Butternut Seedlings

[Gary_C]

I thought I have heard that some type of disease was going to kill all the butternut?

Is this true and are you just doing this for naught?

[SwampDonkey]

Some people claim butternut canker, the disease, is here in NB, but I have not seen it in my area yet. I have seen some dying trees along a rail road track, but never really saw any canker like I'm used to seeing on other hardwood trees. Just looked like death from old age. Butternut is not a long lived tree to start with, 75 years is a real old one. I think the saving grace around here is that it is not growing everywhere, just a light sprinkling of it and never pure stands. I don't know if it has an alternate host either.

[SwampDonkey]

Here's a butternut I transplanted today from some of my seeding projects. It's a bit over 7 feet tall. I planted it on a site where I tore down an old shed last fall.







Nice typical butternut symmetry, and well balanced. I'll have my bucket waiting to collect butternuts in 25 years. ;D

[Mooseherder]

That sure is pretty country Swamp Donkey. ;)

[SwampDonkey]

Went out and measured the terminal shoot and it grew 26 inches in 2007. Those laterals in the last pic are from growth in 2007 as well. It's the first year it started branching out.

[SwampDonkey]

That sure is pretty country Swamp Donkey. ;)

In the second picture, the land beyond the field in the middle of the picture is in Maine. ;)

[SwampDonkey]

The awakening. 


The transplant is coming along nicely.


A new beginning.




Dug this seedling up this spring from under the old yard tree. ;)

[WDH]

That first pic is beautiful.........

[thecfarm]

SD,how do you plant the nut?Do you scrap off the outside fuzz?Or just let the nut dry?I have some dried from last year in the garage,somewheres.I did have 4 on my land.Two have died and one got cut for the view.I mow around where they grow,none can grow up around them.The squirrels have not planted any in the woods.

[SwampDonkey]

cfarm,
I sink'em in the mud in fall, husk and all.

Ones that drop under the yard tree, and I don't pick them up, sprout up by July. They seem to be as easy to grow as acorns.

I cracked open some of the walnuts I wintered and they were sterile, no meat inside. Now last fall I checked a couple and they had meat. Trees might not be mature enough, don't know.

[thecfarm]

Thank you.I will have to try it.

[Lanier_Lurker]

Looks a lot like my hickory seedlings. 

[WDH]

Cousins, they are.

[Dodgy Loner]

Talk like Yoda, you do ;D ;)

In all the years I've been studying dendrology, I can't say that I've ever come across a butternut in the wild :(.  I would love to plant some around here, but I can't find any trees to collect seeds from!

[WDH]

Maybe SwampDonkey, send some to you he can.

[Lanier_Lurker]

Umm, yes - to WDH, you listen.

[Dodgy Loner]

How seedstock from Canada would perform in North Georgia I wonder.  Worth a try it is :D.

[Lanier_Lurker]

Interestingly enough, according to the Virginia Tech dendrology site they range naturally into Rabun County, GA.   8)

[Dodgy Loner]

Right, that's why I'm so surprised I've never seen any before, and I've spent lots of time walking around the north GA mountains and the Smokies.  I read somewhere that you should collect seedstock for forestry plantations from no further than 50 miles north or 200 miles south, or the leaves will not come out at a time that allows them to be competitive with the native vegetation.  Landscape trees have more leeway, since they don't face as much competition, but Canada to Georgia might be pushing it.

[Mooseherder]

How seedstock from Canada would perform in North Georgia I wonder.  Worth a try it is :D.

I brought a Spruce from Maine on the way back to Fl. to some friends in Sautee Georgia, probably just a couple hollers from you.  ;D
Yep, It's still growing. 8)
To boot, she found an arrowhead under the DanG tree when she replanted on their property.
I had dug deep to get alladaroot. ;D
Our place in Maine is an hour north of SwampDonkey and it ain't in Canada.   :D

[SwampDonkey]

When I was traveling one time from Virginia and on down through, TN, northern Georgia and NC I  found butternuts grew mainly along small streams with riparian vegetation on farms and in well drained moist gullies often with small streams. Won't find them too often on dry soils of oak forest, but in the moist gullies. They do grow here in our sugar maple forest , but the moist rich sites that also contain yellow birch, basswood and white ash. Find some white ash-basswood ground and keep your eyes wide open. Similar to walnuts I found in the south. Butternut are a short lived tree and healthy aspen generally live longer. I suspect in ideal locations they live longer, like anything else.   I have a book that says it grows on dry rocky ground sometimes, but I have never once seen that situation around here or in travels. I always find it in moist firm soils with low course fragment content.

[Dodgy Loner]

I will keep my eyes peeled the next time I'm in a location that fits the bill.  I've probably passed some before and just thought it was walnut without paying much attention to it.

[slowzuki]

Our pair butternuts aren't doing so well, only about 1/2 the branches grew leaves this year and the squirels took every single blessed nut last year.  Our septic contractor damaged the root structure of both of them and the power pole contractor drove over the only seedling in the area.

I hope to get some started off this years crop because I'm not sure the tree will produce next year.

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah doing major damage to tree lateral roots will cause great damage either to the crown or bole or both. That is why a lot of yard trees planted by ditches of roads get a lot of rot or tops die. The ditches often get cleaned out destroying the roots. Sometimes the damage was done years ago when a lot of rural trees grew along the roads bordering not so well manicured ditches and lawns. A whack along side the trunk with a huge snow plow doesn't improve life for a tree either. :(


Once you get your butternuts germinated, it will take a long time for them to get growing in height. It will seem they are doing nothing for 5 years, but they are growing their roots. I transplanted one seedling this spring and it was doing real good getting it's new leaves, then I went out a week later and it had turned black. I think they are very delicate until they have a good root system down. This was a new seedling and had a very small root. I planted it in good, soft, moist soil and I was surprised to see it die. :(

[SwampDonkey]

The squirrel never quite made it to the barn last fall with this one.  ;D




One other got planted under my red maple on the lawn and 4 others germinated under the butternut tree.