Walnut (Nut trees)

'Simcoe' formerly 'Simcoe 8-2' was selected from a planting at the Simcoe Station Experimental Farm. It is a large Valentine heart shaped nut that freely drops out a mixture of whole and half nutmeats. It is an alternate bearer on a two-three year cycle with heavy and lighter crops. It is an early pollinator so is best matched with one of our 2 late pollinators. Nuts ripen 2 weeks after 'Imshu'.

source of information: grimo nut

'Campbell CW3' is a heavy producer of medium sized nuts. It is a more compact tree but still keeps up in production with larger more spreading trees. The nuts will crack out a mixture of halves and whole meats that drop out of the shell freely. It is an early pollinator, so it is best matched with one of our two late pollinators. Nuts ripen and begin dropping a week after 'Imshu'

source of information: Grimo nut

'Campbell CW1' is a heavy producer of medium sized nuts. The nuts will crack out a mixture of halves and whole meats that drop out of the shell freely. It is a late pollinator, so it is best matched with an early pollinator. Nuts ripen and begin dropping in the last week of September

source of information: Grimo Nut

'Imshu' is a heavy producer of medium sized nuts. With careful cracking, Imshu will crack out whole meats that drop out of the shell freely. It is a late pollinator, so it is best matched with an early pollinator. Nuts ripen and begin dropping in the last week of September.

source of information: Grimo nut nursery

This Black walnut is not selected and is recommended for timber. The nuts are small to medium size. Suitable for zone 3b

See the PDF fact sheet for spacing requirements when you want timber production or nuts production.

This specie is a hybrid between butternut and heartnut but the nuts look more like the butternut with a fairly good cracking quality.

This is a full butternut canker resistant tree and ideal for climatic zone 4a.

Buartnut Fioka hybrid walnut, Juglans cinera x Juglans ailantifolia var. cordiformis, 4b

This walnut is a cross between butternut and Japanese walnut. It is resistant to butternut canker. The seedlings available are derived from trees with very interesting genetics and located in Mauricie or Centre-du-Québec in 4b. The nut of this tree cracks very well, breaking into two parts, cleaning well and releasing beautiful pieces of kernel. The interior morphology of the nut is more Japanese walnut-like. Along with black walnut, it's the ideal tree for planting in walnut orchards in our latitudes, and for its resistance to disease. The annual harvest will be abundant and reliable.

Butternut is a deciduous tree growing to 20 meters (66 ft) tall, rarely 40 meters (130 ft). Butternut is a moderate-growing specie, and rarely lives longer than 75 years. It has a 40–80 cm stem diameter, with light gray bark. The leaves are pinnate, 40–70 cm long, with 11–17 leaflets, each leaflet 5–10 cm long and 3–5 cm broad. The whole leaf is downy-pubescent, and a somewhat brighter, yellower green than many other tree leaves.The native butternut, also known as white walnut, is the hardiest member of the walnut family. It is found throughout Southern Quebec and Ontario. Even though it has similar timber qualities to the black walnut, it is prized also as a carving wood.

When the green husk is removed, it reveals an oval dark brown shell with deep longitudinal ridges. The kernel is often caught in the shell cavities making the meat difficult to remove. Grafted cultivars have been selected for cracking quality. The butternut is very susceptible to the fungus disease Sirococcus claviginenti-juglandacearum, that causes cankers and open oozing wounds in the trunk, eventually killing the tree. It is estimated that over 90% of the trees in North America are infected. It is believed that the disease was introduced from offshore. The tree has been placed on the endangered list. It is believed that some trees are resistant to this disease. It may be possible to save this species through breeding.

The butternut leafs out and blooms at about the same time as heartnut, Persian walnut and Manchurian walnut. As a result it crosses readily with them. Along with hybrid vigor, low fertility and disease resistance, the crosses often exhibit the hardiness of the butternut and unfortunately the thick shell and poor cracking quality of the parents. Very few good hybrids have been identified. Only heartnut so far has made a noteworthy cross. They are termed buartnuts, the "bu" from butternut and the "artnut" from heartnut. Mitchell, from Scotland, Ontario is the best buartnut found to date. It is a productive tree having a nut shaped like a heartnut with the rough shell and hardiness of the butternut. This area in breeding has largely been neglected. It should be possible to extend the range of the heartnut through breeding with the butternut and existing buartnuts like the Mitchell.

