Are my walnut trees sick?

[justmeetee]

I live in a mobile home with a tin roof and three (3) black walnut trees that have branches over it. So when a walnut falls I know it. There has always been an occasional walnut falling through out the summer, however this year there have been a lot of soft, under developed nuts falling. So many have fallen that I’m expecting a very low yield of ripe walnuts. This has me wondering if something has infested my trees. I just bought this place 4 years ago and this hasn’t happened before so I have no long term trends for comparison.
Anyone have experience with walnut trees can tell me if this is normal?

[Magicicada]

Not an expert, but I’ve lived with black walnut trees for years. It never fails to amaze me that something that spends so much of its time dormant (last to leaf out, first to drop leaves) and generally appearing on the verge of death can create so many new trees. Anyway, I’ve not noticed this yet this year, but my trees do drop a lot of immature nuts. My understanding is that it is normal and a matter of the tree dropping the excess as it adjusts to current conditions. Crab trees will do the same thing. I think a lot of fruit & nut trees do. Also, black walnuts often do not produce a full crop every summer. It may be every other summer, or even every third summer.

I know what you mean about the tin roof thing–I think of it as just one of the sounds of autumn!

[justmeetee]

Thanks for the info on sheading excess nuts. Wish it would have done that two years ago. They produced so many that the weight snapped several branches off all three trees. One so large that when it fell in front of my door I couldn’t get out without the help of a chainsaw and a neighbor.

[quiltguy]

Have you cracked open a few? If not, do so, you might find evidence of insect infestation. Whatever your trees have, I wish they’d give it to my pear trees. I’d give anything for a major, premature drop of those damned hard and worthless “nutlets.”

Can walnut trees poison themselves with the exudate(juglone) from their roots, that is SO good when it comes to keeping their immediate location free of most vegetation?

[crowmanyclouds]

@Magicicada

{…} black walnuts often do not produce a full crop every summer. It may be every other summer, or even every third summer. {…}

Close, every year, conditions allowing, trees produce “full” crops but,

{…} A related term is “mast seeding,” or masting, which refers to the synchronous production of large numbers of seeds or fruit by a population of plants. Some species, such as red oaks, produce seeds only once every two years. Others, such as white oaks, produce seeds every year, but occasionally have years where an entire population of trees produces an unusually large number of acorns all together. These bumper crop years are known as “mast years.”

Scientists believe that this highly variable but synchronous seed production evolved as a survival strategy. During good mast years, so many seeds are produced that the wildlife population can’t eat all of them, leaving plenty to sprout and grow.[RIGHT]CITE[/RIGHT]

Black walnuts mast every three to five years.

CMC fnord!

[justmeetee]

Thank you crowmanyclowds. I won’t worry then.