PlantFiles: Black Walnut
Juglans nigra

I have read at one website that black walnut(juglone) is lethal to privet. If that is true it would be a very good tree to plant in areas infested with chinese privet. I might give it a try.

Had this tree when I was growing up in Tidewater Va,I've never noticed squirrels taking many of the nuts until after the husks have turned brown and dried up most of the way.Also I have read that very young immature nuts that are blown off by the wind(ones that a stout needle can be pushed through),are good pickled or stored in vinager.

A hint for harvesting the mature nuts is to dehusk them as soon as possible after they have fallen.Wear old shoes,find a hard flat surface that you are not concerned about staining,and step on the hulls.If the husks are still rather green it is easy to get the nuts out of the husk,plus there are few if any husk worms in them at that stage...the worms are of no harm to the nuts,but are unsightly.I heard that chickens renjoy eating the worms but I do not know that for a fact.Yes, both green and brown husks will stain hands and clothes.Also I feel that the nuts taste better if dehusked before the husks have turned brown.Let the dehusked nuts dry for a few weeks before cracking.

In the wild,I noticed that Pawpaw trees(Asimina tribola) would grow near them.Grass grows very well under the trees as well.I've heard that many established plants will continue to grow near newly planted walnuts, while newly planted members of the same species are unable to grow near established black walnut trees.If you have the land,(I don't now),plant 2 or more trees.Thomas is still a good variety,good harvests each year,and rather true to seed,but there are newer strains now available from specialists.

People planting a large number of black walnuts should consider interplanting them with conifers. The author of Common Sense Forestry, Hans Morsbach, has planted thousands of black walnuts and found that they do better when they share space with conifers.

No one has mentioned the importance of eradicating weeds from the area where you plant a black walnut and controlling them for the first few years. I recommend (for small plantings) just breaking up the turf mechanically and then covering the area around the seedling with a 3' x 3' square of fabric mulch. Very effective in getting the tree off to a good start.

Pruning is another essential if you're raising black walnuts for future timber.

When my family moved to the San Joaquin Valley in 1951, these stately trees were growing all over the countryside, but were gradually removed as more and more land was leveled and cultivated. . .what a shame. One of my earliest memories is accompanying my Grandfather to pick up the nuts under trees within a 1/4 mile of our ranch and then helping him crack them. . a job in itself. . .he put them in a vise on my Dad's workbench, but we still had to pick the nut out of all those little crevises . . .has a distinct flavor I still love today.

When I was 3 we moved into a new plat house w/ a large mature, we thought then, Black Walnut.

Now 50 years, two tree houses, tens of thousands of walnuts, hundreds of squirrels, bird nests, possums and even bats later, it is even more beautiful.

The last to get leaves and the first to loose them it is the ideal shade tree for those hot Midwest late Summer afternoons.

Course we didn't know then that you couldn't grow certain plants under them so we grew everything.
Prize winning roses to veggies we never had a problem.
We still have the largest Bleeding Hearts I've ever seen nestled up to the trunk.

My favorite memories are watching the nuts fall on the roof, roll down into the gutters and out the downspouts to the waiting albinos squirrels.
AND
Wearing a hard hat to rake leaves in the Fall. lol

Not sure yet, weather to remove the 2 Black Walnut trees from the front yard - on one hand I need more sunlight in that area for the garden - on the other hand the shade is nice during the summer afternoons - The earth in the front yard is very poor and is under construction at the moment. Plan on raised beds & will probably only remove the tree that is closest to their planned location. The trees were here when we moved in & I should note that the number of nuts were much less than normal this year. We had a fairly "wet" summer this year (no drought) and I am woundering if this could explain the lack of set?

While not advised growing close to the roof of your bedroom
(chuckle) this tree is a most welcome addittion to our property.

Stated as toxic on many websites, I find it odd that we have many plants growing quite well directly by, under and near the black walnuts. We have many things growing within a fifty foot radius of the tree including Spirea, Hollyhocks, Four O'Clocks, Daylilies, Lavender, Bergamot, Silver Lace Vine, rosebushes, Canna, Morning Glories, Salvia, Purple Hyacinth Bean vine, Love in a Puff, oh my, I could type on and on and on.

Easy to grow from seed and quite durable.
A plus plant if you have the acreage to allow it to
grow to it's grand maturity.