Our Butternut seedlings come from 2 big trees (almost 3 feet in diameter) with no trace of Canker. We think that the parents tree may carry a very good resistance of the canker. We decided to produce our Butternut from those 2 parents. We have thousands of them available.

The Persian walnut is the most popular walnut, grown in many parts of the world for nut production. It was used as a source of food on the ancient trade routes across Asia and then became established in China in the east and Europe in the west. From Europe, it spreaded west to North and South America as well as Australia as the "New World" was unfolded..

It is most commonly called "English" walnut, but it is also known by other names such as "Carpathian" walnut, and "California" walnut. The Carpathian walnut was introduced in Ontario in the mid 30's by Rev. Paul Crath. Convinced that the Persian walnut from the Carpathian Mountain region of his native Poland was hardy enough for Ontario conditions, he returned to Poland on several occasions and brought back several tons of "Carpathian" walnuts which were widely distributed over eastern North America. These trees have been successful as yard trees everywhere in zone 6 in Ontario, but only moderately successful as commercial trees. Persian introductions from Germany and Southern Russia have also met with the same success, while the Persians growth in California have proven to be less hardy and unsuited to our climate and shorter season.

The walnuts grown in Canada can stand -30 C and colder during the middle of winter, but a cold spell of -20 C in March could cause serious dieback. Late spring frosts in April or early May of -3 C could cause tip dieback and seriously reduce the crop which forms inside the tip buds. Due to the fickle nature of the tree, production can be variable.

Carpathian walnut has a rounded, spreading crown, and often reaches 40 to 60 feet in height. It is deeprooted
(nine to 12 feet) and develops strong tap-roots if restrictive layers are not present in soils. Carpathian walnut is extremely intolerant of soil flooding.

We recommand to grow this tree in a hardiness zone of 5a if protected but 5b to 6 is better for this specie.

source: Society of Ontario Nut Growers

The heartnut is native of Japan that is well suited to the southeastern part of Canada region (zone 4b to 6), a region similar to its native regions in Japan. The nut is named after the shape of the nut. It is considered a seed sport of the Japanese walnut and not a different species. The Japanese walnut is an oval nut, unlike the heart shaped form of the heartnut. It is a deciduous tree growing to 20 m tall, rarely 30 m, and 40–80 cm stem diameter, with light grey bark. The leaves are pinnate, 50–90 cm long, with 11-17 leaflets, each leaflet 7–16 cm long and 3–5 cm broad.

Though the heartnut tree will grow easely in colder regions than zone 6, it can be affected by late frosts. Since the tree is terminal bearing, the nut flowers are housed in the tip buds of the trees. These buds are the first to open in the spring and are sensitive to cold spells in April and May. Frost injured flowers will abort and so reduce the crop. We only recommend commercial orchards for zone 5.

Unlike the closely related and very similar North American Butternut, Japanese Walnut is resistant to the canker disease caused by the fungus Sirococcus clavigignenti-juglandacearum. This has led to its being planted as a replacement for Butternuts in North America. The two species hybridise readily; the resulting hybrid Juglans x bixbyi (otherwise known as J. cinera x ailantifolia or 'Buartnut') is also resistant to canker and is likewise planted as a replacement for Butternuts. Japanese Walnut is distinguished from Butternut by its larger leaves and round (not oval) nuts.

The heartnut tree is best suited for well drained fertile sand and clay loam soils with a pH of 6 to 7. They are suited for soils where black walnut and butternut grow wild. They are vigorous trees, growing 50 to 100 cm or more in a year reaching a height of 15 m and a spread of 20 to 30 m. The large lush compound leaves are largely unaffected by most insect pests. Grafted trees will begin to bear in 1-3 years, with commercial production expected in 6-8 years. The trees are long lived with annual production estimated at 1-3 tons per acre.

The Dooley walnut is a hybrid between Black walnut and English walnut (carpathian walnut). Hardier than the Carpathian walnut, Juglans regia. The nuts closely resemble to the english walnut but are smaller. We think that this specie may be more profitable for those who want carpathian walnut in a colder region.

