Part 11
Along the southern shore of Lake Erie the first week in July is a favorable time to begin this procedure. Due to the fact that the northeast side of the tree is the coolest and shadiest the greater part of the day, there the buds should be set. With the budding tool cut through the bark of the stock, several inches above the start of the new growth. Do not remove the bark. This produces a gathering of callus-forming material at this point and aids in the healing in of the bud which is to be later placed there. My experience shows successful results in many instances where I had failed to make this previous cut.
Bud wood should be new and vigorous growth, the first five or six buds nearest the spot from which the growth started being the best. When the bud wood is available cut off the first four or five leaf stalks close to the buds. By the time the buds are ready for use the remainder of the leaf stalk will have ripened or dried and fallen off, and the bark underneath hardened off. If this is not the case the bark is apt to rot at this point, which is directly beneath the bud itself. Bud wood, procured from any source, should be trimmed with the stub of the leaf stalk cut as closely as possible to the bark. If the budding is not done immediately those cuttings may be wrapped and stored in a cool place (about 40° F.) for several days before using. In a hot, dry season the actual budding should be started soon after the middle of July. Due to the excessive amount of rainfall during 1943, buds which were set on July 24th yielded poor results, while those applied later in the summer, about August 12th, healed in one hundred per cent.
Procedure: Cut the patch bud from the bud stick with the bud in the center of the patch. Place this patch bud between the lips, as this is a clean and convenient place to hold it. Next, cut the patch, which has been previously marked out, and quickly place the new patch in the opening, tying in place. As many as three or four buds may be similarly set before they are coated with wax. Parapin wax (a paraffin and pine gum mixture) is an excellent substance for coating the buds, due to its rubber-like, non-cracking qualities. A convenient homemade contrivance for melting the wax may be made by soldering a small can into the top of a railroad lantern. Rubber bands of good quality have been made especially for budding by several large rubber companies. These are ideal for tying the buds in place and may be reused several seasons. Treekote, an asphalt emulsion, has proven a successful substance for coating the new work. After the buds have set for two weeks remove the rubber bands and examine. Where buds have failed to heal in properly, and room remains on the stock, new buds may be applied just below the scar.
When the trees show signs of growth, the following spring, cut them back to the top of the bud patch, cover the cut with Treekote and prevent all growth on the original stock from developing. The placed buds are frequently slower in starting than the natural buds. A stake driven beside the young stock makes a convenient support for the rapid new growth, which should be tied to prevent breaking by strong winds.
Trees started in the nursery may be transplanted to permanent locations the following spring, inasmuch as the spring of the year has proven a more satisfactory time for transplanting than the fall. To attain success in transplanting the newly dug tree, roots should be exposed as little as possible to the air. Prepare the holes before digging the trees, moving one tree at a time for best results. Move as much of the root stock as possible, usually about 18 to 24 inches. Trim roots with a sharp knife, making a clean cut facing downward. Remove at least half of the top growth of the tree and plant at once, tamping the loose dirt firmly about the roots. Water generously and slowly around the loose soil to aid in washing the dirt thoroughly around the newly disturbed roots. With severe pruning, trees may be transplanted after new growth has started. During periods of drought the soil around the trees should be thoroughly soaked from time to time.
In conclusion, it may be said that due to varying conditions of soil, climate and locality, for best results the proper time to bud may be either earlier or later in localities other than northern Ohio. Various factors may alter the procedure in those localities due to the individual operator's experimentation, from which he has devised methods giving him the best results.
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Note: The trade-name items mentioned in this article may be obtained from any reliable nursery supply house.
Northern Nut Growing
_By JOSEPH GERARDI, Illinois_
Judging from the demand for nut trees the public is fast becoming aware of the possibilities of growing its own nuts. Heretofore nut growing has been confined to two favorable sections of the United States, the west coast and the southern pecan groves. But, now we can safely plant the pecan as far north as Springfield, Illinois, and from all indications some trees found in Cass County will extend the northern limit another one hundred miles.
The pecan is the favorite nut of nearly everyone, in fact it is preferred to any other nut for its pleasing flavor and easy cracking. Wild nuts used to be gathered from native trees without consulting the owner, but since they are selling at good prices the owners of trees gather them themselves. Fortunately, through efforts of far-seeing individuals some very good pecans have been found that can be grown successfully much farther north than the southern pecan belt. Our nut enthusiast, Dr. A. S. Colby, has drawn the attention of the writer to three promising pecans that he located in Cass County, Illinois. This extends the northern pecan limit much farther north than we formally considered them adaptable.
