Black Walnut Branches Breaking

[stick]

I have (what was) a beautiful black walnut tree in my back yard. It seems anytime we get a modest wind I lose a branch. This past weekend without much wind at all, I lost one of the bigger branches. I woke up and it's bent over and the top is lying on the ground. When removing them from the yard, they certainly are heavy since this year's crop of nuts looks large. The branch itself seems much heavier than a normal tree. Any suggestions or comments? This tree is a great tree and offers great shade and I'd hate to see the thing die entirely.

[Rick]

I've had the same problem. Lost one very nice main branch in rain and wind. I also have one of the best black walnut crops I can remember having.

I've started stripping the black walnuts I could get to and it seems to have helped. Not sure if it really has but I haven't lost a branch I've stripped even a little from since.

[stick]

Do you have enough history to know if I'm at the beginning of the end, or will my tree survive (in your opinion)? Also, I'm wondering if the tree will somehow fill itself in, but I'm sure that will take a number of years if the tree even makes it.

[Powerstroke]

I'm sure that your tree will make it for a while. The main concern is if there was any rot in the area where the branch broke. You can tell by looking for discolored or soft punky wood on the broken branch. Another cause would be poor attachment if it broke at a a crotch of two or more branches. If it was a tight "V" shaped crotch then it could've been a poor junction and would've failed eventually.

Two things you can do to help prevent this from happening again would be to have it pruned and remove some of the fruit. Pruning will reduce the amount of weight from leaves and leaves catch water and that adds weight too. Leaves also catch the wind and B. Walnut is a very stiff wood and doesn't bend much so a strong wind will likely break the branch rather than it just bending in the wind.

Removing fruit will greatly reduce the weight on the branches. Since almost nobody actually uses the fruit its nice to knock them out of the tree before the squirrels get to them and leave sharp husks on the ground or they stain your sidewalk and driveway.

[stick]

Thanks for the updates. I'm going to get a limbing saw with the snipper option, and start cleaning some of the nuts off.

[BobT]

Does anyone have any "clean" ways to process walnuts? We have a few trees and I thought it might be fun to try it but it is a messy job.

Bob

[stick]

A few years back (after learning the hard way that you're hands stain and NOTHING removes it) I collected the nuts and when the outer skin was soft, I used 2 2x6s and set a few on a 2x6 on the ground and then set the other one on the nuts and gently stand on it and move it around slightly. This more or less got the skin off and I was left with the shell exposed. I used rubber gloves for all handling of the skins. From here I had a hard time cracking the shells. I broke 2 nut-crackers so that is my next challenge I'm faced with. Each year I learn a bit. I used my bench vice on a few, and the nuts have a nice sweet flavor.

[kunk]

I just have one tree that's about 16 inches in diameter and must be 75-100 feet high. I can't get to the nuts so I pick them up off the ground when they fall. At least I get the ones the squirrels don't get. I've found that a whole bag of nuts will yield only a small baggy of meats. It doesn't seem worth all the trouble. It this normal or do you guys get more meat out of a nut?

[stick]

I've only gotten into a few of those suckers, so I haven't measured meat output. They taste good, but for the most part, I think my nuts will come from Cub.