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Best Time of Year to Harvest Nuts from Walnut (IL)

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From: Beth Kozman City: Chicago, IL
Hello - my family owns some farm land in Clark County IL with a huge walnut grove. We want to harvest walnuts and some of the trees. Can you suggest when is the best time to do this? We do not live in the area, so need to plan a trip when the walnuts fall. I seem to recall this would be sometime in September or October.
	Extension Message From: Jay Hayek Extension Specialist, Forestry Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences jhayek@illinois.edu
Hi Beth: I would say early September through early October is the best time to harvest nuts from black walnut -- just have to beat the squirrels !!! Interestingly, this is one of the worst walnut 'nut' crops in east-central Illinois I've seen in my 20+ career. Black walnut tends to be a consistently good producer of nuts, but not this year in my part of Illinois...very odd! Best of luck!
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