Help with nut trees

[Frogs and Newts]

In our garden we have several old Walnut trees and lots of Hazelnut, when I was a child (long time ago) I used to pick Hazelnuts from the hedgerow of what is now my garden. But now we never get to pick any nuts at all, the Grey Squirrels seem to strip all the nuts even before they are ripe! My questions are am I misrembering the quantity of nut available years ago or are there now more Squirrels? And is there anything we can do?

[Paul mabbott]

Originally Posted by Frogs and Newts

......... But now we never get to pick any nuts at all, the Grey Squirrels seem to strip all the nuts even before they are ripe! My questions are am I misrembering the quantity of nut available years ago or are there now more Squirrels? And is there anything we can do?

I think you're right - we seldom sea a hazel nut approaching maturity in our local woods. The filberts in our garden are usually good but we only have two bushes and I take defensive action ....

So you can get rid of the squirrels, if possible; if not, you might save something by picking nuts early - the nuts are different when green (and smaller) but perfectly edible and I like them that way!

[artdemole]

Walnut trees are in great demand for furniture.Also for dashboards in posh cars.If you purchase trees these days they are are usually hybrids.Bare root stock of just over a meter in length will cost £40 a tree.

[Dorts]

When I was a lad, (many ears ago now), I would go out and collect Hazel nuts for Christmas. There were always plenty with very little sign of squirrel damage.
In the early 80's I planted a long avenue of Hazels for a customer, including 'Kent Cob', 'Filbert', 'Ennis' and others. They soon produced fruit and in the early years crops were good. But by the late 90's, although crops were still good, ripe nuts were becoming scarce due soley to Squirrels eating un-ripe fruit. Had I only have planted one or two trees there would probably have been no ripe fruit at all. So if you want to grow Hazels for nuts, grow as many as possible. You can cover the un-ripe nuts with a fabric such as bits of old nylon tights or muslin etc. which will deter Squirrels.

Re; Walnuts. They will start to produce fruit when very young, say in 5-10 years. Most likely to take un-ripe fruits are Rooks, they seem to love them. Squirrels are not interested until the green-husk has fallen.
Dorts.

[Brocakat]

Shoot those Grey Squirrels.
One mans pest is another mans cuddly toy.

(Stands well back & prepares to put full face helmet on.)

[fairplay]

Originally Posted by artdemole

Walnut trees are in great demand for furniture.Also for dashboards in posh cars.If you purchase trees these days they are are usually hybrids.Bare root stock of just over a meter in length will cost £40 a tree.

If you have one in your garden don't take it for granted you are going to make a fortune as you will loose most of the value in extraction costs and it's hardly worth it for just one tree.
I had to fell one last year - it had a nice straight trunk of 30 ft with a 1.5 ft base, and tapering at the top to 1 ft. Nobody would bring out transport for one tree so in the end we had to cut it up for firewood - yes criminal.

Neil.

[Dorts]

The only piece of a Walnut tree used for fine-veneers is the root-plate from about a foot below ground to the trunk about two feet above. It has to be a tree of least 50-60 years old, (ideally much older), to be of any use.
A very old tree with no rot to the heart-wood can be worth a lot of money, But of course you need to loose the whole tree just for that relatively small piece.
Dorts.

[Brocakat]

A more suitable and probably commoner wood & more likely to be able to be extracted from the 'leafy suburbs' for veneers is that of Laburnum. Not that I'm suggesting anyone should desecrate (IMO ) a nice garden for the sake of one tree.