Few people know that in order to grow a walnut in the country it is not necessary to acquire a seedling - it is enough to plant the fruit of the tree correctly. To learn how to do this, read our material.
Selection of planting material
Whether the process of growing a tree from a fruit is successful will depend on the selection of quality planting material.
First of all you should know that the fruit must be from fresh harvestwhich did not give in to drying, or to heat treatment. In old nuts, germination is reduced significantly. Thus, it is necessary to acquire fruits for planting or to look for them from familiar summer residents and gardeners starting in September. The nuts should not be trusted, since it is not known whether they were processed or how fresh they are. The best option would be, of course, nuts collected by themselves. 
The fruit must be fully ripe, and its shell - without any stains, damage. It should be thin. Select should be larger specimens. Before sampling, it is advisable to try the nuts and choose the most delicious.
The variety must be selected such that can grow in your area. There are many varieties that are suitable for growing in the northern regions with cold winters, for example, "Ideal" or hybrids of walnut and gray or Manchurian nuts.
Preliminary preparation
Before planting the nuts will need to prepare - by exposure to cold, water and sunlight. If you plan to plant the plant in spring, then it is necessary to stratify. For its implementation, the nut fruits are placed in a container with moistened sand, which is placed in a place with a temperature of 0 to + 5 ° C, for example, in a refrigerator or cellar. Stratification lasts from three to four months. Every three to four weeks, the nuts will need to be removed and aired, and the sand moistened. After stratification, planting material can be placed in the ground.
There is another way of spring planting - put the nuts for a month at a temperature below + 10 ° C, and then soak for 2-5 days (at room temperature). They should be placed in a container with water to check which are suitable for planting and which have great chances to germinate. It is necessary to select those specimens that have fallen to the bottom, you should get rid of those floating on the surface. From the water you need to immediately remove the fruit, which opened the shutters of the shell and the root appeared.
Did you know? A famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci "The Lady with an Ermine" is written in oil on a walnut plank with dimensions of 54.8 by 40.3 cm.
In order for the spine to mature and fully grown, the fruit is dipped into containers with wet sawdust or sand, which are placed in a room with a temperature of + 25-28 ° C. In 5-10 days, the roots will grow to 0.5-1 cm. After this, the containers should be removed to a cool place before disembarking. 
It is possible to grow both peeled and unpeeled fruits, however the first ones sprout better and faster.
To clean them, you should very carefully remove the top shell and do not hurt the inner. It is advisable to perform the procedure with gloves, since the green outer layer leaves difficult to wash off marks on the skin.
Important! If the inner shell is injured, the nut may not germinate or the next germ will fall ill.
At spring planting, in April, the selected nuts will need to be dried. They are laid out on a horizontal surface in a single layer and put in the sun for a couple of days. After that they are sent for 2-3 days for final drying in a shaded place. Drying with special devices is prohibited.
When autumn planting stratification, germination and drying of planting material is not needed.
Video: Nut Stratification
Choosing a place on the site
An adult walnut tree reaches a great height - up to 25 m, and widely spreads the crown. The trunk grows up to 3-7 m in diameter, besides it develops a powerful root system. Therefore, for a tree you need to choose a large area, away from other plants, so that the nut does not cover them with its shadow. The same applies to buildings - the roots simply can harm the foundation. The distance between two walnut trees must be at least five meters.
It is interesting to read about the benefits and dangers of walnuts for women and men, as well as about the properties of the shell, partitions and green walnut.
Berry bushes can be planted at the same time with a nut - until the tree reaches sizes that will hinder their growth and development, they can successfully give you six to nine berries harvests.
It is also important that in the area where it is planned to plant the plant, there was no close groundwater deposition. 
Better development and fruiting can be expected from trees planted in wet carbonate loams, black soil on well-lit areas. Nuts prefer a neutral and slightly alkaline soil environment. The soil before planting will need to be prepared in advance, making fertilizer and moisturizing.
Did you know? In China, a record was recorded in the speed breaking of walnut shells by hand. A resident of this country, Li Weijun in 55 seconds coped with 302 fruits.
Planting seeds in open ground
So, as you already understood, a nut can be planted in the fall - in September-October, and in the spring - in the middle of April. A planting pit should be prepared with a depth of 60-80 cm and the soil in it should be fertilized with manure (one bucket), superphosphate (one glass) and wood ash (two glasses). It is better to do it in advance, about a month or two before landing.
Fruits must be planted in holes 30 to 30 cm. Three or four nuts are placed in each well. They put a vertical seam up. If you do not adhere to this recommendation, the plant may begin fruiting three years later.
Planting pattern should be in the form of a triangle or a square with sides of 20-25 cm. If several plants germinate, then the strongest one will have to be chosen. 
After placing the fruit in the hole, they are covered with soil. When planting in the autumn, watering is not necessary, but the ground will need to be covered with a 10- or 20-cm layer of peat, dry foliage, grass, spruce or sawdust mulch: it is necessary to preserve moisture and protect young plants from sunlight.
When spring planting shoots appear after 10 days. In the autumn, the height of the seedlings already reaches 10-15 cm.
Read also about the cultivation of chestnut walnut.
When planting in the fall, shoots should be expected in May next year. There are cases when the nuts sprout after a year.
