the Walnut Diary

Saturday I went back for a second look at the seedlings. They have grown remarkably in a single, rainy day. The early risers appear to be clustered along a sloping knoll where the grass is short (from exhausted seed and perhaps infertility) and full sunlight and good drainage areavailable. As I commented before, the east‑siders outnumber the west‑siders (locally‑harvested seed) by a wide margin. Then another variable emerges: for every nut the squirrels have poached, it seems they have successfully planted another in a slightly different location. The volunteer seedlings are perhaps a day or two more mature than the planted nuts (or else they are simply healthier), so perhaps my foot was too heavy on the planting stick for the first round of small, local nuts. The rodents would have planted what they had, unless, of course, they perfidiously moved the imported nuts to mess up my neat rows. I wouldn’t put it past them. The Roundup‑sprayed sections make it easier to find the brace‑wire posts, though I was forced to move a couple of dozen of them to new locations to highlight volunteer sprouts in pretty much the right places, leaving barren spots behind (so far, anyway). The longer grass in the more fertile field next to the woodlot may pose a greater challenge for the planted nuts, as it doesn’t get as much sunlight and the grass is much more aggressive, even when sprayed. The stems broke off about 8″ up, rather than at ground level. I have only located one sprout in this field so far, though I staked a dozen or so squirrel‑planted stems within the fall‑line of the biggest walnut tree. The butternut seedlings are doing very well with minimal loss. One which was planted underwater didn’t make it, but I think the others all did, even the three or four with very wet feet. The transplanted walnuts are all showing signs of life, be it at the trunk or sproutsfrom the roots. Seems walnuts are a great deal like sumacs: they are hard to kill. I remember mowing a walnut sapling off in a field last year. It or its twin was back for more yesterday when I bush‑hogged it again before I caught myself. I have taken a number of pictures of the seedlings. I totally dismiss my wife’s assertion that I am taking portraits of and naming each of the new arrivals as they hatch. What’s more, Huey, Dewey and Louie are offended by her aspersions.