Storage Conditions of Walnut Saplings after Delivery

If you will grow walnut saplings within 4-5 days, you can wrap your roots with a wet material and store them in a closed environment. However, if you need to wait longer (up to 2-3 months, but not later than March) they should be buried in cold storage with 0-4oC and 85-90% relative humidity, or indoors or outdoors, such as hangars. If you are going to use cold air depots, you should cover the roots with a material such as disinfected sawdust.

If you are going to use burial method, it would be useful to disinfect the roots with a substance such as burgundy mix. In addition, the trenches must be opened in the east-west direction, and the saplings should be buried in a vertical or slightly horizontal manner. If buried in a slightly horizontal manner, the roots will better contact the ground. All of the sapling roots in the burial should be in the soil, there should not be an exposed part of the roots. If the space between the saplings cannot be completely filled with soil, the roots will be damaged from wind and winter cold. For this, the roots should be tightly pressed with the soil and air intake should be prevented. In addition, saplings roots can be damaged at -6, -7 ° C. For this reason, it is useful to keep the saplings in an indoor environment (such as a hangar) where there is no air flow where the winter passes harshly.

Garden Planting Shape (Planting Range)

In recent years, the whole world has been prone to frequent planting in order to be able to grow more trees. Thus, fruit percentage has been high, unit cost has been low and quality production has been possible. For this purpose, walnut saplings such as Chandler and Fernor are planted in flat planting area with 8x8 m, 7x7 m on sloping ground, 8x4 m on flat ground, 7x3.5 meters or 7x4 meters on sloped ground. By frequent planting you can double the number of trees you can plant on the land. But after an average of 15 years, cutting the trees between them and bringing them back to their normal range will be more suitable for fruit quality and quantity. If you have done frequent planting in your walnut garden and do not want to make subtilization in 15 years, you should do a very careful pruning.
Opening of Pits and Sapling Planting

It is better not to use auger when opening the sapling hole. Because the auger compresses the soil and slows root growth, it is more correct to open the pit with an excavator or a digger instead. With a minimum of 60 cm, 1,5-2 m trenches are opened and after that the soil burns well under the sun and mixed with animal burrows, a phosphorus fertilizer and topsoil, it is filled to the level where the sapling root shall be planted. In order to prevent the roots from coming into contact with the direct fertilizer, a little amount of pure soil should be thrown again. Try not to throw a lot of fertilizer (3-4 shovels on average) and try to open it from the pit not in summer if possible. After the planting, the soil should be pressed well and water should be given in order to prevent the roots from getting air. Planting on the ridge is more convenient because it will prevent accumulation of water on the bottom of the trees. In addition, the graft point should be 5 cm above the soil level. It is absolutely necessary to prune walnut saplings before planting. Pruning is made by cutting the damaged part of root is any, separating the overlapping roots, cutting 1-2 cm from the end of the pile root, shortening the length of hairy roots for 1/3, and shortening the sapling height in such a way that it shall be 40 cm from the graft point.

The purpose of shortening the walnut sapling is to bring the retention rate to a very high level by providing the first-year root work to the root of the branches and to eliminate the possibility of opening earlier and to bloom later. You can also achieve rapid growth by leaving the strongest one of the first year shoots in short-cut walnut saplings. However, you should take precautions about sunburn when doing so. You can do this by painting the body with white paint and using Kaolin-named coolant.

Fertilization in Walnuts

Fertilization in walnut and other fruit gardens in our country is not considered as much as it is in vegetable or other agricultural products. However, regular and good fertilization is necessary to get plenty of good quality products from the trees and to prolong the fruit life of the walnut tree. There is no fixed program for the fertilization of trees. When determining the type and amount of fertilizer to be used, factors such as soil condition, regional climate, age of the tree and yield status should be taken into consideration. In case of poor growth in walnut trees, the amount of nitrogenous fertilizer should be increased. In addition to this, the tree also needs potassium and phosphorous fertilizers. Nitrogenous fertilizers must be used with caution, not more than absolutely necessary. Excess nitrogen use has a detrimental effect on arid and frost resistance, although it shows the harmful effect more in arid regions. However, even if phosphorus and potassium fertilizers are used excessively, they do not damage since the excess part can be stored in the soil.

