Butternut tree

[lyle11]

The Butternut tree is another endangered tree due to Butternut Canker discovered in Wisconsin in 1967. Butternut Canker is not treatable except if it is on a limb and the limb is completed removed. To make the trees resistant to canker they crossed them with a tree you probably never heard of, the Heartnut or Japanese Walnut which is native to Japan.

I planted 4 of these Butternut/Heartnut crosses 17 years ago at my property in Wisconsin and have no canker. Trees are about 25 feet tall more spreading than a black walnut. Starting to get some nuts forming but haven’t ate one yet. Butternuts are supposed to be very oily and tasty but the nut meat is small and comes out in pieces. Less but meat and even tougher to extract than a black walnut from what I’ve read.

The nuts grow in clusters and the husk is sticky. I have 80 acres here so room to play with growing trees that I would never plant on a city lot.

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[SONNY]

I have a couple of butternut trees here 12 years old and 8 feet tall, no canker on them BUT on my english walnut trees I found canker, and storms keep knocking the nuts off when they are young so don't have any nuts on them. They are 10 to 12 feet tall, 6" or so base trunk, also 12 years old. I gave up on trees due to bugs and diseases .

[Eugene]

Shortly after purchasing the acreage, about 17 years ago, the state forester found several dead butternut trees, no live ones, on the property. Forester said canker. I haven't tried to plant any butternuts due to the still possible canker presence.

Black walnut, thousand canker disease is moving east and a serious threat to Missouri's black walnut trees. If the disease hits central Missouri, this could be a considerable future financial loss since I have, guessing 400 black walnut trees on the acreage.

[lyle11]

You’ve got me beat. I have about 20 black walnuts that I planted and nurtured in Wisconsin. I read that they found thousands canker in a Knoxville TN several years ago. About the only major North American nut tree left without a wipeout scenario looming is the pecan, which is my favorite nut tree. I tried an “ultra northern” pecan in Wisconsin that looked great for several years. Unfortunately, the scion was hardy but the rootstock wasn’t and all it took was one cold winter to kill it.

I really would hate to see the black walnut decimated. The wood is mostly out of favor except for gunstocks and small items but it’s such a nice tree. These canker diseases are almost impossibly to stop, even if you had the time and money to treat it.

[Eugene]

I have given up on planting nut tree seedlings. Several years ago I purchased hazelnut seedlings from the state forester. Planted the seedlings next to a deer food plot. Seedlings leafed out. Checking the food plot, saw the deer eating the seedlings.

I now just plant nuts. Easier to plant and if they die off or get eaten by rabbits and deer, not a financial loss.

Currently planting wild plum seeds and crab apple. Will have daughter send me several pounds of hazelnuts late summer.

Black walnuts. Very few nuts on the trees this year. 30 mph wind the other night and a lot of nuts on the ground. Don't think there will be enough nuts to harvest for personal use this year.

[lyle11]

In Wisconsin, you have to plant black walnuts that survive in the far north. I planted seedlings grown in pots in Ohio but the Wisconsin winter killed them. You would think the same tree, Juglans Nigra, would have the same hardiness regardless of where it originated but that’s not how it works and as they spread north they develop hardiness.

Since I didn’t have a source of nuts in Wisconsin, I bought bare root and potted seedings originating in N Minnesota and Canada. I had a manageable number of trees and built a cage with fence posts and chicken wire around each tree or the deer would have killed them.

The only damage I get now is occasionally upper branches are broke off by bears (probably cubs) climbing them. I see the claw marks on the trunk. My trees are finally tall enough, and the lower branches pruned, to drive under them up the the trunk with a Cub.

I wouldn’t be surprised with thousands canker to see the black walnut wiped out in 50 years other that smaller trees that eventually die, kind of like the chestnut.

[Eugene]

https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/TreePlanting/order.html

I order seedlings from the Missouri DNR. They may have changed the smallest bundle, is or was 25 seedling for a species.