For this locality we can now boast of quite a list of pecans that have been doing well. Of the older introductions Greenriver and Busseron can safely be recommended, and of course, the local finds are all good here, at least the parent trees are doing so well that the public is planting them in preference to the older introductions. West of the Mississippi River Giles, Clarkville and Norton can be recommended.
Prospective pecan planters should bear the following remarks in mind. Environment has a decided influence on the behavior of plants and the nut tree is no exception. As they are taken farther north of their original habitat the nuts become smaller and do not fill as well. The black walnut may be considered an exception to this statement. Many local finds and some southern pecans are perfectly hardy as far north as Chicago and Ontario, but can not be expected to ripen any of their nuts. Many southern pecan trees in this locality are wonderful lawn trees but as bearers they are worthless.
The Black Walnut
The list of black walnuts is altogether too long. Of the numerous introductions only a few are retaining their popularity. In this section I would still plant Stambaugh for its cracking and bearing qualities and its thin shell, but its flavor does not equal that of Thomas and Mintle. The Mintle is smaller but a much better cracker than Thomas. It is also a young and heavy bearer, grows fast and straight as a candle and grafts easily. The Elmer Myers will become the most popular black walnut in sections where it does well, provided its thin shell will withstand machinery hulling without injury to the nuts. We have not fruited the Myers as yet. The black walnut is fast rivaling the pecan, and for confection surpasses it because it retains its flavor after being cooked or baked.
Persian Walnuts
The Persian walnut in spite of its popularity does not appeal to me. Its flavor can not compare with that of the pecan, hickory, or black walnut. Besides, it is too exacting as to climate and soil. We have tried all the supposedly hardy ones but so far only one will withstand our changeable climate. This one came from a New York nursery and the name was lost. We list it as the Schmidt for the man who owns the tree. This tree is now some twenty years old and bearing well. So far it is remaining healthy as also are the trees grafted from it. Our trouble with all other varieties of this species is that they make a second growth in fall and then succumb to frost. Of all the Broadviews, Shafers, Pekins and Crath seedlings we have grafted in the last ten years not one is now alive in this locality. Something puzzling to me is that two Broadview seedlings we now have growing from seed I obtained from Mr. Corsan of Islington, Ontario, are growing slowly but are still healthy after the '40 and '41 seasons. All the rest of the trees from this same seed succumbed.
Filberts, Hazels and Their Hybrids
The Winkler hazel failed to bear the past season the first time in 15 years. All pure filberts we have tried in this locality are a failure. Of the hybrids, Bixby and Buchanan are promising.
Chestnuts
The Mollissima chestnut is very promising in southern Illinois. The tree requires protection in this locality as it sun scalds badly if not protected. No doubt many orchards will be planted in the future.
Propagating Nut Trees
This is a fascinating subject full of disappointments. We have our ups and downs as does everyone else who attempts it. I get numerous letters telling of their experience and troubles asking for details just how to go about it. What makes it so fascinating is that in certain seasons we have fabulous success and them again in others almost complete failure. Fall of '41 and spring of '42 we averaged 75% catches in budding chestnuts. Fall of '42 and spring of '43 our chestnut budding was just about nil, only 3 or 4% catches, and I am at a loss how to account for this variance.
A budded chestnut tree is much superior to a grafted one as far as the union is concerned. Grafted trees usually do not knit well the first season while at two years the union is good. So we also must learn our chestnut propagation all over again.
I have a letter before me from Brother Borst asking why his walnut buds took so well and not one of them vegetated in spring. This happened to us a number of times on both walnuts and hickories. Also, in the same season, we have had one or two varieties, of which we did not set many buds or grafts, to show 100% catches, while other varieties set the same day would be 100% failure. Apparently all scions used were in prime condition. Why then this great variance? While we used the double-bladed knife for budding and the side graft for grafting, other methods are just as successful under skilled hands. The skill of the operator has much to do with it.
=Fall budding of persimmons.= The persimmon has only about ten days in which it will fall bud. Before or after this period budding will not succeed. It also is important that the scions be taken from thrifty trees a number of years old. The ordinary "T" shield budding gives good success on the persimmon either spring or fall. The spring bud sticks should be perfectly dormant.