If you like black walnuts you had best love squirels too! For, as the song goes, they 'go together like a horse and carriage'. My eight large walnuts are systematically harvested by a small army of squirels, red and grey. At first they start to pick away at the unripe nuts on the tree but after the nuts are mature they drop by the bushell baskets all over my lawns and landscape. Unless you want them yourself for baking cookies do not be too hasty to pick them up. The squirels will do the whole job for you within a day or two. Such providence!

The common wisdom is that tree roots extend roughly to the outer drip-line of the tree. Not so for black walnut, or its cousin the butternut. Their roots reach a radius three to four times the radius to the drip-line. Since their roots leach juglone it will stunt or kill many plant species planted over them. This includes many of the traditional orchard trees such as apple, pear, and cherry.

I live in Southern Indiana and Black Walnut trees grow like weeds. I have a tin roof and on windy nights it sounds like machine guns going off on top of me.
I love the tree but as has been pointed out numerous times, you can't grow companion plants with them. I have a container garden around mine which works out great.
They are extremely easy to propogate. A couple years ago I dumped the nuts against the fence after picking them up - I now have a line of walnut trees bordering the road. Better there than on top of me!

The Black Walnut tree has recently been added to poisonous plant lists in many states. Reference: Poisonous Plants Homepage of Pennsylvania....Also, recent research has shown that juglone is not the toxin that causes laminitis and breathing problems in horses exposed to bedding made of black walnut shavings...It was caused by yet another toxin that has not been clearly identified..Other state's web pages include warnings to people who have allergies or breathing problems to stay away from these trees..and to keep pets away for fear of them ingesting the hulls...The black walnut is also lethal to earthworms.. Shade? At what price to other living things?

The roots of the Black Walnut have toxins that tend to suppress the growth of other plants and shrubs near by.

When I was growing up in Lansing, Michigan, we had two black walnut trees - both started by squirrels. They produced millions of walnuts over the years. My parents sold some (uncracked) and one of our friends had the most delicious recipe for IceBox Cookies using black walnuts. It wasn't a holiday for us unless Mom made a lot. We also had a picnic table and chairs under one of the trees and many happy big family times were spent there.

Mom always claimed the squirrels threw the nuts at her. One son and his wife are developing a black walnut grove and are getting the first nuts this year.

I really like this tree, but it's not for me in zone 10. I wish it was. When I lived in the central valley of California, where black walnuts grow more-or-less wild, we would organize "nut gathering" parties in the fall to glean along the roadways and byways of the valley.

In my neighborhood here in Garland, Texas (a suburb of Dallas), there are many fine examples of this wonderful tree. Here in the Dallas area it is used as a landscape tree. This tree is also found all over East Texas where it is found in the Pine and Hickory/Pecan woods.

I have an approximately 15-year-old Black Walnut that isn't producing nuts this year for some reason. All other aspects of the tree seem to be fine. There are plenty of leaves, water and the conditions haven't changed any this year from years past.

I love the tase of these nuts but be careful taking off the husk - the black dye will NOT wash off your hands or clothes. Eventually it will wear off your hands but your clothes will be permanently staind.

All parts of this plant contain the juglone toxin. Do not use the leaves for mulch or grind the limbs for mulch. There are approximately 80 plants that can be grown successfully within the rootzone of this tree. The NC agricultural extension service has a very compressive list.

The common thought is that Black Walnut will not grow in this region but my mother had them for over 50 years and now I have a few. It survived a snowless winter and a late icestorm with no problems yet visible. A couple handsful of these in Chocolate Chip Cookies wins you many prizes at County Fairs. They can become pesty if you have a lot of squirrels - the long roots make for difficulty in digging them out. I decided to live with that because the leaves are very beautiful and a stand-alone tree is stunning.

It is a beautiful tree which is easy to propagate by putting the nuts 1 to 2" in the ground. Squirels are natural propagators. One and two year old seedlings can be dug up and transplanted. A deep tap root makes it difficult after that. The wood is very desirable for woodworking, easy to work with power tools and hand tools. The grain is beautiful. In my 1/2 acre garden of 75' high trees there are trilium, jack in the pulpit, wild phlox and domestic phlox gone wild. The trilium and jack in the pulpit bloom in May, wild phlox bloom in June and the domestic phlox bloom July into September. All reseed themselves. They make a good companion planting and the toxicity of the black walnut keeps many competitors out.

I love the nuts (but they're an acquired taste); difficult plant to work into most suburban landscapes because it's not a very good neighbor to many plants (it releases a toxin through its roots that cuts way down on competition from nearby plants.)