Northern Nut Growers Association Thirty-Fourth Annual Report 1943
Science
Northern Nut Growers Association Thirty-Fourth Annual Report 1943
Northern Nut Growers Association -- Periodicals; Nut trees -- Periodicals; Nuts -- Periodicals
A somewhat sandy soil, particularly if loamy, seems adapted to the
planting of chestnuts and to such trees as do well on ground that will
successfully grow peach trees. If such soil is found upon a hillside or
hill top, so much the better. All such soils, of course, require more
attention to fertility maintenance, for they leach out more quickly than
soils with more of a clay constituent.
Do any of the nut tree species prefer an acid to an alkaline soil? This
is a question our questionnaire does not answer. Thirty correspondents
say their trees are set in a lime soil, fourteen in an alkaline soil
(which may or may not, in the commonly accepted usage of that term, have
lime as a source of alkalinity). Sixty-one report an acid soil. Only
eight of this group report the use of lime, two the use of bone meal,
and one of wood ash as acid correctives. Unfortunately, we did not ask
definitely about the reaction of trees to the use or non-use of lime.
Puzzled by this comparative neglect of lime as a corrective on acid
soils, we asked Mr. H. F. Stoke, of Roanoke, Va., a very accurate and
acute observer, who had reported plantings in both kinds of soils, what
his experience had been. Also we asked Miss Mildred Jones, whose
experience with nut trees is second to none, the same question. Their
replies follow:
Mr. Stoke says: "In response to your inquiry, 'What nut trees, if any,
do best in acid soils?' I should reply that the chestnut leads the list,
followed closely by the mockernut hickory.
"Throughout its native habitat the heaviest stands of the native
chestnuts are to be found on acid soils over granitic and sandstone
formations, rather than on limestone ridges. The best stands are on
granite ridges, partly due, no doubt, to the poverty of sandstone soils.
"The mockernut hickory occurs about anywhere on the poor, acid, clay
soils of the south, its vigor depending on fertility. Shagbark does not
occur on the acid (granitic) Blue Ridge mountains, but is found on the
limestone Alleghanies running parallel only a few miles away. I have
never seen a shagbark hickory between Roanoke and the coast, more than
200 miles away, but it occurs freely to within two or three miles on the
west. The difference is not in elevation or rainfall, but in the soil.
"On the other hand, black walnut occurs on both acid and limestone
soils, but seems to prefer the latter. Part of its preference may be due
to the generally greater fertility and better drainage to be found in
limestone soil. Persian walnut, I believe, when on its own roots, is
more or less allergic to acid soil. Wild hazels grow here on both
limestone and granite soils.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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