Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Twenty-Fourth Annual Meeting: Downington, Pennsylvania, September 11 and 12, 1933
Science
Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Twenty-Fourth Annual Meeting: Downington, Pennsylvania, September 11 and 12, 1933
Northern Nut Growers Association -- Periodicals; Nut trees -- Periodicals; Nuts -- Periodicals
The object in view mainly was to produce, if possible, a variety or
varieties that could be made a commercial proposition here or elsewhere
in the eastern U. S. Not very much was thought at the time about the
flavor or the quality of the kernel. The main thought was to get away
from the corky substance adhering to the kernel of the most of the
filberts. Barcelona, the main commercial nut in the West, has a lot of
this, which makes the kernel unattractive and is probably more or less
injurious to the digestive system because of the tannin content. After
this fault was eliminated it was going to be necessary to work for size
and quality of the nut.
The filbert blight has not been found on our place, so not much stress
was put on the point of producing a blight-resistant or blight-free
filbert. Probably if we had the filbert blight we would consider it more
seriously.
The method used in crossing these hybrids was to remove the catkins on
the pistillate plant at any time before they developed and scattered
their pollen. The wood containing the catkins to be used for pollinating
was observed closely in order to bring it in at the same time with the
Rush pistillates by cutting and holding back in a cold cellar after the
catkins were swelling well. This was the Barcelona which blooms very
early.
The Italian Red, Cosford and Giant De Halles bloom later than the Rush
so this was another problem. These were forced by cutting and putting in
a sunny window. In cutting wood for pollinating, the cuttings should be
large. The stored up starch in the wood then gives the catkins more to
draw on. Apparently the filbert catkins and pistillates develop entirely
from the stored up starch in the wood and do not draw on the roots at
all. This being so it was figured they would develop just as well off
the bush.
The last pollinating on the Rush was done in the spring of 1921. The
catkins appeared to be all right and the limbs were cut and stored in
the cellar. These were taken from the DuChilly. Finding they did not
respond promptly to warmth it was seen that the catkins were drying up
and getting stiff. As Father was very anxious to use this variety he
tried soaking the limbs in water and then exposed them to the sun. Some
of the catkins only swelled and then appeared to stop. The soaking was
then repeated making it several hours and again they were exposed to the
sun and warmth. Most of them developed nicely after this treatment. As
those on the bush dried up and turned black it was thought probably the
pollen used after treated as just mentioned was not good, but the
pistillates developed promptly after being pollinated and the bush
produced a large crop of nuts. I suppose these had been injured in the
winter, but it would seem surprising that they could be made to develop
artificially and the pollen be good.
It was found that Rush crossed Cosford made the largest nuts but the
kernels of these nuts were not of the best quality.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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