Experience In Growing Walnut Crops In The Northern And Eastern Regions

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Received a message from Evgeny Vasin, a gardener from Tula. He's writing:

Valery Konstantinovich! Thank you for your articles. They are very interesting and very helpful. I agree with your approach to extreme gardening! They are close to me. In much the same way, I work with nut crops. But for now, I'm doing sexual hybridization. In my work, it is not I who choose pairs for crossing, but nature itself, as it should be. By the standards of “breeders”, this is spontaneous selection, ie. not controlled by a person, but in my opinion - purposeful, since the pairs are matched almost perfectly.

Your apricots are growing with me. Some of the seedlings died - heat, drought, the sowing site was unsuccessful, but, alas, there was no better one. But whatever survives to winter will be worthwhile material.

I am always happy with unfavorable years, you can get very valuable seed material.

Now I have already the third generation of hybrids of walnut with Manchurian walnut, which have high winter hardiness. They withstood -34 … -36 ° С without damage, there was no lower temperature, but, I think, they will withstand up to -40 ° С.

They are fast-growing, enter fruiting in the third year, have a high percentage of lateral fruiting - 70-100% of lateral shoots bear fruit.

Photo № 1. The harvest is ripening on young nuts

With some of your conclusions, I do not really agree - do not water, slush in the second year. For a nut, in new climatic and soil conditions, this does not always "pass". In places where there is little rainfall, it will be very difficult for a nut in the first years of life, since this culture is moisture-loving. I think that we must proceed from the peculiarities of the culture grown, the climatic characteristics of the region where it is grown. My observations of walnuts in unconventional conditions showed that the lack of agricultural technology in this crop and a decrease in watering during the growing season lead the plant to run wild. Frost resistance may be higher, but not necessarily, but the quality of the core will definitely be worse. Whatever one may say, the nut is a moisture-loving culture. But, by and large, your vision is correct.

Photo No. 2. Nuts develop normally

I would like to add about watering and sodding. The tinning of gardens is not a new technique. In the distant Soviet times, and perhaps much earlier, this method was used in gardening. And the quality of the fruit was better than when cultivating row spacings. But as far as I remember, the gardens were then planted in the fifth or seventh year after planting, when the trees gained strength and began to bear fruit. And before that, they used a steam treatment system.

As for my nuts, I can say the following. The first 3-5 years, cultivation is needed for the root system to gain strength, and the nut gives good growth (50-100 cm per year). Then you do not need to water (the exception is dry years, otherwise the fruits will be defective). Regarding podzimnyh watering (you are their opponent), the question is interesting. Need to check. Before that, I tried to water, if possible. But this year I noticed that on the experimental field, where I have not been watering special winter watering since the garden was laid, the plants survived this "dry" winter and spring better. Temperature drops were strong - from + 13 ° С to -18 ° С. Winter with little snow, dry spring with frost in the morning until early May. The soil is dry and frozen. Some heat-loving and southern crops dried up and froze under these natural influences, for example, ginkgo biloba, some forms of pecans. Walnut, hybrids, and black walnut wintered without damage. Some forms of pecans had slight freezing. I suppose, the genetic characteristics of these forms and species affected. Later, during hot and dry May, cool and slightly humid June, hot and dry July and the first half of August, some pecans, ginkgo biloba, and several plants of other types of nuts dried up and died. The irrigation regime this year (2015) was very limited due to technical reasons, and the drought was "steeper" than the summer of 2010, although the maximum temperatures were below that year. In hot and dry July and the first half of August, some pecans, ginkgo biloba, and several plants of other types of nuts dried up and died. The irrigation regime this year (2015) was very limited due to technical reasons, and the drought was "steeper" than the summer of 2010, although the maximum temperatures were below that year. In hot and dry July and the first half of August, some pecans, ginkgo biloba, and several plants of other types of nuts dried up and died. The irrigation regime this year (2015) was very limited due to technical reasons, and the drought was "steeper" than the summer of 2010, although the maximum temperatures were below that year.

The result (so far intermediate). Many ovaries (with abundant flowering) on three-five-year-old nuts in the young garden crumbled - there was not enough strength to keep them. But those that remain hold on to the end.

So far, I keep the garden like this: I cultivate the aisles with a tractor, and the near-trunk strips are in turf (see photo 3, 4). I want to stop cultivation in a couple of years. I will mow the aisles, and cultivate the near-trunk strips. But I'll also think about whether it is worth doing.

Photo No. 3. I cultivate the row spacings with a tractor, and the near-trunk strips are in turf

Photo No. 4. The near-trunk strip is sod

In the nursery I carry out everything as it should be - cultivation, watering as needed (see photo). This year the need was great.

Photo № 5. Young walnut crops in the nursery

The agricultural technique that I adhere to is the cultivation of row spacing for the first 3-5 years, until the plants come into force, the soil content in the row is sodding or tinning, the grass is mown. I water it regularly in the first years, depending on the condition of the soil. I reduce watering with the age of plants. The roots get water on their own. I make an exception in dry years in summer - the nut is still a moisture-loving breed. Without enough moisture, the nuts will be empty and thick-shelled. Light, shallow rains are not watering. If the rains are good, albeit rare, then you don't have to water it yourself. And the nuts grow (photo 6).

Photo No. 6

Best regards, Evgeny Vasin - mailto: [email protected]

V. K. Zhelezov's comment:

1. After such interesting letters, I am like a heavy domestic goose flapping its wings uselessly when a flock of wild geese flies over it.

But your most interesting letter with observations and conclusions is of value to all of us.

2. There was a case when I came to the village of Zmeevka, in the Kherson region of Ukraine, 15 years later and was amazed. There was one wide street with asphalt in the middle. I was also surprised at such extravagance in relation to the land.

And I see an amazing thing: on both sides of the road, in three rows (6 rows in total), kilometer-long plantings of walnuts, already bearing fruit. And the owner of each tree is the villager who lives opposite. Such is the entrepreneurial spirit of the post-Soviet village.

3. Just one comment on your letter. I didn’t urge anyone to "water" the trees. I am simply made by ill-wishers such a narrow-minded extreme. But in fact (in the educational disks you will see) I personally do not water the plants (except for young people, in a drought). Yes, it's cruel, but that's what selection is for.

And to everyone else I recommend mandatory, but very dosed, regular, scattered watering from above (sprinkling), repeating this technique after God. The rest of the methods I consider far-fetched and sucked out of the finger - if only the authors had something to fill the pages of articles.

4. I sell training discs, cuttings and seeds, and I also sell seeds.

Valery Zhelezov

Address: 665602, rep. Khakassia, Sayanogorsk, 10 md., D. 2-A, apt. 7. Tel. 8 (39042) 2-63-76, 8-960-776-86-72

e-mail: [email protected],

In the photo: apricots in the garden of Valery Konstantinovich Zhelezov