TIME OF PLANTING: Walnuts can be set, beginning in the fall and throughout 
the winter and on up to spring, this being true also of all trees. Winter setting is pre¬ 
ferred, for the reason that in setting in the winter, they get started off with a root sys¬ 
tem as spring opens up, and in setting in the spring they have to make this root system, 
before they can start; and if it should happen that we had a dry season, the winter plant¬ 
ing will not suffer, as those set in the late spring. 
SOURCE OF SCION WOOD: Our long experience as nurserymen and orchardists 
has proven to us that the selection of scion wood for propagating is the most essential 
factor in the securing of quality and high productivity. The first grafted walnut trees 
grown and sold in the Northwest prove that there was a big field for selection, as the 
most of them were of very poor quality. The scion wood for our nursery stock is taken 
from the best of Grafted Vrooman Franquette walnut trees, having records in production 
and quality. This is the best insurance for your future walnut grove. 
ROOT STOCK USED: We consider, after many years of experience in growing 
grafted walnuts, that the California Black Walnut is far superior to any other type of 
root system. They make excellent unions, are strong and hardy growers, and will pro¬ 
duce a commercial tree at 8 years far superior in size to those that have been grafted 
on the Eastern or American Black Walnut root. This is a proven fact and can be pointed 
out to those interested. The American Black is being used by some growers but is found 
to produce a constriction at the union, which is considered a serious feature by propa¬ 
gators. Our stock is grafted high enough from the ground to safeguard against the loss 
of trees by mushroom rot, which often occurs where trees are improperly grafted close 
to the ground. We suggest the use of tree protectors the first and second year on all 
young trees. 
HOW WALNUTS ARE PRUNED: There is a difference of opinion with many 
successful walnut growers as to methods of pruning, and this is mostly to be worked 
out by each individual planter. 
The most used and popular style of pruning, up to recently, has been to start a 
high head, around six feet and higher. Another system of pruning is to cut the tree, 
when set out, around and under two feet high, but in cutting low, be sure that you have 
a sufficient number of good buds left to start trees off. After a tree is cut back, the 
several buds which you have left will start out; let them grow until they are far enough 
along for you to determine which one will be the best and strongest; then take off all 
of them, leaving this selected one, to grow up and make your tree. In the meantime 
set a stake by the tree to train this new branch to, and the second year train center 
lead up to 7 or 8 feet. Let branches form at this point. 
The height to start walnut head, and system of forming, should be left up to the 
planter, he to make his selection from the several systems, for it is up to him to make 
his own orchard, and each one has his own way of getting at the same results. 
We have had years of experience in trimming and handling fruit trees, and will 
say that the first few years’ life of all trees is the most critical time of their life; and 
this is the most important time to get your trees started off, and to get them started 
off right; and to force quick and early giowth, it is necessary to do it by cultivating 
and pruning. The necessary amount of trimming which should be done to trees acts 
as a stimulant, and is a great factor in the early life of the tree. Trimming and pruning 
of walnuts is confined chiefly to the first period of their growth. After a well formed 
head is secured nature takes care of the tree to a large extent. 
WALNUT YIELDS: Soil conditions, air and surface drainage, cultivation and cover 
cropping with proper green forage, will have a great deal of control over production in 
many groves. The Grafted Viooman Fianquette is an early bearer of fine walnuts, often 
setting nuts the second and third year after being planted. The following yields are 
taken from our own groves and reliable walnut statistics. At eight years a yield of 30 
lbs. and over is not uncommon in the Fianquette, making them a commercial asset from 
this period on. Nine and ten year trees often produce 40 to 80 lbs. Ten to 12 year or¬ 
chards are ranging from 80 to 100 lbs. We have records to show that in parts of Cal¬ 
ifornia single trees have produced from 500 to 700 lbs. A very conservative estimate 
for trees ranging from 12 to 14 years old would be around 2000 lbs. per acre where plant¬ 
ed 40 by 40 feet each way. Walnuts are capable of bringing the grower several hundred 
dollars per acre, after attaining fair size. 
Orton Griebler of Gaston, Oregon, produced on his Grafted Franquette orchard west 
of Gaston an average yield of 45 lbs. of green walnuts on 17 V 2 acres 8 years old, or 
11,500 lbs. of green nuts from this orchard planted in 1924. This crop was harvested 
the summer of 1932. The average shrinkage in drying would be about 30 per cent, leav¬ 
ing him over 8,000 pounds or 4 tons of dried Franquette walnuts from his 17 Vz acres at 
S years old. On 28 acres of trees planted one, two, and three years later, he received 
more than four tons of green Franquettes. 
Nuts Are a Non-Perishable Crop 
