Xref: kermit balt.general:40032 rec.gardens:232739 alt.appalachian:67975

Dwight Sipler wrote:

BroJack wrote:

The horticultural books say that the roots of juglans (walnuts)
release a poison that prevents other plants from growing near them.
Nonsense. In 30 years of observing them in my "wild" areas, I haven't
found this to be true.

Does anyone know the origin of this misinformation and why the books
keep repeating it?

Juglone does not prevent all plants from growing near the walnut tree,
but some plants are inhibited. Look up "walnut wilt" on Google for a
list of susceptible plants.

In wild areas, plants that are not susceptible to juglone will
predominate around your walnut trees. However, if you try to introduce
other varieties you may run into trouble.

Interesting. One of the larger trees in my parents yard is a black
walnut and a wild cherry tree that somehow have managed to grow
together and look like just one tree from the ground up. The older and
taller it gets, the more the limbs seem to mix. One limb might have
the leaves of the wild cherry, while the limb right beside it might be
loaded with walnuts. Mom tried for years to grow a tomato in a tractor
tire casing beside the tree. While she had marginal luck, most of
those years, the casing was used as a home for various turtles and
torquoises my brother found and just had to keep as pets. The pets
grew better than the tomatoes, and were usually released (or found
their way out of the casing) to the wild when my brother deemed them
old enough. Now that I've gone all the way around the world, I'll
close by saying that now I know why Mom never was able to grow
tomatoes under that black walnut tree.