Juglans nigra

Have any of you folks started them from seed and if so could you please explain to me the best way to do it. I have read so many different things on different sites and finally decided I would post and ask you pros.

I was reading where they are poisonous to other plants around them, so I am wondering do I need to start my seeds in containers and put them in an area seperate from othe r plants and trees and on some sort of tarp or something?

I heard your supposed to soak them too and that either the ones that float are the good ones or is it the bad ones. Can't remember. Got sometimers goign on here with my brain today. If I soak them doesn't the toxin come off in the water and if so how do I get rid of it where it won't hurt the enviroment?

Also, finally got me some fresh Euonymus americanus and need to know the best way to germinate them too please if ya don't mind. Three years I been wantign some of them seeds and the other day just happened to walk by a bush throwing its seed out. Ya can bet I grabbed me some. : )

Looking at all these nuts singing the mounds commercial song. LOL

Yes, I have germinated them from seed.

No, they won't hurt the environment but you would need to be more selective in chosing species to plant in the area in which you intend to grow them.

Here is a post I made a while ago that you might find to be a help to you-

Hey E, did you get the pignuts I sent you?

Yes sugah dumplin. They were on my front door step this evening. I don't normally go in that door and one of my kids spotted your box and I was jumping for joy! My mailman is normally really great about leaving packages where I know to look for them so I don't know how they ended up at that door. There must have been a substitute mailman or something.

Say dear, I have your mailing address. Which Mimosa t-shirt iron on did you want? The private stock t or one of the other designs? My husband chose the private stock iron on.

Hey starlight, forgot to add that for Euonymus americanus you will want to remove the pulp then basically follow any of the directions in the thread I posted a link to as you would for the Black Walnut. That's a pretty easy plant to germinate from seed. Pretty easy to propagate from cuttings too but take them in early summer from new growth. Sometime in mid June should be fine.

I don't recall the choices. I think I wanted the one that said:

"Its not nice to fool EvilAlbisia"

Wasn't there one like that? Or was that the copywright joke?
Hmmm....

Starlight 153 I have found walnuts very easy to germinate. Put the walnuts where they can be kept cool and damp, like the north side of a building.Cover them with leaves or straw and wet them down. protect them from squirrels. No need to hull them, just keep them covered and wet. They will be sprouting and ready to plant next spring. When you plant them, again protect them from squirrels I have used a box covered with hardware clorth to keep squirrels at bay. Check regularly to see they stay wet and the rodents haven't found a way to get to them

Drat! I thought it was, And it should be!!!!!
Sooooooooo, what aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeee the choices?

Did you get that transfer paper I told you about?

I think walnuts germinate really easily--at my old house the squirrels would plant them for me in my flower pots and they sprouted just fine with no help from me!

Oh yes! Squirrels are great planters. I go round and round and round with them every year. I have several huge mature Hicories in my yard and they bear thousands of nuts each year and the darn squirrels love to take them and besides burying them every wheres in my flowers beds and yard they dig up my containers to plant their nuts in.

I am outside now trying to get some sort of protection built over my plants to keep them out of them. grrrrrrrrrrrrr

There are a few peopel whocome every year and collect up soem of the Hickory nuts to bake with. Last year the one ladt was having fits, cuz she gathered bagfuls of the nuts and spent a week cracking and cleanign them which is no easy feat digging the meat out. She had all her little baggie s nice and neat to bag with and one day she went to the store and came back to find her hubby couldn't wait for her to bake cookies and cakes. He ate all the nut meat she worked so hard for himself. She came back to get some more and was gonna make him to all the shelling this time.

If anybody needs or wants any Hickory nuts just holler, I just rake and burn them. I have about 3 or 4 variaties here. Your welcome to however many you'd like.

Come to think of it, I've got an oak coming up in the kid's sandbox and one coming up in my bog compliments of squirrels. I need to transplant those. I use stakes and chicken wire around areas that I don't want the squirrels to get into.

Patrick, I'll pick for you. And yes, I bought the transfer paper you told me to get.

Hi Starlight, just a few comments to add because lots has already been covered. J. nigra make a big taproot in a hurry, so plant the nut in the place you want it, and not near parking areas, buildings or paths. I so enjoy the shade the one here gives, but as soon as this is posted the yearly chore of raking up the nuts begins. Walking in that area is dangerous because the golf-ball sized nuts inside the baseball-sized black-staining fleshy hull carpeting the ground will roll your ankle. If you take both ends of the coffee can off and sink it down to within about 2 inches of the ground (nut is buried 2in/5cm down), it will afford protection for the nut to sprout. The can will disintegrate before it girdles the tree.

Avoid species in the Roseae family (apples, roses etc) for planting in the vicinity of J. nigra. Rhodedendrons also seem to fare poorly. One thing to remember is that these trees get huge and have a fibrous mat of roots that hog all the water and nutrients for a long way around the trunk. Many plants that would perish without care will flourish if provided with water for several years until established. One notable exception to the no-Rosaceae rule for me are the Prunus species (plums, cherries and relatives). These trees seem to be completely unaffected by any toxins from the walnut. Campsis radicans also is not scared off by any Juglans acid flavorings in the soil, but need to be watered for a few years until their own invasive roots get going.

Pines are also supposed to be affected, so if you have pines you want to keep I would plant the walnuts a distance away.

Thank you for the additional information. The area I was goign to get them started in has a Dogwood and a cherry of somesorts in it and the area around it is huge pines that I gather the needles from for mulch. So I especially glad about the info.

That's a neat idea using coffee cans. I am a coffee junkie so now I wil have even more of an excuse to drink my tons of the stuff a day. : )