Walnut trees

[Bowsnbucks]

For those who want to plant things for deer habitat / attraction - walnut trees may not be the best idea. Walnut tree roots give off a defensive hormone called juglone that prevents other plants from growing near the walnut trees. It's a natural protection (for the walnut trees) to kill off any competition and allow the walnut trees to thrive. Walnut trees around my home area are pretty much a monoculture with only crappy grass growing near them. No other trees or shrubs are present near them. We squashed a suggestion of planting walnut trees at our hunting camp so we can get multiple species of trees and shrubs growing !!!

If you want to attract squirrels - walnuts are good for that. FWIW.

 

[Jerry]

I hear this all the time but have tons of walnut on one of my places since it is primarily creek bottom ground. I see sycamore, cottonwood, hickory, honey locust, Osage, oaks, maples, and elms all growing with my walnuts. I have alot of elderberry, dogwood, and some spice bush under it too. Of course it doesn't even phase stinging nettle. But I don't are for it as a "deer" tree. They lack cover to hunt out of and I see some but not much browse on young ones. I would want some for diversity but not much. They will outgrow oaks and over shade them so I plant them sparingly. Great lumber tree of course though.

 

[Teeder]

I don't plant it for deer, but I do have a couple acre area that I'm planting for timber (for someone younger than me). As my brother puts it, if the squirrels eat them, then maybe it leaves food for deer somewhere else. You can look up plants that are compatible with walnut.
I've read that swamp chestnut oak suppresses competition also.

 

[b116757]

I have lots of walnuts also on my place useless for deer but great for squirrels and your checkbook they can easily pay for other habitat improvements.

 

[Mortenson]

When I did my shrub planting in 2015 I made notes that my flowering dogwood, roughleaf dogwood, wild plum, ninebark, gray dogwood, and spicebush were all juglone tolerant. False indigo was juglone intolerant. Gray dogwood and spicebush also are shade tolerant. The only one of those that has thrived at my place is the wild plum.

 

[H20fwler]

I've got a couple spots where I cut a few 30'-40' walnuts seven or eight years ago and I still cannot get conifers/fruit trees/chestnuts to grow within thirty or more yards of the stumps. I think it depends on soil type and rainfall how fast the juglone leaches away.

In our woods we have walnuts...some really big and they grow right along with the oaks/hickories. The walnuts don't have a lot of value to me except shade, squirrel food and firewood. I don't plan on selling timber anytime soon...would much rather have oaks instead of walnuts in the woods.
If any are around where I don't want them they are about as invasive as locust trees popping up everywhere.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I had my place logged a couple months ago and talked to the logger for a while about walnut prices. He just finished up a logging job for a farmer in southern MN on a small 5 acre woodlot behind his house. The farmer made $75k logging that 5 acres because of the walnuts in it. That would be quite a pleasant surprise. I'm going to plant a few walnuts in my woods for some variety, but I agree they aren't the best for deer hunting.

 

[Angus 1895]

As I understand black walnuts level of jugulone is much more toxic than English or butternut

 

[buckdeer1]

I know 20 years ago I didn't get anywhere close to that for 75 walnuts.I wouldn't plant right next to stump but if you open up the canopy you should be able to plant oaks in the tops.If you are planting walnuts I didn't have very good luck using tubes but you will need to protect them from being rubbed.I had many walnuts that grew wild on my place and over the last several years they have been like cottonwoods and not many new growth

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I took the advice of local foresters and we don't plant walnuts. If some of you gents have other plants growing nearby, that's good. In my home region of Pa. we have a lot of walnut trees growing naturally along country roads. They're mostly growing with no understory brush or young trees - only scraggly-looking grass or weeds. Even those growing in old pastures have nothing growing near them. Maybe as H20 said - it might depend on soil type?

Our state agency (DCNR) foresters near camp advised not planting walnuts in our habitat renewal plans after our recent logging. (A couple camp members wanted to plant a few.) We're following that advice, based on their explanations. No deer, turkey, and grouse benefits vs. risk to other plants we want. There are no walnuts anywhere near our camp growing naturally in the wild, so maybe there's a reason? Closest ones to camp are about 10 miles away in bottomland - we're in higher mountains.

 

[b116757]

Missouri is in the hart of native Walnuts range and my guess is the native vegetation in this area has evolved to counter the effects of walnut much more so than area’s of the country that walnut didn’t evolve. Just my thoughts no evidence

 

[Angus 1895]

I read on the internet about cultivating English walnuts. I think a lot of what was said could be applied to most tree cultivation.