Nut production indicator of tree health?

[kkirt1]

I have several walnut trees that were here when I built my house three years ago. The tops are looking a little sparse on two of the trees. They are all producting an abundance of walnuts. Is that a good sign? I thought I read somewhere on this site that when a tree is stressed it will not produce nuts.

Thoughts?

 

[helpmytrees]

Walnut trees obviously produce fruit by nature. Some people seem to think that certain trees fruit in cycles by a certain number of years. I would say that I would suspect this although I have done no such study myself.

I believe what you are refferring to is the fact that some trees will also flower/fruit more as a symptom of stess, or increased fruiting due to extreme stress so as to provide species survival.

Unless there has been some factor involved that would have increased the stress on the trees (root compaction, severe pruning/canopy loss) more so than normal climate changes, I wouldn't be concerned about the thin canopy and heavy fruiting.

 

[Elmore]

Walnut trees... thin canopy .

I think that those two often go hand in hand. Many Walnut that I see seem to have thin canopies, especially near the end of the growing season.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

I don't think there is a definitive answer to why nut/seed production varies from year to year. I suspect it's a combination of factors.

 

[Sheshovel]

And also trees will produce an abundance of nuts right before they die also,but with a walnut tree,they usually produce lots of nuts , not to worry.

 

[trees4est]

Walnuts are also one of the first trees to lose their leaves every year. Were the crowns thinner in the top all year? How close to the trees did any construction activity (digging, filling, trenching, traffic, whatever) come? Often it takes three or more years for construction stress to express itself.

 

[Sylvatica]

Nut trees' cyclical output (separate from individual tree health and climatic factors) is referred to as masting. This is variable, and a theory is that the trees have adapted to changing their mast crop so that the quantity of seed produced can occaisionally exceed what the dependent species would be able to consume. In other words, produce a somewhat regular quantity of seeds for 2 or 5 years to stabilize the population of animals which feed on them, then over-produce a huge crop which the animals couldn't even get around to eating, even if they were stashed away by them.