Northern Nut Growers Association Incorporated 39th Annual Report: at Norris, Tenn. September 13-15 1948
Science
Northern Nut Growers Association Incorporated 39th Annual Report: at Norris, Tenn. September 13-15 1948
Northern Nut Growers Association -- Periodicals; Nut trees -- Periodicals; Nuts -- Periodicals
[Footnote 18: According to botanical authorities, the honey locust is
polygamo-dioecious; that is, it generally has most of its male flowers
on one tree and most of the female flowers on another tree, but the
trees are not 100 per cent pure in this sex division. In my personal
observations of flowers on grafted trees, including Millwood and Calhoun
and scores of seedlings, both "male" and "female," I never found any
pollen produced in flowers of the "female" trees, but nearly all "male"
trees in the Tennessee Valley will have occasional catkins with one or
more perfect flowers near their terminal ends (the basal flowers being
staminate on the same catkin.) The functionally perfect flowers on such
"male" trees have been observed to set from one to many pods in certain
years, but such pods are generally small as compared with those borne on
"female" trees in the same locality, and I have never observed a heavy
pod crop on any "male" tree. Grafted trees of Millwood and Calhoun
selections in Tennessee were observed to set pistillate flowers, but no
pods (or very few) matured on them unless there was a "male" tree in
flower within insect-flight distance from them. (At Auburn, Alabama,
there were wild honeylocusts, including "male" trees, within a half-mile
of the Hillculture planting of grafted honeylocusts when I saw it in
1943.)
I do not argue that no pollen is ever produced by Millwood or Calhoun
flowers some probably is (though its demonstration might require almost
microscopic examination, in contrast with the easy finding of pods on
"male" trees.) But, in the practical culture of fruiting honeylocusts,
and in our present scope of knowledge of their pollination requirements,
our plantings should include a handful of seedling (thornless) trees or
else some grafted trees of a thornless "male" selection such as the
Smith, in a ratio of about 1 Smith to 10, say, of Millwood.
It is unfortunate that the presumed male mutants of the fruiting
varieties, reported above by Mr. Moore, were destroyed when the
Hillculture plots at Auburn were discontinued. Perhaps similar ones will
show up elsewhere, and they will be worth looking for. Meanwhile, the
Smith variety (originally propagated through a mixup in scionwood
collection), has been demonstrated to be a satisfactory pollinator for
Millwood and Calhoun, and it, as grafted, is also a thornless tree.
Perhaps any thornless male seedling honeylocust tree, if its flowering
period coincides with that of the fruiting variety, might serve equally
well.--Note by J. C. McDaniel.]
Possibilities of Filbert Growing in Virginia
E. L. OVERHOLSER, Head, Department of Horticulture, V. P. I.,
Blacksburg, Virginia
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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