Video: features of autumn nut planting
Further care
In the future, care will be in the watering in the summer, loosening the soil, mulching young trees and pruning adults.
The first watering is carried out in May. It should be made twice a month. It will take about 4 liters per plant. In August, the humidification stops so that the tree can tolerate the winter and frost normally.
Trees whose trunk has reached a height of 4 m can be watered less often.
Plants up to two years in the winter mulch. In the spring, in the first weeks of March, starting from the second year of life, they produce formative pruning, and subsequently - once or twice a year - sanitary pruning.
Get acquainted with the features of pruning trees in spring, autumn, summer.
Branches that grow at an acute angle are cut, so-called "tops", as well as those that are too close to each other, dry and weak.
Top dressing is made twice a year - with nitrogen fertilizers in spring and phosphorus-potassium in autumn.
Important! Before the tree begins to bear fruit, it should not be fed with mineral fertilizers. This is fraught with the development of bacteriosis.
How to sprout a walnut in a pot
Prepared fruits can be immediately sent to a permanent place or first placed for germination in pots, and then landed already grown and strong seedlings. When choosing the latter method, you can achieve better germination and successful wintering of a young plant. For its implementation it is necessary to take care of the purchase of containers and the preparation of the substrate. 
Soil mixture
Fertile soil for germination can be purchased at a specialty store, as well as cook yourself. For this take on one part of turf land, peat and humus.
Capacity
Capacity is better to pick up the volume and depth 25-30 cm. Its size should be sufficient for the development of the root system. The second tank, for small shoots, should be twice as bulky and deeper.
Landing
Fruits are planted in the middle or near the end. April. At first, the pot is filled to one third by the drainage on which the soil mixture is placed.
The fruit is placed in the hole with a depth of 7-8 cm butt-end downwards and sprinkled with the substrate. After that, it is moistened and kept at a temperature of + 25-28 ° C and abundant illumination from 5 to 10 days. You can cover the container with glass to create the effect of a mini-greenhouse. In this case, periodic ventilation will be required.
The first shoots need to wait one to two weeks. 
Also, the fruit can be planted in the fall pots. After landing, they are sent to a cool place, for example, a balcony or cellar, until February. Then they need to be put in a warm room and moistened regularly. Shoots should appear after 10 days. After that, they are transferred to a large container, which is placed on the window sill and continue to be regularly moistened.
Read also about the diseases and pests of walnut.
Seedlings care
Young seedlings will need good lightingin the shade they will develop poorly. It is important to carefully ensure that the earth ball does not dry out. Seedlings need to moisten regularly and abundantly, but to prevent stagnant moisture, because it is fraught with the development of rot.
When it gets warmer, the plant should be hardened - every day for a few hours to take to the street, gradually increasing the duration of the airing. It is necessary to ensure that the tree does not fall under drafts.
When it is hot in the street, the roots will need to be protected from overheating. Carrying them out of the room, they should be covered with a damp cloth or put in a bucket of cool water.
For feeding plants, you must use complex fertilizers with a high content of potassium. Fertilizing seedlings recommended twice a month during the active period of their growth and development. 
If the nut is planned to be further grown in a container, then before it reaches the age of four, it will have to be transplanted annually into a larger pot or tub, each time cutting off a third of the root system. After the tree reaches the age of four years, it is transplanted once every five years, and annually it is pumped to the trunk of the fertile soil.
Such a nut can form any crown by spring pruning. The first pruning is done in two years. Crohn is amenable to form to four years. In the future, only sanitary pruning of old and weak shoots will be required. It is produced in spring and autumn.
We advise you to read about the cultivation of nuts: cashew, black walnut.
Transplant to a permanent place
If it is planned to plant seedlings from a pot into an open ground, then the recommended period for it is one year after planting, that is, in April-May. At this time, the stems should reach a height above 20 cm.
The landing pit is prepared with a depth of about 1 m, fertilized with manure with superphosphate and wood ash. The plant is carefully removed from the pot without damaging the root system. Taproot is cut to one third: this will give an impetus to the development of lateral roots. The seedling is placed in the soil so that the root neck is 3-4 cm above it. The planting pit with a tree is covered with soil, compacted and abundantly moisturized. To protect the trunk of a young plant from breakage, it is tied up to a peg hammered alongside.
Further care will be needed the same as for seedlings planted immediately in open ground. We described its features in one of the sections above.
Video: planting nut seedlings in a permanent place
When will begin to bear fruit
Some gardeners and gardeners are not in a hurry to plant nuts for one reason - you can not eat the fruits soon. If the tree was planted in accordance with the recommendations and it was followed by quality care, the earliest fruiting may occur seven years later. Usually, the first fruits appear in 10-15 years.
Fruits begin to clean as soon as cracks appear on the green peel.
It is interesting to read about the benefits and hazards of nuts for the human body: cashews, hazelnuts, hazel, macadamia, Brazilian, cedar (for women), pistachios, pecans, blacks, almonds, peanuts.
So, walnut is a fairly well-known tree, which can be found on most dacha plots. Its popularity is due to ease of planting and care, tasty and healthy fruits. Growing a nut is easy from the fruit. Planting seed method under the force even a novice gardener. If you use the recommendations for proper planting, you will be able to eat nuts from a tree planted and grown on your own after 10-15 years.
