A friend may have a new variety of walnut

[simy1]

A friend knows of a walnut growing in the central northern MI peninsula (he has known that tree for a long time, it's just that suddenly the light went on in his head). It produces good nuts and it is in his property. The interest is, of course, that the tree is one zone colder than its typical northernmost range (at least. it is a place that has experienced a killing frost every month of the year since records were taken, low Zone 4). He is interested in talking to people about propagating it and possibly making it a named variety. Any suggestions?

[patriarch]

[e-mail] (simy1) wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Is Michigan State the university with the agricultural specialty in your state? I'd call them, or whichever one has that responsibility.

It's not consistent, by naming convention. In California, UC Davis has that role, but in Arizona, it's UA in Tuscon. Utah State University in Logan does that for that area.

Whichever yours is, there is a wealth of knowledge, and generally some modest funding, for promising strains.

Patriarch

[Steve]

I have one suggestion. He might want to talk to Bill MacKentley of St. Lawrence Nurseries.

him first look over the Nut Trees link on the opening page. Note that he only sells seed grown trees, not grafted. (He might be interested in buying a supply of nuts from your friend's tree to produce seedlings. Maybe, maybe not.) Bill loves to talk about hardier than normal fruits and nuts. I bet in a few minutes of discussion he could form an opinion on whether the tree is really something special, or not. There is an e-mail address on the web site but I have had no luck getting him to answer e-mails, and he KNOWS me. (Maybe that is the problem? LOL) I suggest trying the phone number. Long distance is cheap these days and it would be well worth it.

Steve > A friend knows of a walnut growing in the central northern MI