# Nut Trees



## gabbyj310 (Oct 22, 2012)

I have been looking for Pecan trees and can't find them unless they cost an arm and leg and your first born( now that's a thought) Course you need two different kinds to cross pollinate and I think they have to be like 7 years old to produce nuts you can eat.I have several fruit trees(apple,pears peaches,and plum,also a few grape vines,and wild blackberries so far.So any help on where I might find a few nut trees to add to my collection that doesn't cost so much would be a HUGE help!


----------



## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

Best bet is to ask around locally,maybe even get one that will produce.Considering the nuts cost about $10 a pound cracked it won't take long to get your money out of it.

Money is tight now so this may be out of the question. I have some real old ones here but they are in thick woods so we leave em alone.


----------



## GrinnanBarrett (Aug 31, 2012)

Try growers in Texas where they are a native tree. remember when you plant a non native tree you have to consider why it is not native to your area. Pecan trees in Georgia for example are all originally from Texas. Notice they are planted in rows and a lot of care is taken of them. In Texas they are in the wild and do not require much in the way of care. 

I would check with a local nursery man to see what you need to make it happen in your area. They will lead you straight. GB


----------



## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

If you do go pick the brain of a local nursery then buy a couple trees from him. You get a lot more from local businesses than the product. If you want them as a resource than you need to keep them in business.


----------



## SlobberToofTigger (Dec 27, 2011)

Try these guys.
http://willisorchards.com/category/Pecan+Trees

They have all ages of trees that will match your budget. You might also want to consider hazelnuts also as they will produce in a few years. Also plant a bunch of pecan nuts. You can then graft some of the limbs of the really good quality trees to them and bring your cost per tree down to nil.


----------



## gabbyj310 (Oct 22, 2012)

Thanks STT,I looked on their website and really liked what I saw.All information was very good.


----------



## goshengirl (Dec 18, 2010)

I second Willis Orchards (Stark Bros. is also good, and there's also Cold Stream Farm). To go real inexpensive, look at the Arbor Day Foundation (you get a discount for being a member, which is only $5). But I don't think Arbor Day's is grafted - grafted trees will produce sooner than standards (so I've read).


----------



## Viking (Mar 16, 2009)

goshengirl said:


> I second Willis Orchards (Stark Bros. is also good, and there's also Cold Stream Farm). To go real inexpensive, look at the Arbor Day Foundation (you get a discount for being a member, which is only $5). But I don't think Arbor Day's is grafted - grafted trees will produce sooner than standards (so I've read).


 We bought two pecan trees from Stark and they are for cooler climates, thing is they are very slow growers in our nearly 1500 foot elevation that has cool nights even when day temps are around 100. We've bought a lot of bare root trees from Stark over the years and most have been of very good quality. The only ones we haven't had very good results with are the almond trees, they are affected by leaf curl as are the peach trees and even using Micro-Cop most have fallen pray to curl.


----------



## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

Viking said:


> We bought two pecan trees from Stark and they are for cooler climates, thing is they are very slow growers in our nearly 1500 foot elevation that has cool nights even when day temps are around 100.


Here's an off-the-wall question for you. There are plans on the intertubes for making cheap solar thermal water heaters. What would be the drawback to running some piping underground and around those trees' roots and heating the soil with the free hot water created during the day? Or even around the trunk.

Not cost effective? Too Rube Goldberg? The heat is going to the wrong parts of the tree.

I'm thinking of what citrus growers do during cold snaps - they introduce heat to the trees and blanket them, but your problem occurs every night with the temperature drop - all you really need to do is time-shift that heat, from the day into the night.


----------



## cqp33 (Apr 2, 2012)

SlobberToofTigger said:


> Try these guys.
> http://willisorchards.com/category/Pecan+Trees
> 
> They have all ages of trees that will match your budget. You might also want to consider hazelnuts also as they will produce in a few years. Also plant a bunch of pecan nuts. You can then graft some of the limbs of the really good quality trees to them and bring your cost per tree down to nil.


Appreciate the link, I checked them out and will be spending some of my hard earned cash there before this fall for sure so I can get these bad boys in the ground this fall!:2thumb:


----------



## SlobberToofTigger (Dec 27, 2011)

I buy about $1k worth of trees each year and have tried a good number of the Internet based sellers. I buy the most from Stark, due to their quality, they are located in Missouri, and I am planting the trees in Missouri. Last year I tried Willis and was pleasantly surprised. The trees were of good quality and size but were not pruned like the Stark trees. In my opinion they had better roots then the Stark trees. I enjoy doing the pruning so that is not an issue for me. I have also bought from Arbor Day and was really surprised at how OK the trees were. I figured at the price they would be garbage but they were not. I have also bought from Ty Ty/Aaron's and their trees were crap. Of the ~100 trees I bought from them three survived... Their overall reputation on the Internet is quite bad so I blame myself for being a moron and not doing my research first.

