Black Walnut: Never Plant A Black Walnut Tree

Many years ago a "friend" gave me a Black Walnut sapling. This innocent looking tree was almost three feet tall and had volunteered near his house. With but minor trepidation I planted it behind my house. I knew that many plants did not do well under a Black Walnut, but what harm could this little thing do. You may not be able to look a gift tree in the mouth but at least accept it with suspicion. It may develop teeth and bite. I have since learned that any plant that volunteers with impunity can be classified as a weed. My weed is now over 60 feet tall and the monster overreaches more than it deserves.

Never plant a Black Walnut tree. Many things can not grow anywhere near a Black Walnut tree due to a toxic substance exuded from its roots. Although some trees such as Japanese Maples and the Eastern Redbud are tolerant of the Black Walnut Rhododendrons and Azaleas are not. I think the reason I have lost three Pieris japonica was my voracious sapling growing wildly and destroying competition in its path. A pair of Rhododendrons might be next. Little did I realize that the lethal reach of this tree could exceed it spread by 50 feet. Native Americans even used the rotted hulls of the nuts to tranquilize fish. Although toxicity is concentrated in the buds, nut hulls and roots, you should not use the leaves, bark or wood chips for mulch, even after composting. In the fall I shred the maple leaves for mulch and compost. I haul away the walnut leaves and the innumerable leaf stems.

Aha, you may think that covers all the flaws of the Black Walnut. Little do you know. You may snicker watching a squirrel working away for a long time at the outer husk of a nut only to encounter the almost indestructible inner hull with its miniscule nut-meat. Just wait until you have to rake up the pile of husks from under the tree. In the spring and early summer you again encounter, in absentia, the squirrel's work. There, lurking in the flower beds and borders and even in the grass, are little Black Walnut trees that the squirrels mislaid. I have lifted a few dozen this year. Those were the easy ones. When they are buried in the midst of large shrubs they may not be noticed until they are on the way to being real trees. I gave two of these to a neighbor. He was smart. The next year he had second thoughts and cut them down.

The jug is not all empty. In the early fall I like to pick up some fallen nuts and inhale the strong, lemony fragrance of the fuzzy globes. Then I must dispose of them where they will do no harm. I am sometimes tempted to heave them at the squirrels but they look at me with trust tempered by suspicion and I relent. I do chase them off the bird feeder though. Some hardy souls actually collect these things for their nutmeats. One way I have heard to remove the outer husk is to place the nuts in your driveway and run over them with your car. Another is to find a seller of the nuts. The kernel does not separate readily from the deeply scarred very hard shell so this is the coward's way out.

Perhaps, someday I will be saved from further difficulties by tree robbers. A single Black Walnut burl can sell for $5000, up to $30,000 in Italy. Or I can grit my teeth and do it myself.