Hickory nuts

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escambiaguy Atmore, AL(Zone 8b) May 25, 2006

Does anyone know about when mockernut hickory nuts will be ready to harvet in zone 8? I know where a couple of trees are that I would like to gather nuts from.

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Farmerdill Augusta, GA(Zone 8a) May 25, 2006

Fall (September -October) You will have to wrestle the squirrels tho.

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escambiaguy Atmore, AL(Zone 8b) May 25, 2006

Thanks

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Lucky_P Hopkinsville, KY(Zone 6b) May 26, 2006

Eguy,
Are you gonna try cracking 'em(good luck! - and let me know if you find a good one that cracks out decently)or are you collecting 'em to plant in order to start new seedlings?

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escambiaguy Atmore, AL(Zone 8b) May 27, 2006

Mostly to plant seedlings, although I would like to taste them.

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Lucky_P Hopkinsville, KY(Zone 6b) May 27, 2006

They've got a great flavor, but most are have such thick, internally convoluted shells that it's difficult to extract more than just a few tiny morsels of nutmeat. Soaking in a pan of warm water for a couple of hours before a session of cracking with a good black walnut cracker or bench-mounted vise may allow you to get a little more nutmeat, but still nothing like what you'll be able to get with a decent shagbark or shellbark hickory.

There have been a couple of mockernut selections made, based on crackability - I had one, 'Lakeview', for a year or two, but the graft died out, and I never got to see any nuts.
I've got one tree on the farm here that I think is a hybrid of mockernut & shagbark - though I've not had genetic tests done to confirm it(the two species have differing chromosome numbers). Bark looks like mockernut, but leaf and bud morphology is shagbark; nuts are the same size & shape as those of nearby mockernuts, but shell is white, like shagbark, and with some effort, you can crack the nuts and get intact halves - it's not even a good shagbark in that respect, but it's great as a mockernut.

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escambiaguy Atmore, AL(Zone 8b) May 28, 2006

I bought a pignut hickory a couple of years ago and it has been defoliated about 3 times. I don't know if it is some kind of bug or what. It is still hanging on though.

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