Shagbark Hickory walnut
(Carya Ovata)
Description and growing
”Shagbark Hickory” (Carya Ovata) walnut is common in the eastern United States and southeastern Canada. Currently, it is quite common in Europe, but mainly it is grown for ornamental plantings and in botanical gardens.
It is a slow-growing walnut tree more than 30 meters high that can live for more than 400 years. A characteristic feature of the species is the structure of the bark of the trunk – it is gray, with vertical cracks, and forms long ribbons. The leaves are 30-60 cm long, with five (less often three or seven) leaflets.
“Shagbark Hickory” nuts are 3-4 cm long, with a thin shell and they are edible. They have an excellent, sweet taste, so they are a favorite food both among people and among animals and birds. Nuts are a very valuable product that contains many vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and micro and macro elements.
“Shagbark hickory” is very strong and hard, the wood has been used to be used to make spokes and wooden carts. It is a very frost-resistant tree, as it can withstand temperatures down to -40 degrees. Grows well on fertile, well-drained, loamy neutral or slightly acidic soils. This tree is difficult to transplant because it has a large Taproot. The plant is self-fertile, but to get a good harvest, it is recommended to plant several trees at a distance of about 10 meters.
Genetics of our seedlings
All our nut tree seedlings are grown from the best seeds of mother trees from Canadian varieties that give seedlings a better chance to adapt to the Latvian climate, soil, and light regime and make them stronger and more durable compared to seedlings that are propagated vegetatively. But it does not allow the classification of them as one hundred percent seedlings of varieties, as for the harvest of nuts there is a need for cross-pollination with other nut trees.
Mother tree varieties
All of our seedlings have mother tree varieties with excellent taste, large core size, thin shell, increased frost resistance, and rich yield. Genetically they may differ in sizes, shapes, ripening terms, and regularity of yield.