Hello, I currently have a stand of 15 yr old black walnut trees which were started from grafts of the genetically superior Purdue #1 variety. I am interested in planting another stand. If I chose nuts from the grafts, will these nuts have the same genetic superiority as the grafts or is that lost?

Thank you, Robert

Hi Robert:

Unless you control for pollination, you will only know one parent (i.e., the mother tree from which you collected the seeds from). To achieve maximum benefits, it is obviously desirable to know both parents, which is what you achieve with known grafted stock.

Direct Quote from Purdue University:

"A second black walnut planting stock option is to use seedlings produced from nuts collected from superior trees. With these trees, the "mother" tree is known to contain superior characteristics; but, the quality and characteristics of the "father" tree are unknown.

Preliminary tests have shown that the growth performance of these trees is intermediate-the seedlings have more rapid growth and better form, on average, than common nursery stock, but do not perform as well as the superior grafts. The cost of these seedlings is considerably less than that of grafted stock, but still much higher than nursery stock."

Source: http://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/FNR/FNR-149.html