Next years purchase will probably be from Forrest Keeling. They have developed and patented a tree growth solution that if it performs as suggested, by their research, will have your trees up and producing in half the normal time. The only issue is they are a wholesale operation with a steep minimum purchase. Last year I did try one of their ideas and that is inoculating the soil with mycorrhizal fungi. Even with the severe drought I had an 80% success rate with the trees which is quite good vs my normal of 60% success. 

Just as a note I plant trees with no expectation of further care. I water for a few weeks and then the tree is on its own. I will check it for tent caterpillars and kill them but that is about it. If the tree survives it is a good one. If it dies then I have no use for the tree. If I were planting a smaller area or less trees I would certainly give them a lot more care. But with the area I am planting and the quantity of trees, I need the trees to care for themselves. If a tree gets to production age and does not perform I dig it up and start over. In short, you either perform or you die.


----------



## SlobberToofTigger (Dec 27, 2011)

One other thing you will want to do is make sure the type of Pecan tree you are looking at is suited to your area, has reasonable disease resistance, and produces every year vs every other year...

I would start here for a decent description of possible trees.
http://www.nolinnursery.com/Pecans.htm
Then do a whole bunch more research. Pecan trees take way to long to mature to not get it right the first time.


----------



## sw_va (Mar 24, 2013)

Why not try walnut or hickory.


----------



## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

Bobbb said:


> Here's an off-the-wall question for you. There are plans on the intertubes for making cheap solar thermal water heaters. What would be the drawback to running some piping underground and around those trees' roots and heating the soil with the free hot water created during the day? Or even around the trunk.
> 
> Not cost effective? Too Rube Goldberg? The heat is going to the wrong parts of the tree.
> 
> I'm thinking of what citrus growers do during cold snaps - they introduce heat to the trees and blanket them, but your problem occurs every night with the temperature drop - all you really need to do is time-shift that heat, from the day into the night.


Would any on you experienced orchardists sacrifice a minute of your time and tell me the flaws in the above.


----------



## SlobberToofTigger (Dec 27, 2011)

Not sure the idea has ever been tried. Would be an interesting experiment. I am currently using a south facing, brown wall to radiate heat towards my pomegranate trees. They do not grow in Mo and by all rights should be dead. We will see if they ever produce fruit...

Using a very dark material placed around the trees might work just as well and is less technology dependent then the water heater. If I were going to try the water heater route I would probably use an outdoor wood boiler so that I knew I would have heat all night not just the first 4 or 5 hours.


----------



## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

SlobberToofTigger said:


> Not sure the idea has ever been tried. Would be an interesting experiment. I am currently using a south facing, brown wall to radiate heat towards my pomegranate trees. They do not grow in Mo and by all rights should be dead. We will see if they ever produce fruit...
> 
> Using a very dark material placed around the trees might work just as well and is less technology dependent then the water heater. If I were going to try the water heater route I would probably use an outdoor wood boiler so that I knew I would have heat all night not just the first 4 or 5 hours.


Thanks. At least the idea isn't totally crazy. Just crazy enough that it might not have been tried before.

Which part of the tree is temperature sensitive? I posted a youtube video of a Canadian orchardist who is growing a lemon tree outside and when it gets cold he turns on the power to his small christmas lights that are strung in the tree and that saves his tree. So is it the branches and leaves, the trunk, the roots?

This idea is based on the DIY solar heaters I see being built on various websites. Pipe the water into a hot water tank in your house and just keep heating up the water over the course of the day, then at night pump it out to your tree, diluted if necessary to your target temp. Some of these home-built systems use thermosiphoning in order to move the water around.


----------



## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

Bobbb said:


> Would any on you experienced orchardists sacrifice a minute of your time and tell me the flaws in the above.


Bobb I'm not a professional orchardist, but I'd guess it's all about the $$$$. I am a professional horticulturalist and I can tell you I use exactly that system to keep frost off of young stock. I run cheap low density poly pipe under benches in my grow houses or through gravel in my outdoor grow areas (well I did before I retired). I've seen a 120 year old system installed in a heritage glasshouse, it was a beautifully efficient system running first through propagation beds then through grow benches and lastly back through an orange house, before going back to the heat sink (a huge block of brick and rubble). All my systems have been passive solar or for those extra cold nights I have an add on wood boiler.


----------



## SlobberToofTigger (Dec 27, 2011)

Bobbb said:


> Which part of the tree is temperature sensitive?


The entire tree. But usually the branches and leaves are what get killed back. With grafted trees this pretty much leaves you with a regrown tree you do not want.


----------



## dirtgrrl (Jun 5, 2011)

What WR and STT said. My main concern with your plan would be root intrusion into your underground water pipe. Greenhouse heating systems usually don't have that problem. Also tree roots are usually well protected from killer freezes. It's the tips that are most vulnerable and what you need to protect. Many trees fruit on last year's spurs. If they freeze over the winter you've lost this year's crop. 

Low tech and inexpensive passive systems like blankets and whatnot usually work the best. Most of the time you only need a few degrees to keep your trees in good shape.


----------

