Aww Nuts...It's That Time of the Year Again.
 

Saturday there was windy and rainy...my walnut tree dropped about half of it's nuts.
The ground was covered and almost impossible to walk on...just like walking on baseballs.
I raked and shoveled them into my XL wheelbarrow....8 crowned loads so far. Looks to be about that much again still hanging in the tree. My compost hill is getting too high...hard to get the wheelbarrow up to the top.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1696787434.jpg

I've got several pecan trees. They haven't produced many pecans the past two years because of drought conditions. Even if they did, they are smaller, and don't get toxic black juice/crud every where.

Looks and sounds like a huge PITA.

^^^
The last two years here have been similar....maybe 3 wheelbarrows for each season.

The tree is close enough to the road that about a quarter of them fall and lay in the road.
Then when a car or truck runs over them the inside nut gets squeezed out like a stone. Makes a lot of noise....esp when it hits the underside of the car.

gas can
match
problem solved.

^^^ It's a huge Black Walnut tree in the front yard. Very nice looking and provides a lot of shade.
Before burning it, I would sell it for the wood.

edit: I measured the circumference....9' 4"

Mast year?

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2020/10/what-is-a-mast-year/

^^^ I think it's closer to a normal year. The last couple years were nice because there was so few nuts. I thought being a very mature tree that it might continue that way...nope.

I have acorns from a big ass Oak raining on my roof now.....More than I've experienced recently... walking on them is like walking on marbles... and the squirrels cant take enough of them away

Let your mower explain it to them:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1696814616.jpg

And perhaps this winter buy one of these to sharpen the blades to come around for a second pass:
edit - not necessarily a HF grinder... you get my drift :)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1696814693.jpg

^^^
I mow with a JD GX335 and pull a 5 hp trac-vac with it.
I've tried lowering the deck to a 2 inch height and picking them up with the trac-vac. The trouble is that it's impossible to do that without running over the nuts with the tractor tires and pressing them into the sod. Once that happens...it leaves a 2 inch round 'no grass' spot until the nut is dug out.

Just show the nuts the Khan pic. They will up and leave!

The first year we lived here....I was out raking and picking up the walnuts when a car stopped.
The guy asked if he could have them. He said he puts them on his gravel driveway and drives over them for months until the skin and pulp is gone and then cracks the nuts open to eat them.

He picked up almost a truck bed full and left.....never saw him again.

Pecan trees here. Not nearly as bad as black walnuts.

That'll be a nice pay out, if you ever have to take it down.
https://8billiontrees.com/trees/black-walnut-tree-value-calculator/

^^^ I have asked a couple hardwood tree buyers about removing and selling the wood to them.
Both said that without any guarantees of no staples, nails, or wires in the core, they wouldn't do it.

I can't guarantee that...the tree was half the size when we moved in.

The guy next to me when we lived in VA had a walnut tree that shed different stuff all year long…right onto my patio! I told him I would pay to have it cut down. He said no he was going to cut it down and collect the money for it. He did cut it down in one big long piece, even had to have a crane come in there. Then it laid there for months as he could not find anyone who wanted it for the exact reason you describe…the saw mills were worried about messing up their expensive saw blades.

Had a patient sold the Walnut tree in his yard to a guy who made rifle stocks. There was some miscommunication, ending with, "Wait a minute, I am buying the wood and paying [I]you[I]

North of 10 grand it was

True. A tree that big might have a few bicycles and a car tied up in it.

Picked up another 5 wheelbarrows full today. It dried off enough so that I could mow under and around the tree to make raking the rest of them easier. I lowered the deck height to two inches and now when they fall they won't be buried in the grass.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1696893028.jpg

I would imagine that such a tree could bring a nice price from a furniture maker.

Jimmy Hoffa might be in there.... I would SO cut that dang thing down .... just to see :D

Nutz :(

Besides the detritus rain, flowers/gardens don't seem to grow well under walnut trees. Something about their chemistry.

When they are planted next to sidewalks it becomes a serious tripping hazard at night.
I unfortunately had to remove one of those, but only because it was located next to the foundations of two houses. I was bummed.

Other than that they are valuable to the property and beneficial to wildlife.