It should also be remembered that walnut and other fruit trees need fertilizer during the periods when they give the most fruit.

Why Pruning Made?

Pruning in walnut trees is a method of controlling the structure of the corolla, that is to form a smooth and strong corolla, to prolong the economic life, to improve the quality of the fruit, to provide light penetration and air circulation, to provide good flowering, to remove the damaged parts, and in general meaning, to obtain more income.
Pruning by Time Period
A-) Winter Pruning in Walnut

Winter Pruning in Walnut
It is fertility pruning made in resting period.
Winter pruning contributes waking up the tree. However, heavy winter pruning use the majority of tree energy, encourage excessive physical growth, and reduce fruit growth and development. Therefore, the winter pruning should be made a little lighter.
Winter pruning should be done towards the end of winter as much as possible, otherwise cold damage may occur. If the trees are young, they will suffer more damage from early pruning.
Trees are shaped.

B-) Summer Pruning in Walnut

It is also called green pruning. It is the pruning to complete or correct the winter pruning and to increase exposure to light.
It is especially important to be done during the shaping years. The main purpose is to regulate vegetative development.
If the physical development is excessive, it is necessary to apply summer pruning.
Summer pruning can be done to make it easier to cure the shoot. It should not be made after August 15th. This will reduce the damage of the tree from the winter cold. However, it is not allowed to wake up again after the shortening.
If there are areas in the corolla which are frequent in May-June, dilution will be beneficial when the shoots are newly formed. However, pruning should be done when the length of the shoot reaches 8-10 cm. This is the early pruning; the actual pruning should be done after the 15th of August.
Steep and strong growing shoots should be cut and only dilution cuts should be made.
The actual pruning should be done like the 15th of August to avoid any winter damage that may occur.
With summer pruning, more sunlight is provided to the fruit and fruit quality and size increase is observed.
Trees that are closed off by summer pruning are controlled, and control is provided if the trees pass through their allocated areas.
Cutting should be done from the middle part of the tree to increase light exposure. The point to be noted in the shortening of branches is that they should not be cut in the case of a 30 cm or smaller shoot, cut in thicker branches from the pencil, and shortening should be one third of the length of the branch.

Formation Pruning in Walnuts

In foreign walnut species such as Chandler, Fernor, Pedro, Serr, Payne, Chico, Sundland, Amigo, Tehema, Tulare, Trinta with fertile side branches, goble treatment with top branch must be applied. Goble consist of three main branches. There is one top branch in the middle of three main branch in goble with top branch. The three mentioned main branches should have an angle with the body of 45o - 600 and the strength of growth should be almost the same. Starting from the 2nd year, the support branches are selected for main branches, but these branches should be in development that cannot compete with the main branches. In the second year of the walnut garden, two branches are selected for 3 main branches. For the top branch, a branch is selected to provide the continuation of it. This process is done again in the following years. Another point to note is that the walnut tree is crowned at a distance of 1.20 m to 1.50 m.

The Points to Note in Yield Pruning of Walnut Trees

It is made every year since the year when the walnut trees begin to lay fruit.
It includes winter and summer pruning together.
Yield pruning has the purpose of preserving this shape after the walnut tree has been settled in a certain shape (shape pruning) and the balance has been established.
As the trees age, the yield pruning is done more intensely. Twisted and bent branches should be removed.
If there are walnut branches on top of each other, these must be removed, and those that are too long between side branches should be shortened.
If nakedness is seen in the main or side branches they are cut short and new branches are formed in the empty spaces.
Older branches should be cut and renewed.
Dry, diseased, intruded and weak branches should be cut off.
In walnut trees, if there is a lot of fruit branches on a main or side branch, those with good light exposure remains.
Do not twist or bend the branch. But branches can be used as a tie.
If branches are tilted due to fruit weight, they can be corrected by tying with other branches.
Pruning must be done in the form of cutting a certain part of the yearly shoots because fruit is formed in top buds in the old kinds of walnut, that is, native walnut trees. However, in walnut species with high side branch yield, cutting of 1/4 - 1/5 of yearly shoot may be cut.
The branch should not be cut too close or far away while the branch is cut, it should be cut in the middle. The cutting angle should not be too steep or too flat and should be cut at about 300 - 450 The purpose of cutting at these angles is to let water drops on the branches slide after the rain.