Germinating Hickory Nuts

[Marshy]

Hi guys, I have a nice healthy hickory tree up the road (Carya ovata I believe) and thought it would be nice one day to have some of my own. I gathered some nuts and brought them home to attempt germinating my own saplings and hopefully planting them in the future. Can anyone offer some suggestions or source for reading material on this? Im new to germinating trees but not normal garden veggies. Without researching anything I surmise it will be similar. Any help would be appreciated.

One concern I have though is the soil type on my property that I want to seed. The location I have available currently has a lot of healthy Ash that is between 6-14" diameter gowth. Soil is very loomy and rich dark soil that is normally on the wet side all year. There is gradient that carries water down to a surface stream and small ridges and vallies (3-4 ft) to offer some higher ground. I had a DEC forester come walk my property and he said the density it very ideal. The unfortunate thing is the seemingly high probability that the Ash will become unhealth and have to be removed. I figured since good hardwoods take so damn long to grow I would start sooner than later. Not familar with hickory and its liking to loomy soil but I thought I would give it a try. Would I be better trying some sort of oak? I could probably gather some photos once the leaves and vegitation dies down in a month or so... thoughts?

 

[kyle1!]

Hickory is an upland tree and does not like a wet soil so good drainage is needed. If the soil does not drain I would find something else to plant but you never know. Plant some and see how they do. Nuts usually need a length of cold to germinate so get them planted before the ground freezes, apply mulch or leaves and fence the area to keep the critters out. To make sure you are planting good seed float the nuts in water, the ones that sink are good and the ones that float are bad. Hickory grows very slow so you may only see a 2 to 4 inch stub the first year.

I live on a 5 acres rectangle piece of land with 2/3ft depth of rich black clay soil. It has 3 different types of soil. The land on the north end is always wet ( the property drains that way) and I cannot get an upland tree (hickory red oak etc) to grow. On the southeast corner which is the driest part I have been able to grow a Northern Pecan (hickory family) tree. This tree just refuses to die even with rabbits chewing it to the ground for the first 2 to 3 years. It was a 6 to 8 inch long seedling when planted and now it is approaching 8/10ft.

Hope this helps

 

[Marshy]

Yes it does, thanks. I plan on improving the drainage down stream and hope it will help dry ou the area I want to plant. Is there another hardwood species I should attempt to plant that would like the loomy soil and high moisture more than Hickory, maybe an Oak or Locust? I have some black cherry but not much.

 

[kyle1!]

I have had success growing swamp white oak and a hybrid bur oak (seed supposely from a tree that was in a swamp with roots underwater for weeks at a time). I have 4 large thorny locust on my place but none are in that wet area. I have some walnut and hackberry also growing there.

 

[Marshy]

The area I want to plant extends up an eastern facing slope so there is drier land available I can try normal oaks ect...

 

[PJM]

Agreed that shagbark hickory will develop best on drier, better drained ground, though I occasionally see it growing on somewhat poorly drained soils. I would second the suggestion of swamp white oak - they do well on wet sites. For the dry sites also try chestnut oak and black oak.

Hickory nuts need to be cold stratified for about 2 months. Sow the seeds now, about 2 inches deep and mulch well. For help with growing woody plants from seeds check out the Woody Plant Seed Manual.

 

[Coppice]

Marshy, do a search with "Cold Stratification" as search-words.

The short answer to your question is, tree seed needs a winters rest of low light, cold and damp in order to germinate.

Using a deep 2.5 gallon pot with a plank over the top to keep critters out of your planting is probably a good idea.

 

[Marshy]

It seems like the biggest problem I have is mold. Not sure if the white mold is bad or a sign that have too much moisture but I abandoned the hickory for this year but kept a big pile of acorns. to try it on. I will do some reading, thanks!

 

[Coppice]

Marshy, the more I grew seedling trees like they was bonsai (in very fast draining soil), and left them out in the cold for a winters slumber the better they did.

Wide pot, like a daffodil paper-white pan. Soil that is 1/2 and 1/2 bark mulch and chicken grit.

Seed planted shallowly, a plank to keep varmit-donated seed out. Uncover the mess in the spring and tree babies wake up like magic.

 

[Jumpsuit]

I have been experimenting for a couple of years with tree seeds, mostly oak, with advice from this book: Growing Trees from Seed, Henry Kock, isbn-13 978-1-55407-363-4 My first year I tried to grow shagbark hickory and black walnut along with the oaks. I had 0 of about 20 hickory nuts successful and 1 out of about 50 walnuts, using cold stratification in the refridgerator crisper. Since then I've been doing mostly acorns and germination rate is higher, but I've noticed some years just produce better nuts than others.

 

[Coppice]

Jump; part of what works in 'cold stratification' is greater than just what comes from inside a fridge. Cold stratification outdoors has cool temperatures that change around, and sun warmed soil in days and colder soil at night. Those cycles are harder (for me at least) to create indoors.

I always got higher germination from benign neglect outdoors.

 

[Jumpsuit]

Hi Coppice: I can appreciate that temperature rhythms outdoors, in nature, would seem to be preferable over human made cool temperature. Less interference and also let the acorn do what it was made to do, and not try to force it. It's also handy to not have to periodically moisten the cold stratification bags. The white oak seedling on my avatar, my best of that species so far, was simply planted in the fall.

So far though, in the three years I have been doing this, my best ratio of seeds gathered to viable seedlings was accomplished with cold stratification in a refrigerator, 10 keeper seedlings (well what I think will be keepers, only time tells) of bur oak out of maybe 100 seeds gathered from a single tree. That was three years ago, my first go at this. Haven't had as good of a year since but am really hopeful for next spring. Had many, many red oak acorns this year, and have dozens of already-germinated white oak. Next time I get hickory nuts I will just plant a bunch in the cold frame.

 

[Coppice]

I have a couple food island and reforestry projects in the works. So for this fall I have in pots, out of doors waiting for spring with: rosa rugosa, chinkapin, chestnut, hazelnut, cling peach, red baron peach, angelcot, witch hazel, antonovka and other generic apple seed.

Some will, an' some won't germinate. But mostly enough do to keep my flabby self busy.