About 10 years ago I put a small walnut tree in the garden and 2 years
later pruned it to shape with 3 almost equally spaced uprights from
chest height.
For the last couple of years it's had a couple of hundred walnuts each
summer (and a couple of squirrels...)
I now wish to prune it again to give this larger tree a more
diffinitive shape and less shade to surrounding areas.
At about 12 feet from the ground the branches are about 1 1/2" thick
and where they fork, I was thinking of cutting them leaving an upward
or sidewards bud or shoot.
Is it OK to do so at this time of year and anything I should watch out
for?

Daniel wrote in message ...
About 10 years ago I put a small walnut tree in the garden and 2 years
later pruned it to shape with 3 almost equally spaced uprights from
chest height.
For the last couple of years it's had a couple of hundred walnuts each
summer (and a couple of squirrels...)
I now wish to prune it again to give this larger tree a more
diffinitive shape and less shade to surrounding areas.
At about 12 feet from the ground the branches are about 1 1/2" thick
and where they fork, I was thinking of cutting them leaving an upward
or sidewards bud or shoot.
Is it OK to do so at this time of year and anything I should watch out
for?


RHS book advice is prune in August & paint.

--
Anton

On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 15:43:29 +0000 (UTC), "anton"
wrote:


Daniel wrote in message ...
About 10 years ago I put a small walnut tree in the garden and 2 years
later pruned it to shape with 3 almost equally spaced uprights from
chest height.
For the last couple of years it's had a couple of hundred walnuts each
summer (and a couple of squirrels...)
I now wish to prune it again to give this larger tree a more
diffinitive shape and less shade to surrounding areas.
At about 12 feet from the ground the branches are about 1 1/2" thick
and where they fork, I was thinking of cutting them leaving an upward
or sidewards bud or shoot.
Is it OK to do so at this time of year and anything I should watch out
for?


RHS book advice is prune in August & paint.

And search out a recipe to pickle the walnuts for Xmas ...........
Yummy

On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 06:36:57 GMT, AndWhyNot
wrote:

On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 15:43:29 +0000 (UTC), "anton"
wrote:


snip.

And search out a recipe to pickle the walnuts for Xmas ...........

Yummy


Bother,
Read the two replies when I came in for a brew after yesterday's
chilly afternoon pruning.
If you have a recipe for pickled squirrel?
About 200+ walnuts 'disappeared' in the autumn...

Daniel
(Cheshire)

Daniel wrote:
If you have a recipe for pickled squirrel?
About 200+ walnuts 'disappeared' in the autumn...


our neighbour has a 40ft walnut tree on our boundary - just about to be
crown lifted and thinned - which always sets enormous quantities of nuts but
all of which the squrrels take before they are ready for us to use!

Bloody tree rats!

pk

In article , Daniel
writes
Read the two replies when I came in for a brew after yesterday's
chilly afternoon pruning.
If you have a recipe for pickled squirrel?
About 200+ walnuts 'disappeared' in the autumn...

Just for a New Year's Eve treat I'll recount this tale once again.

We have two huge old walnut trees standing at the entrance to our drive.
They would have been planted in about 1920 when the place was built.
Though we rarely see any walnuts on them, older residents in the village
tell us that they used pick bucketfuls of them every autumn backalong.

They also regale us with an old witchy story that the way to get a
reluctant walnut tree to bear fruit is to whip it! (There's an even
unlikelier version which requires the co-operation of a virgin, but no
virgin ever seems to be that desperate to get walnutted). Now, though
I'm not a tree hugger, I am very fond of trees and I could not bring
myself to treat any tree in that violent way. I prune, coppice and
pollard trees as part of their management, but I couldn't be
unnecessarily cruel to them.

Some years ago I decided to make a batch of walnut sap wine. I took an
augur and drilled a hole in each trunk (after having had a quiet word
with the trees). Out came the sap into the demi-johns giving me
sufficient to make 3 gallons of wine. The wine turned out to be
excellent for drinking by the following Xmas, but before that, in the
autumn, there were hundreds of well formed walnuts on the trees and on
the ground.

In all subsequent years we have had almost no nut production, sometimes
a few begin to grow, but none reach maturity. I've not tried to do the
same thing again, somehow I don't think it would work a second time.
Any theories on this rather odd happening would be welcome.
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

"AndWhyNot" wrote in message
s.com...
On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 15:43:29 +0000 (UTC), "anton"
wrote:


Daniel wrote in message ...
About 10 years ago I put a small walnut tree in the garden and 2 years
later pruned it to shape with 3 almost equally spaced uprights from
chest height.
For the last couple of years it's had a couple of hundred walnuts each
summer (and a couple of squirrels...)
I now wish to prune it again to give this larger tree a more
diffinitive shape and less shade to surrounding areas.
At about 12 feet from the ground the branches are about 1 1/2" thick
and where they fork, I was thinking of cutting them leaving an upward
or sidewards bud or shoot.
Is it OK to do so at this time of year and anything I should watch out
for?


RHS book advice is prune in August & paint.

And search out a recipe to pickle the walnuts for Xmas ...........

I tried to pickle some walnuts this year and they were revolting!

Alan
--
Reply to alan(at)windsor-berks(dot)freeserve(dot)co(dot)uk

"AndWhyNot" wrote in message
s.com...
On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 15:43:29 +0000 (UTC), "anton"
wrote:


Daniel wrote in message ...
About 10 years ago I put a small walnut tree in the garden and 2 years
later pruned it to shape with 3 almost equally spaced uprights from
chest height.
For the last couple of years it's had a couple of hundred walnuts each
summer (and a couple of squirrels...)
I now wish to prune it again to give this larger tree a more
diffinitive shape and less shade to surrounding areas.
At about 12 feet from the ground the branches are about 1 1/2" thick
and where they fork, I was thinking of cutting them leaving an upward
or sidewards bud or shoot.
Is it OK to do so at this time of year and anything I should watch out
for?


RHS book advice is prune in August & paint.

And search out a recipe to pickle the walnuts for Xmas ...........

I tried to pickle some walnuts this year and they were revolting!

Alan
--
Reply to alan(at)windsor-berks(dot)freeserve(dot)co(dot)uk

"PK" wrote in message
...
Daniel wrote:
If you have a recipe for pickled squirrel?
About 200+ walnuts 'disappeared' in the autumn...


our neighbour has a 40ft walnut tree on our boundary - just about to be
crown lifted and thinned - which always sets enormous quantities of nuts
but
all of which the squrrels take before they are ready for us to use!

Bloody tree rats!

I keep telling everyone - a rat/mink trap from Mole Valley Farmers in
Somerset will solve the problem.

Although a warm winter does help reduce the pest population.

Alan
--
Reply to alan(at)windsor-berks(dot)freeserve(dot)co(dot)uk

On Thu, 29 Jan 2004 22:17:29 -0000, "Alan Holmes"
wrote:


I tried to pickle some walnuts this year and they were revolting!

perhaps you are to blame?
--
Martin