BULLETIN 231] WALNUT CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 125 



California most of the blooming takes place in April and May, although 

 some unusually early or late trees bloom previous to or later than this 

 period. The nuts commonly mature during September and October. 



The English walnut grows readily from seed, if the nuts are not 

 allowed to become too dry, and are planted with plenty of moisture dur- 

 ing the spring following their production. The seedlings are of strong 

 and vigorous growth, but in this species do not usually make very much 

 growth in height during the first season. A large taproot is formed, 

 usually longer and thicker than the stem above ground. The latter 

 remains comparatively short during the first year, but makes very much 

 more growth the second year. Trees averaging only about one foot in 

 height at the end of the first year will frequently make a growth of 

 ten or twelve feet, or even more, the second year. Seedling trees, 

 though varying widely, are usually vigorous, thrifty and long-lived, 

 so long as soil and climatic conditions are favorable. The English 

 walnut on its own root, however, has little adaptability to unfavorable 

 conditions, and is very easily injured or killed by lack of moisture, 

 excessive moisture, poor soil, or other unfavorable conditions. While a 

 long-lived tree in the Old World, growing in regions of abundant nat- 

 ural rainfall, the seedling walnut has proven itself much shorter-lived in 

 California, and many of the older groves have largely died out. There 

 are a few trees in the State close to sixty years of age, but these are 

 mostly in the northern part, where the rainfall is fairly abundant. In 

 the south many trees and groves planted less than forty years ago have 

 almost entirely died out, largely on account of an uncertain or irregu- 

 lar supply of soil moisture. 1 



The seedling English walnut is rather slow in coming into bearing, 

 most trees producing very few nuts until the fifth or sixth year after 

 planting or even later. Different trees, however, vary widely in this 

 respect. The production per tree also varies greatly. The average 

 product per year for the older seedling groves of the State is scarcely 

 more than 50 pounds per tree, although many individual trees far 

 exceed this. One hundred pounds per tree at an age of fifteen to 

 twenty years may be considered quite satisfactory, according to pres- 

 ent production, while some individual trees of particularly large size 

 and heavy bearing qualities, run up to 300 pounds or a little more. 

 There are a few very large old seedling trees in the State, standing in 

 good soil with no other trees close about them, which have produced as 

 high as 400 or even 500 pounds of nuts per year, but this is very excep- 

 tional and cannot be considered on the same basis with trees planted in 



Belong (Rep. Cal. Bd. Hort. 1895-96) quotes accounts of Old World walnut trees 

 of ten, fifteen or even more feet in diameter and bearing as much as 2,000 pounds of 

 nuts per year. One of these trees is estimated to be at least 1,000 years old. See 

 Gardners' Chronicle, London, 1852, p. 568; 1857, p. 694; 1877, p. 310. 