Instead of fighting it, every single year, why not leave a larger circle un-mowed?
Or hard-scape it to remain wild? (ring of rocks with larger hearty vegetation or a yard of multch)
Go with the flow.

^^^ Walnuts to pick up on top of rocks, plants, and mulch....yeah right.

Raked up two more loads this morning. Looks to be about that much left in the tree...almost done.

I'm surprised no one would touch that tree, there is a lot of value in Black Walnut.....I found a guy near me who runs a small sawmill, I've seen his big saw in action and staples and nails are pretty much inconsequential..

Earlier this summer I picked up a piece of Black Walnut to make a table out of.. This piece was $275..

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1696953242.jpg

Imagine getting 100 similar slabs out of a tree.... that would cover having to replace a few blades..

Not sure if these embeds will work

https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/18220271776053165/


I have no idea the cost of a piece like this... I imagine in the thousands..

https://www.instagram.com/p/CcXtF87jyS_/


Finished table



http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1696953538.jpg

Mow on high or weedwack. Pick. Mow again.
(?)
"walnut tool to gather crop"
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1696954415.jpg

^^^ That's a beautiful table Tim.
The latest guy that I asked about wanting the wood wanted to know if the property was once a farm.
I know it was about 80 years back and told him so. He said no because of that and it was a single tree and needed a few to make it worthwhile.

I bought one of those about 10 years back to pick them up. They don't work on black walnuts. The wires will cut into the outer pulp and then they stick to the wires.

The best way to pick them up is to mow the lawn very short before they fall. Rake them into piles of about 6 ft dia.
I use a #12 poly scoop shovel with a flat lip to slide under the walnuts and load into the wheelbarrow.
As long as the grass is short...it goes easy.

When shoveling them into the barrow, you quickly learn where to position the handle to get a full scoop every time.

When life gives you walnuts, make walnut pie. :D

I'm not a fan of walnuts...if it was a cashew tree, I'd be guarding every nut.:)

Around here they go for about $6 to $8 per 5 gallon bucket.

My parents founf out you can't have apple trees wiithin 100' of a walnut orchard.

The Amish here will buy them. Last year I saw a sign for $40/pick-up load.
Loading them into a p/u (which I don't have) and unloading them into their barrels is just two more times handling them. My back corner of the yard graveyard is ok for me.

The meat/pulp of a black walnut has medicinal value also. Just below the outer skin is about a half inch layer of black paste.

I have bought organic hand wart removal that is 100% black walnut paste. If you have a hand wart that won't go away...spread some of the paste on it and cover it with a band-aid. Do that for a week or so keeping the paste fresh.

It will start an infection around the wart and kill it. About 10 days of this and the wart and it's root will fall out.

Peppers and acids are highly corrosive to the human digestive system. Nicotine is highly toxic in pure form. Alcohol is poisonous. As are many plants without specific preparation. So are many vitamins and minerals in larger doses.

Yet we still manage to dance so close to the fire. Amazing.

^^^ If I had only known what walnut pulp could do...I could prob get a few thousand one oz. containers to sell at $25 each. (that's what I paid for it)

In the mean-time, picking them up by hand leaves a black greasy mess that is hard to wash off.

Back in the day, Audi had a special tool to hook up to the intake on the Audi 5000 to blast the carbon off the back of the intake valves with crushed walnut shells.

^^^ Yes, the shells of the inner nut are used for blasting metal...instead of sand.
https://www.norkan.com/Norkan_Store/surface-prep-100/blast-media-169/walnut-shell-171/

When cars run over the nuts, the inner shell is never broken, but somehow squirrels find a way to get at the inner walnut. Their front teeth must be very sharp.

Walnut shells are a standard air blast abrasive. We used to use them to clean Gas Turbine compressors, before they moved to Turbine buckets with tiny cooling passages.

I have a patent on using CO2 pellets for compressor cleaning.

Back on Topic - wear gloves around the black walnuts.

With the rake, scoop shovel, and wheelbarrow....I never touch the walnuts by hand.
I do wear a pair of chore gloves for the raking...otherwise I get blisters quickly.

Three more wheelbarrow loads today....the weather is perfect for doing it. 55 degrees and sunny. :)

A pic today of the culprit tree.
Lots of leaves that haven't fallen yet...hard to spot the walnuts hanging on.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1697062282.jpg