The Nut Culturist: A Treatise on Propogation, Planting, and Cultivation of Nut Bearing Trees and Shrubs Adapted to the Climate of the United StatesFuller, Andrew S. (Andrew Samuel)
Science
The Nut Culturist: A Treatise on Propogation, Planting, and Cultivation of Nut Bearing Trees and Shrubs Adapted to the Climate of the United States
Fuller, Andrew S. (Andrew Samuel)
Nuts
Coming down to the present day, in our search for facts and
information in regard to the propagation of varieties of the walnut,
we may find it interesting to visit California, which, of all the
States of the Union, is perhaps the best adapted to nut culture in
general; besides, a larger number of nut trees of various kinds have
been planted there than elsewhere in this country. It is in
California that we find such men as Felix Gillet, of Nevada City, an
enthusiastic propagator and cultivator of fruit and nut trees, and
especially of the latter, if we may judge by his works and writings
on this branch of horticulture,--and so far as I have been able to
learn, he is the only nurseryman in the United States who has
grafted walnut trees of many different varieties for sale.
In regard to modes of propagation, Mr. Gillet says that the common
mode of shield budding, as employed on fruit trees, fails entirely
with small walnuts from one to three years from the seed, and it
does but seldom succeed even on larger stocks. When tried on large,
old stocks, he advises removing all the wood from the inner side of
the strip of bark on which the bud is situated, and at the same time
have this strip not less than two inches long and as broad as
possible. He describes his mode of grafting walnuts, which does not
differ materially from those already given. That he has never
attained any very remarkable results may be inferred from the
following:
"We will add that the 'grafted walnuts' that we offer were
grafted expressly for us, regardless of cost, by the most
reliable firm to be found in the walnut district in France,
through a process discovered several years ago, and which we
will briefly describe for the benefit of people who may be
inclined to try this new method of grafting very young walnuts.
"One-year-old seedlings of the size of the little finger, or
about one-half inch in diameter at the butt, are selected, the
root cut back short enough to permit the planting of the trees
in pots of three inches in depth; the trees, previously to being
potted, are grafted with cions exactly of the same size, whip or
cleft grafting being used; the pots are then taken to a hot or
propagating house, and a glass bell set over them to prevent the
outside air getting to the grafts, the temperature of the house
being kept day and night, at least for fifteen days, or till the
grafting has taken, to 70° F. When the grafts are well taken and
growing, the glass bells are removed, and the grafts allowed to
grow three or four inches, before the little grafted trees are
set out in nursery rows; it may be preferable, especially in
certain parts of the country, to keep the trees in the pots till
the ensuing spring. Forty to fifty per cent of the grafts will
succeed, and it is the best that can be done.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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