Butternut and Japanese Walnuts and Their Hybrids
None of these are worth the space they occupy in this locality. 1-18 on which I reported last year didn't set a nut this season. Of all the heartnuts I am acquainted with none are satisfactory. There is a siebold tree in St. Louis that so far we have been unable to graft that promises to be adapted to this vicinity. It is good bearer, good cracker and pleasant flavor. This class of nuts is adopted to the north where the pecan is unsatisfactory.
The Hicans and Hickories
The hicans are numerous in this and adjacent counties. While a number of them are good, I have located none that can compare favorably with Bixby, Gerardi, and Pleas for this locality. The Pleas is a bitternut hybrid and has some bitterness in the kernel, but no more than the English walnut and people like it. Of the twenty hicans we have tried the above three only are satisfactory.
In this latitude the hicans are unquestionably the most satisfactory nut trees to plant. They grow fast, bear young, have a high flavor, crack well and are unsurpassed as shade or lawn trees. Here the Gerardi and Bixby are the best so far fruited. The Pleas is very ornamental but lacks flavor. The Burlington and Fairbanks are adapted to the north but here are not satisfactory bearers.
I have reports on about 25 Gerardi hican seedlings. They are all worthless, smaller in nut than either pecans or hickories. The peculiar thing is that some of the pecans are decidedly bitter in flavor as also are some of the hickories. Two of the seedlings show shellbark blood.
=Handling the nut weevil and plum curculio.= Two years ago the few nuts the Gerardi hican had were all wormy. Last spring I cultivated the ground with a one-horse cultivator and gave our chickens free access to the feast. They made so good a job of it that not a single nut was stung this season. Where the ground can be flooded for several days this will also exterminate the weevil. The same treatment applies to plum curculio. Cultivation should be done before growth starts in spring, or quite late in fall.
If anyone ever got a Pleas hybrid nut to grow I would appreciate ever so much to hear from him. So far all my trials to germinate the nuts have failed.
I may add that in my estimation no land on this globe is blessed with a nut flora that equals that of the United States.
Nut Puttering in an Off Year
_By W. C. DEMING, Connecticut_
I did manage to get over to Avon Old Farms, the boys' school, and topwork a few hickory trees. All grew, about a dozen, except three scions of one kind that I put in one tree. This is the third year that I have grafted hickories on the grounds of this school, some three thousand acres. The school was planned and built by Mrs. Theodate Pope Riddle, and I was told there that it cost seven million dollars. It is a beautiful and original group of buildings in the lovely Farmington River Valley, well worth visiting.
Mr. Sperry the science teacher, is deeply interested in the nut trees. Dr. Arthur Harmount Graves and I have both given him a number of chestnut trees, and I have added a variety of others, walnuts, persimmons, papaws, pecans, filberts and others as well as the topworked seedling hickories. The trees have been given reasonably good and intelligent care. Many trees were badly winter killed or injured last winter when the temperature dropped to twenty-four below zero in Hartford, official, and is said to have reached forty below in Litchfield county. Japanese chestnuts were especially badly injured. But hybrids having an American strain seemed generally to be little injured. Filberts also showed bad injury. Pecans, persimmons and a papaw seemed to have weathered the winter, though they should be further observed before deciding. The nut trees have been set out in orchard form over tracts of a number of acres and well fertilized. The land is good.
Incidentally Mr. Sperry expressed the thanks of the school with more than one bottle--of fine maple syrup which he and the boys make every spring.
The mollissima chestnut tree in my yard at Litchfield, which Dr. Graves considers remarkable because it bears a moderate crop of fertile nuts every year without apparent benefit of outside pollination, was stripped almost bare of branches by an ice storm. It had reached thirty five feet in height, mainly, perhaps because pretty well surrounded by taller trees. Now it has to start over again from a much lower height. It bore a few nuts on the remaining branches this year.
On account of the restrictions on driving I did not visit Mr. Beeman at New Preston, but he wrote me that he had a few quarts of hickory nuts, chiefly Glover from one of his large topworked trees. He has a couple of acres set out to grafted hickories, some of which have been bearing for several years. Pretty good for a man now 86 who began nut growing less than ten years ago and who has serious physical handicaps. He is the man, as many of you do not know, who, when he began with nut trees, built scaffolds 40 feet high about each of two hickory trees in his yard, and topworked them almost to the last branch by a method of his own One reason for his success is that he is a violin maker with a record of perhaps fifty violins, violas and 'cellos, and he makes his own tools. He is a modest man whom it is a privilege to know.
