Hickory (Nut trees)

Carya cordiformis, the Bitternut Hickory,  is a large pecan hickory. It is the shortest lived of the hickories, living to about 200 years. It is a large deciduous tree, growing up to 35 meters tall (exceptionally to 47 m), with a trunk up to 1 m diameter. The leaves are 15-30 cm long, pinnate, with 7-11 leaflets, each leaflet lanceolate, 7-13 cm long, with the apical leaflets the largest but only slightly so. It is closely related to the Pecan, sharing similar leaf shape and being classified in the same section of the genus Carya sect. Apocarya, but unlike the Pecan, it does not have edible nuts. It is most readily distinguished from the Pecan by the smaller number of leaflets, with many leaves having only 7 leaflets (rarely fewer than 9, and often 11-13, in the Pecan). Bitternut hickory grows in moist mountain valleys along streambanks and in swamps. Although it is usually found on wet bottom lands, it grows on dry sites and also grows well on poor soils low in nutrients.

Bitternut is used for lumber and pulpwood. This is also a good tree for increasing the value of your woodlot like the oaks do. Because bitternut hickory wood is hard and durable, it is used for furniture, paneling, dowels, tool handles and ladders. Like other hickories, the wood is used for smoking meat, and by Native Americans for making bows. Bitternut hickory seeds and its bark are eaten by wildlife.

Carya tomentosa, (Mockernut hickory, mockernut, white hickory,  is a tree in the Juglandaceae or Walnut family. The most abundant of the hickories, common in the eastern half of the US, it is long lived, sometimes reaching the age of 500 years. A straight-growing hickory, a high percentage of its wood is used for products where strength, hardness, and flexibility are needed. The wood makes an excellent fuelwood, as well. The specie's name comes from the Latin word tomentum, meaning "covered with dense short hairs," referring to the underside of the leaves which help identify the specie. Also called the White Hickory due to the light color of the wood, the tree's common name of "Mockernut" comes from the large, thick-shelled fruit with very small kernels of meat inside.  A medium sized to large tree capable of reaching over 25 m or 100 feet tall with a straight stem and a rounded crown. Suitable for zone 5a.

A Hican is a cross or hybrid between Hickory and northern Pecan. The trees look and grow mostly the same as pecan trees but are more cold tolerant, like Hickory. Hicans have a distinct flavor which might be described as 80% Hickory and 20% pecan, but they look similar to a medium size pecan but with the shell a little bit thicker. The nuts are rare and highly prized. The wood, like both of its parents, is valuable and useful for smoking meats or for wood-working. Hican trees pollinate with both pecan trees and hickory trees.

Suitable for zone 4b and over. We have seen that they are very tolerant to -30°C in winter. In southern Quebec they resist to our cold winter.

Carya glabra, the pignut hickory, is a common, but not abundant species of hickory in the oak-hickory forest association in the Eastern United States and Canada. Other common names are pignut, sweet pignut, coast pignut hickory, smoothbark hickory, swamp hickory, and broom hickory. The pear-shaped nut ripens in September and October and is an important part of the diet of many wild animals. The wood is used for a variety of products, including fuel for home heating. This tree reach 15 to 24 m or 60-80 feet tall, consisting of a long straight trunk, ascending to spreading branches, and an oblongoid crown. Trunk bark is gray to gray-brown and somewhat rough, consisting of elongated ridges with flattened tops and shallow furrows. The bark of branches is more smooth and gray, while young twigs are brown and glabrous. Smaller branches and twigs are often crooked. Alternate compound leaves about 8-12" long develop along the twigs; they are odd-pinnate with 5 leaflets, and rarely with 7 leaflets

Pignut Hickory is monoecious with male (staminate) and female (pistillate) florets on the same tree. The female florets develop at the tips of young shoots in short spikes of 2-5. Each female floret is very small (1/8" long or less) and inconspicuous, consisting of a green pistil and a few lanceolate bracts. Numerous male florets develop on drooping catkins about 2-4" long; the catkins are greenish yellow and narrowly cylindrical in shape. The catkins are arranged in bunches of 3 from short spurs near the tips of young twigs. Each male floret is very small (1/8" long or less), consisting of a calyx with several stamens that is partially covered by a bract with 3 lobes. The blooming period occurs from mid- to late spring for about 2 weeks. The florets are wind-pollinated. During the summer, fertile female florets develop into fruits (nuts with thin husks). Individual fruits are about 1" long and ¾" across and globoid-ovoid in shape. The husks are smooth and hairless across the surface; they are initially green, but later turn brown. At maturity, each husk partially divides into 4 segments to release its nut. The tan shell of the nut is ovoid and slightly flattened in shape; the meat of the nut varies from bitter to sweet. The root system has a long taproot and less well-developed lateral roots. This tree prefers full or partial sunlight and mesic to dry conditions. It adapts to various kinds of soil, including those containing loam, clay-loam, sandy loam, or rocky material. Hardy to zone 5a.

