Collins Kids Black Walnut Plantation

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Re: Collins Kids Black Walnut Plantation

Postby George Collins » Wed Aug 22, 2012 1:26 am

Guy,

Rain graced us with its presence on July 4th.

Rain has graced us with its presence every day since July 4th.

Losses have continued to mount as we have swung from one extreme to another. Crop loss probably exceeds 75%.

Those that were in the ground those first couple weeks had about a 75% success rate. Those that went in most recently were dang nigh a complete loss.

I noticed just a couple days ago that the black walnuts from whence last years seed was gathered have already started dropping.

Before the month is out, the kids and I will be heading back into those very same woods with buckets in hand.

The bell has sounded for Round #2.

I am bloody but unbowed.
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Re: Collins Kids Black Walnut Plantation

Postby pa_friendly_guy » Wed Aug 22, 2012 1:40 am

I am saddened to hear about losses that High. 75% is a very high death rate. Since the trees that you planed early did much better do you feel getting the trees into the ground earlier made all the difference, or was the dry spell that came later the real reason the later trees did poorly? Both might have been a factor, but the lack of rain for a newly planted seedling would make more sense to me. The earlier trees had already started to grow their roots befor the rain stopped and I am guessing that is why they survived at a much better rate. Even with 25% of the trees growing that is a large number of total trees. What, maybe 200 to 250 walnut trees growing on your land. That is a Huge number when you think about it. Your 10' X 10' grid was very close to start with. you expected some to die, and you plan on thinning a huge number out in a few years. Maybe you don't need to replace each and every one of the trees. Consider this your 1st thinning, ;)
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Re: Collins Kids Black Walnut Plantation

Postby boo » Wed Aug 22, 2012 3:56 am

George what rotten luck.....75% crop loss is really shocking, I hope things start improving for you soon.
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Re: Collins Kids Black Walnut Plantation

Postby George Collins » Thu Aug 23, 2012 1:38 am

Thank y'all for the concern but crop losses are as much a part of farming as sweat - inevitable. Having grew up on a farm, I was already accustomed to the occasional loss. The last year Youngblood didn't fence his garden in, he didn't get a single mouthful of food from the ~ 2 acres he planted. Deer wiped his entire garden off the map. That was the year he and two other fellers killed 29 within the area immediately around the garden.

The cool thing about farming trees is that they only have to be gotten right once, to be right for a lifetime. In some instances, such as the monkey puzzle tree when I've been studying up on, many, many, many lifetimes. (How many lifetimes are there in a 1,000 years?) When the trees drop their nuts, I will be there once again picking 'em up and putting them in stratification and running the same play one more time.

Guy, does seem that getting them in early is the key. The more time they have to grow before the stresses of a Mississippi summer are thrust upon them, the better their chances seem to be. Given the harshness of this particular year, the fact that any survived is a true testimony to how resilient trees are. We had our hottest, driest May/June sine the year 1910 (so I heard) followed up by 48 consecutive days of rain. Those conditions are harsh by most standards.

It was as if our year got put on fast forward by ~ 6 weeks. Even now, our weather feels cool and crisp like fall and here it is August. We ought to be sweltering yet the weather is quite pleasant. The conditions outside feel like it should 6 weeks from now. Sawtooth acorns and persimmons have been dropping since the first of August. Might a cool August portend a harsher than normal winter?
"Solve world hunger, tell no one." "The, the, the . . . The Grinch!"

"If you can't beat them, bite them."
George Collins
 
Posts: 535
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2012 10:57 pm
Location: South Central Mississippi, Zone 8a

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