I have had some interesting experiences with papaws this year. For the first time I have succeeded in growing the seed intentionally. The only other time when I have had seedlings was when a bunch of them came up by themselves in the yard as thick as hair on a dog. Last year (1942) in the fall, I scattered a lot o£ seed in a perennial bed and poked them in with a cane and also in a reentrant angle of a house looking to the northeast, behind some rather luxuriant Christmas roses (helleborus niger) where there wore also lilies-of-the-valley and jack-in-the-pulpits and the soil had been rather heavily enriched. In both places the papaws came up quite freely, especially in the angle of the house where the sun struck only a short time each day. The chief reason, however, was probably the rich, deep soil. These seedlings with taproots 6 to 8 inches long were easily transplanted with their leaves on. I brought four of them to St. Petersburg, Florida. They are said to be native in upper Florida.
Dr. Zimmerman, who was our authority on papaws, said that he thought hand pollination was necessary for good crops. I have been making observations on this for several years and in 1942 obtained confirmatory results. Last spring (1943) I hand-pollinated a tree about 18 feet high using pollen from a number of other trees. This was the same tree on which I had had good results in 1942 over the limited part of the tree that I had been able to reach from the ground. This year I used a stepladder. Also, because the tree was close to a tool house, on the grounds of the park superintendent, I was able to reach the top of the tree from the roof of the tool house. From this tree I gathered about 100 fruits, all but two perfect, weighing together 23 pounds. There were several bunches of three and four and one of six. The quality I did not think as good as some. But it seemed a pretty good demonstration of the value of hand pollinating.
In the yard of a house in Hartford, belonging to the widow of a high school classmate of mine, I found a number of papaw trees, some of them as big as they often grow, perhaps forty feet high and up to a foot in diameter. The lady told me that they used to bear abundantly when her neighbor just over the fence kept bees. Since these are gone she has had very few or no fruit at all and the squirrels got them, if there were any. I pollinated a lot of blossoms that I could reach from the ground and in the fall they were quite loaded with clusters of fruit, but much smaller than those on the first tree described. They were, however, of better quality. There was also a small number of fruit in the high branches of the trees and some of these the squirrels cut off, but apparently just for fun as I did not see any sign of their eating them.
I am writing this in St. Petersburg, Florida. I boarded first with a man who describes himself on his card as a tree surgeon doing grafting and budding, spraying, fertilizing and pruning. This year he took the agency for the Mahan pecan and has sold quite a number at $5 each, with one order for twenty trees. These are put out by the Monticello, Florida nursery. The history of their buying the Mahan pecan tree, and a picture of the parent tree in its original home, is given in the files of the American Nut Journal, an index of the seventeen volumes of which I completed this year. Mr. Stewart sets out all the trees he sells and is meticulous in doing so. Nearby is a good sized Mahan tree with still quite a crop of nuts (in November) after a good many have been gathered. Mr. Stewart speaks well of this pecan tree as a good bearer, with nuts well-filled and of good quality. I haven't cracked enough of them to verify these statements but they are offered by the Monticello Nursery in fifty-pound lots. They sell at Webb's in this city for 65 cents a pound. Schleys I believe sell for 45 cents at the same place. The Mahan is, I think, the largest pure pecan, about a third larger than the Schley and those I have seen were equally thin-shelled. I mention this because I had supposed that pecans did not do well as far south as this. Yet I see many trees about the city, some with fair crops on them and some in good foliage, though many, or all of them I have observed, are partially defoliated by the fall web worm. I saw one fine tree that I was told was a Stuart. The Moneymaker also is said to do well here. I speak particularly of the Mahan because it has not, so far as I know, had the unqualified approval of the experts. But what has? And I don't know that it deserves it.
It is a joy to be among the many citrus fruit trees, the guavas, papayas, avocadoes, loquats, surinam cherries, new and strange fruits and flowers of many kinds in Florida. The Australian or Queensland nut, Macadamia ternifolia, grow and bear well here, I am told--but the squirrels got all the nuts! But the greatest joy of all is the freedom from ice and snow.
Nut Nursery Notes
_By H. F. STOKE, Roanoke, Va._
The present season has seen an increase of interest in nut tree planting that is new in my experience. This interest is apparent not only in retail orders, but is reflected in inquiries received from large general nurseries, many of which have not been listing nut trees. I do not believe that this interest in food-producing trees is a passing phase of the war, but that it will continue if honestly catered to and wisely directed.