursery.

In the previously prepared and fertilized soil, a hole is dug about 50 centimeters deep and about one meter in diameter. Two-thirds of the hole is filled with water. When the water is absorbed in the middle of the hole, you need to pour a small mound and place the tree on it so that its root collar is at a height of three to five centimeters above the soil. Then the plant is carefully sprinkled with earth. The soil around the plant should be tamped tightly and watered abundantly. Excess branches are removed from the young tree.

At the first time after planting, you need to ensure that the roots of the seedling are not exposed, if necessary, you should fill up the earth.

In order for a tree to give good yields in the future, it needs to provide conditions for pollination. The walnut is pollinated by the wind, so it is better to plant several trees nearby at once.

Features of walnut care

Walnuts grow rather slowly and need good care, especially if grown in unfamiliar climatic conditions.

• Watering

The first watering after planting is needed to compact the soil. Young trees especially need watering in spring and summer, as well as during drought. Watering it is enough twice a month. One watering should take about three buckets of water per square meter of soil. Trees that have reached a height of 4 meters can be watered less frequently.

It is advisable to mulch the soil around the nut. For this, sawdust or manure are suitable. Leaves fallen from the tree can not be removed.

• Fertilizer

The nut is fertilized, as a rule, twice a year. In the spring, nitrogen fertilizers are added to the soil. And in the autumn - phosphorus and potash (they have a good effect on the fertility of the tree). Nitrogen fertilizers should be used with caution. They can provoke the reproduction of bacteria harmful to the tree. And also their use is not recommended in the first three years of fruiting of the tree. So that in the future the tree can bear more fruit.

• Pruning

There is no need to carry out special pruning in order to form the crown of the tree. The crown of the nut is formed independently. You should cut off branches that interfere with each other or damage the bark. If necessary, it is better to remove unnecessary branches not in spring (during active sap production), but at the beginning of summer. If a tree loses a lot of sap, this will affect its growth in the future. Pruning branches is carried out in two times. First, a part of the branch is cut off, leaving a seven-centimeter twig. In the spring of next year, the already dried twig is removed. All cut points must be treated with garden pitch.

If the yield of the tree has decreased significantly, and the fruits have become small and have an irregular shape, you need to carry out a rejuvenating pruning of the tree. Mature walnut trees, unlike young ones, are pruned in early spring. They remove tall-growing branches and those that are directed inside the crown itself. In order to get more sunlight into the middle of the crown. Also, branches with lateral branches are removed, directing them to the sides. This promotes the flow of juice and the emergence of new shoots.

• Disease and pest control

The causes of walnut diseases are: lack of light, excess moisture, poor soil, late spring frosts.

Common diseases include: brown spot, bacteriosis, root cancer.

Compared to other garden trees, the walnut is much less likely to be attacked by pests and insects.

To avoid this, prevention is carried out. A young, short tree can be sprayed with special modern means. The first time spraying the tree is carried out even before bud break, then it is repeated - in the first half of the growing season of the plant.

In order for a walnut seedling to grow into a healthy, strong, well-bearing tree, you first need to select a variety that feels comfortable in the area.