Zone 4b

Sweet pignut hickory is a fairly uncommon but widespread hickory native to eastern North America. It is typically found growing in dry, well drained sandy upland ridges and sloped woodlands from southern Ontario, Canada, and in the United States east to New Hampshire, south to northern Florida west to eastern Texas and north-west to Nebraska.This species was formerly treated as a variety or northern ecotype of the pignut hickory C. glabra, described as Carya glabra var. odorata. This discrepancy has not yet been completely resolved, and some sources and authors still consider red hickory as a variety or synonym of pignut hickory. However both trees are quite morphologically distinct. The red hickory is generally encountered as a medium-sized tree, capable of growing to 30 m (100 ft) in height. The single trunk is straight

A remakable specie indigenous to North America, shagbark hickory trees are widespread in the Eastern U.S. and in southern ontario and very sporadic in southern Quebec in zones 4 to 8. Shagbark hickory trees are related to the pecan, another nut tree indigenous to North America. Although they can reach a height of 130 feet or 30 m in some portions of their range, shagbark hickory trees often reach only about half that size. They grow in full to partial sun. The Shagbark Hickory tree has an ashy gray bark similar to birch trees except its bark separates into long strips, which give the trunk it's shaggy look.

The Shagbark Hickories branches can spread to 25 feet, the lower branches somewhat droop while the upper branches are upright. The branches in the middle are just about horizontal. The wood of this tree is strong and tough. The Shagbark has both male and female flowers.

The nuts are edible with an excellent flavor, and are a popular food among people and squirrels alike. They are unsuitable for commercial or orchard production due to the long time it takes for a tree to produce sizable crops and unpredictable output from year to year. Shagbark hickories can grow to enormous sizes but are unreliable bearers. The nuts can be used as a substitute for the pecan in colder climates and have nearly the same culinary function.

C. ovata begins producing seeds at about 10 years of age, but large quantities are not produced until 40 years and will continue for at least 100. Nut production is erratic, with good crops every 3 to 5 years, in between which few or none appear and the entire crop may be lost to animal predation.

Hickory has traditionally been very popular as a fuelwood and as a charcoal-producing wood. The general low percentage of hickory in the overstory of many privately owned woodlots is due in part to selective cutting of the hickory for fuelwood. Hickory fuelwood has a high heat value, burns evenly, and produces long-lasting steady heat; the charcoal gives food a hickory-smoked flavor.

The wood of the true hickories is known for its strength, and no commercial species of wood is equal to it in combined strength, toughness, hardness, and stiffness.

The tree is hardy to zone 3b.

Ask us for a quote when large quantity is desired.

The shellbark hickory or big shagbark hickory is sometimes called Kingnut Hickory, as it is sometimes called as another hickory specie that is native to the mildest regions of Ontario and widespread in eastern USA. Attesting to some of its characteristics. It is a slow-growing, long-lived tree, hard to transplant because of its long taproot. reaching an height of 60 to 80 feet and spreading to 40 to 60 feet.

Shellbark hickory grows best on deep, fertile, moist soils, most typical of the order Alfisols. It does not thrive in heavy clay soils, but grows well on heavy loams or silt loams. Shellbark hickory requires moister situations than do pignut, mockernut, or shagbark hickories (Carya glabra, C. alba, or C. ovata), although it is sometimes found on dry, sandy soils. Specific nutrient requirements are not known, but generally the hickories grow best on neutral or slightly alkaline soils.

The nuts, largest of all hickory nuts, are sweet and edible but have a thick shell. The wood is hard, heavy, strong, and very flexible, making it a favored wood for tool handles. It has a nut that ranges from shagbark size to a large egg size. Its kernel can match the Persian walnut in size. The shell is generally thicker than a shagbark, requiring a good nutcracker or vise to break through it to get at the nut meat inside. Shellbark hickory nuts have internal shell ridges like the shagbark that make kernel removal difficult. In other respects, the shellbark is similar to the shagbark. Generally, the shellbark hickory needs the long hot summers found further south to ripen the nuts.

Minimum for canadien zone 4b.