How do I plant nuts?

I've spent too much money buying nut trees for $20-30 dollars each and watching them die. Either it is time to give up, or try planting nuts -- has anybody had any success with this? Any tips?

Do I soak them for some length of time first, then plant, or just stick them in pots of potting soil, or a mixture of sand and perlite, or what? Should I crack them first? How long does it take to root them, if they are going to?

I have some fresh (I hope) walnuts, hardy pecans, almonds, and filberts. Also some pinyons. I figure they will have a better chance if I can root some and let them grow. If I'd done this when I moved here, 9 years ago, I might have nuts by now! I have been successful with avocados, but don't dare put them outside here in zone 6b.

Any help you can give will be appreciated.

Thanks --

Here is a link that describes growing nuts from seed. Note that most nuts (and fruits) do not come true from seed. http://www.scribd.com/doc/11053124/Propagation-of-Fruit-and-Nuts-by-Seed

What time of year have you planted the trees that failed? I'm a little warmer than you--we're in Sierra Vista in Zone 8b, but we've had great luck with nut and fruit tree planting from bare root. Also, what kind of nuts are you planting?

Gosh, you're kind of right there at conifer central, aren't you? I don't have any experience growing pinyon from seed, but that sounds likely to succeed.

It sounds like they are dying early, they don't even get to the point that they don't have the hoped for nut production? That sort of sounds like a problem with the soil (or the hole), or with moisture (or lack thereof). It's pretty much the same basics as with any container tree, but probably yall do have a particularly challenging setting.

Also, I think some trees out there have a problem with sunburn - they get a lot of UV, which can damage the bark. Which damages the trees transport system for energy, and makes them vulnerable to insects and such. Does that maybe sound like what killed yours?

Assuming you get that right, the thing to look for with varieties is the amount of chill time they require to set fruit. That's pretty standard info you can look up.


Growing from seed is great fun, so go for it, but at some point you going to run into the same barriers as if you bought the small container tree, so you may want to work that out, too.


Keep us posted...

AZgrammie, You might not live long enough to see any pinyon from seed you plant. They are a very slow growing tree.
Also, the Avocado you say you grew successfully from seed may or may not produce fruit and the fruit may or may not be good. You never know what you are going to get with a tree grown from seed. Avocados are usually grafted, like citrus, to obtain the variety that is wanted. Sounds like you are having a good time with your gardening. Don

Thanks to all of you for your responses! I also found some simple-sounding stuff on eHow. Re pinyons, I tried some last year but think insects might have eaten the nuts inside the shells before I planted them. Anyhow, nothing came up. Re the avocado, I think of it as a temporary house plant, have had success when I lived in California -- had one about 6 feet tall named Harvey. For fruit, I recently ordered 2 Day avocado plants from Logee's, and both are doing really well. One is in my greenhouse up here north of Heber (supposed to be okay down to 20 degrees), and the other one I planted at a house I own down in Apache Junction (east of Phx). They are natural dwarves and need no pollinator, so I am really excited about them.

Okay, now to the nuts: When I lived in Scottsdale, I tried pecans in cans and they were so root-bound they died (would have returned them but lost the receipt, naturally), then tried bare root pecan trees, and they were doing SUPER but when I sold the house the next owners abandoned the place and my pecans died, along with some of the citrus and ornamentals. Up here, I have planted bare root walnuts, filberts, and almonds over the past 9 years and they struggle but eventually die. I think it is a combination of drought, poor soil, and the fact that my property is on a limestone shelf -- bad news to all but tumbleweeds and junipers. I'm hoping to get some seedlings started and find spots where the roots can get down through the limestone. I also have dwarf tangelo, lemon, orange, and grapefruit in the greenhouse. This winter will be a challenge for all of them!

Re not living long enough, you may be right! But I'm only 72, just a kid. 8^)

You must not have much top soil. Pecans need deep soil. Not sure about the others, but I would venture to say they probably do too. Try putting up some deep raise beds and plant fruiting shrubs or dwarf fruit varieties rather than nut trees.

AZgrammie, Yeah you are still just a kid.....younger than I. If you have some help you might try digging really big planting holes, like eight feet across and three feet deep. And then analysing the soil that was removed and amending it to suit your tree(s). I have caliche to contend with and this is what I did., except I bored a hole with an auger in the center of the hole right through the caliche for drainage. My trees are all doing real well. Once they get older and well established they seem able to penetrate the hard stuff with their roots. I also do not dig round holes in the hard stuff because I don't want roots circleing like in a root bound pot. Don

Your winters may be too cold for some nut varieties; I'm not sure just how cold your winters get. Check out the following link: http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/mg/fruit/index.html. It will get you to the fruit chapter of the AZ Master Gardener Manual (the entire manual is available on line), which contains some good advice on how & when to plant trees. Most of the chapter is focused on fruit trees, but the planting advice is general. Also, get a copy of the Sunset Western Garden book and research each tree variety you want to grow as to recommended climate zones. If you are not familiar with the Sunset book (an excellent general reference), be aware that a Sunset zone designation IS NOT the same as a USDA zone designation for a given area. You are in either Sunset zone 2B or 1A, I'm guessing. If it's 1A, you may not be able to grow many nuts.

Unless bedrock is right at or very near the surface, you should be able to grow at least some varieties of nuts if you are in zone 2B, probably filberts and walnuts would work out OK; I don't think pecans would. Also, watch out for the need to plant at least two varieties of a given nut; some nuts need a cross pollinator. Some, like pistachios, even need a male and a female tree in order to produce nuts. As for pinons, someone above said they are slow growing. Buy a good specimen from a nursery and plant it, that might give you a little head start. Be sure it isn't root bound! Enjoy "God's country"!

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions, advice, and support!

I was going to ask my son to use my big tractor with the backhoe to make really big deep holes for nut trees, but in preparing the field for the next planting of lavender, which we hope to do this spring, the rocks broke all the teeth off the backhoe! Now how to get new ones welded on when we are way out in the boonies?

Meanwhile, I planted some of all the nut varieties I could find (hopefully they were fresh but who knows) in little pots, then sent them out in the snow for 2 or 3 months to let them "stratify", I think that's the correct term. Yesterday I moved them into the green house and hopefully they will decide it is spring ...

Speaking of the greenhouse, we had an unusually COLD snowstorm in early January and the temp inside the greenhouse dropped to 13! It was supposedly about 15 below zero outside. 13 was too cold for the Day avocado, it appears dead. All the dwarf citrus except the tangelo, which is my favorite anyway, lost all their leaves! But they are showing signs of new little green leaves coming out and I am so thankful. At $30 per tree, it would have been a real hit to lose them all. The Day avocado was $50, but it was worth a try -- the one I planted down in Apache Junction made it through the cold snap okay. Think it got down to the mid-20's there, also unusual for the Phoenix area. The only citrus I am worried about now is the dwarf grapefruit, that was infected with scale and had lost most of its leaves due to the scale. I painted what was left with a concoction I found in a book about organic pest control, and I can't see anymore scale, but it is still looking pretty sad.

After it warmed up some after the bitter cold we had, I watered all the citrus very deeply and think that helped them recover. I finally gave up on trying to keep the greenhouse from freezing at night, and installed a small propane heater connected to an outside 5 gallon tank. It is working realy well, and I only have it set on "pilot" at night.