Suitable for zone 5a.

The Manchurian walnut, is a deciduous tree of the genus Juglans native to the Eastern Asiatic Region (China, Russian Far East, North Korea and South Korea). It grows to about 25 m.

The leaves are alternate, 40–90 cm long, odd-pinnate, with 7–19 leaflets, 6–17 cm long and 2–7.5 cm broad . The male flowers are in drooping catkins 9–40 cm long, the wind-pollinated female flowers (April–May) are terminal, in spikes of 4 to 10, ripening in August–October into nuts, 3-7.5 × 3–5 cm, with densely glandular pubescent green husk and very thick shell.

The tree is exceptionally hardy (down to at least -45°C), has a relatively short vegetation period compared to other walnuts, grows rapidly and is cultivated as an ornamental in colder temperate regions all over the Northern Hemisphere. (For example, it has been found to grow satisfactorily in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada zone 2b. The kernels of the nuts are edible, but small and difficult to extract. The timber is in use, but less valuable than that of English walnut or black walnut.

Zone 4b

The Northern pecan tree may reach 70 to 100 feet in height and 40 to 80 feet in width. It has a good growing rate the first years. As a member of the Hickory family, the wood is very good for building fine furnitures or for general construction, however it is not as hard as hickory.

The northern pecan and the southern pecan are very different from each other in hardiness, nut size, and length of season required to ripen. The northern pecans are suited for the growing conditions in Ontario and maybe in extreme southern Quebec since they are from the northern tip of the growing range of the pecan. A distribution map of the native range covers much of the Mississippi Valley, with a finger of distribution extending northward along the Mississippi River into Iowa. It is in this area where the hardiest short season pecans are found.

These pecans are small, about the size of a native shagbark hickory or large hazelnut, but they have the fine flavor for which pecan is known. Selections that were the earliest to ripen, have been brought back in the 1980's from Green Island, Iowa by John Gordon, a former nut tree explorer.

Hardy to zone 4b, they resist very well to cold temperatures such -25°C and below in winter.

A cross of Butternut and Heartnut, this handsome, medium-size shade tree produces abundant crops of tasty nuts. Buartnuts combine the hardiness and delicious flavor of Butternut with the high yields and easy to crack shell of the Heartnut. The Mitchell Buartnut is a medium size nut, heartnut shaped shell, fairly good cracking, productive and an early pollinator.

Bearing Age:7-8 years after planting a small seedling.

Size at Maturity: 25 - 30 ft. in height and can spread to 25 ft.

Seedlings from large nuts

The black walnut is one of the most successful edible nut trees in southern canada. It is well adapted to our winter cold, and unlike Persian walnuts, avoids late spring frosts by delaying leafing in the spring. As a result it is suited to most of Southern Quebec and Ontario. A strain of black walnut has even adapted itself to the rigors of the dry fertile prairies (zone 3) of Manitoba. More limiting than climate is the soil type and drainage conditions. Black walnut succeeds well beyond its native range, wherever pH readings are between 6 and 7. Eroded limestone soils ranging from sand to clay are ideal. Deep well-drained soils are important to proper development and growth. The black walnut is a large deciduous tree reaching heights of 30–40 m (98–131 ft). Under forest competition, it develops a tall, clear trunk; the open-grown form has a short trunk and broad crown.

Even though the black walnut is well established in Ontario and we see more plantation in southern Quebec, the crop of delicious nuts it produces has not been utilized except by a few persistent foragers. The early pioneers highly valued the rich-tasting nuts and put away many sacks of them each year. Each farmstead had its orchard of fruit and nut trees to provide it with its source of winter food. Most of them all disappeared when easier cracking Persian walnuts became common in the grocery stores. With modern tree shakers, harvesters, nut hullers, crackers and sorting machines being available, it is possible to profit from the nut crop again. The industry is alive and well in Stockton, Missouri where millions of pounds of black walnuts are processed each year. The total kernel crop is marketed domestically. Almost none is left over for export.

See the nutritional facts in the PDF above

Suitable for zone 4a.