Walnut: Ames Seedling - Potted

Persian walnut AKA English walnut (Juglans regia). This is a seedling of ‘Ames’ which was bred by Iowa State University and has been performing well at Grimo Nut Nursery in Niagra.  It has large oval nuts that crack easily and is productive, hardy and drought tolerent with good walnut blight resistance.

Walnuts are vigorous, hardy, productive trees when planted in the right location. Walnuts can grow more than 24” each year, and seedlings will yield nuts 4-8 years after planting. They eventually produce abundant crops of nutritious nuts. Partially self-fertile, but we recommend at least two trees to ensure the best crop.

Planting: Walnuts prefer deep, loamy, well-drained soil with pH 5 to 8. They do well on north- and east-facing slopes, and they like to be protected from high wind and frost. They will do best in full sun (at least six hours) but can tolerate partial shade (expect slower growth and reduction in yield). Avoid excessively gravelly or sandy soils (chestnuts or pinenuts would be better suited). Walnuts need ample moisture but they won’t tolerate long periods of standing water. 

Recommended orchard spacing is ~25'-30' between the centre of each tree, but planting more densely (as close as 7-10' apart) helps to provide adequate pollination when trees are younger, and enables eventual selection of the most vigorous, productive trees.

Why seedlings? Growing seedlings from productive, vigorous parents helps maintain diversity (each seed is a new variety) while drawing on some of the best walnut genetics in North America. In other words, by planting and growing out these trees, you are participating in the breeding new, regionally-adapted walnut varieties! The parents of these seedlings were selected for producing hardy, vigorous, productive, high-quality nuts. We recommend planting several of these trees closer together and selecting your final tree once they've produced their first nuts (4-8 years) so that you can select the most productive trees with the highest-quality nuts.

Why potted? If you won't be planting your trees right away and you don't feel sure about storing bare root trees then you want potted trees.  Potted trees will allow you more flexibility with transplanting timelines and late spring installations, however, they are more expensive to produce and to ship.

Our nuts are grown in tree pots, which are designed with a large opening at the bottom to air prune the root. When the taproot reaches the bottom, instead of circling around, the opening enables the root to gently 'self-prune' itself, stimulating the growth of feeder roots further up.