These posts cover our work with walnuts and oaks, from collecting seed to trialing cold hardy selections. It is a smaller set, so everything is shown together and the captions explain the context.
Questions and comments always welcome to doug@oaksummitnursery.ca.
Walnuts And Oaks
58 postsArticle build 2026-02-01 12:24
Spring
7 posts
First walnut germinated in the fridge, stratifying all winter. Black walnut collected in zone 3 is tricky to find, and pushes the northern boundary for nut producing trees. #blackwalnuts
Germinating last summer, black walnut top left, butternut bottom left, small one in center is japanese walnut (heartnut), buartnut on right (hybrid of heartnut x butternut)
Planting some zone 3 black walnuts today, trying some in trays. added squirrel defences #walnut #blackwalnut #blackwalnutseeds
Various Bur oak acorns. The largest were from large old trees. #acorns #buroak
Potting up our germination test from months back, the small oaks have been alive and fine just in a dish with a small amount of water and paper towel on the window sill, a few pine cones for mulch. kind of resilient.
Walnut trees from @prairiehardynursery leading out. excited to grow these.
Our air prune beds for American plums and acorns. these were level to the top in the snow last week, it's melting fast
Summer
24 posts
Acorns collected over a few days from one tree with a set of tarps. there's lots more to come, definitely a mast year
American hazelnut ripe this week. we collect it for seed, will have it back in stock next month and also plants this fall
This time of year I'm collecting fruit and nuts before wildlife finds them. don't worry, the deer and squirrels will be fine, lots left for them. apples, ussurian pear, acorns.
American hazelnut, this is all I could collect this year so will keep them to grow in the spring, won't be any extra for the seed shop but I did grow our some trays of seedlings, will be able to ship in the fall sale starting first day of fall sep 22
Black walnut in plug trays. I find they do well in these, similar to an air pruning bed it stops the tap root and fills the plug with a fibrous root system. I have some in ground as well, these ones are just as big, they get watered more to keep the trays from drying out.
Butternuts, the large nuts stay attached like a battery that drives initial growth. some of the nuts are slow to germinate so I keep them in bins in our root cellar, once they're sprouted they can get potted up. so far I prefer this method to an air prune bed, but it's more work.
Tray of butternuts
Butternuts
Acorns still viable after storage for 10 months in refrigeration. These are white oak, and I ship them worldwide in an envelope. At this point I'm just selecting the sprouty ones, any that haven't produced a small radical by now probably aren't viable, acorns are recalcitrant meaning you can't dry them and they only store for a limited time.
Air prune beds full of black walnuts, took the lids off this week.
Black walnut, japanese walnut, buartnut, butternut.
Japanese walnut. bc source, zone 5
Walnuts look like sea creatures
Butternuts locally sourced in zone 3. first time growing, I find they take their time or just wait for warm weather to germinate. these are 4-8 weeks out of stratification in the greenhouse, just now steadily germinating. slower than the buartnut and japanese walnut, at least from these seed sources this year. my black walnut are also still coming up. anyone else find the same?
On a walk found some early bur oak acorns. last photos are a 500 yr old oak that fell this year, acorns from nearby trees very likely are it's seedlings over some generations. #acrons #buroak #seedsaving
Oak leaves, think this is bur oak or a hybrid? field guides and inaturalist claim bur is the only oak species in southern manitoba. last photo are all leaves from one tree from various branches.
Here I am next to a 500 yr old oak that recently fell in a storm, the base at the ground is at least 4ft wide
Going to be a mast year for bur oak acorns
Bur oak in it's second year. Last year they needed a cage, now that the nuts are gone they're safe from squirrel excavation. #buroak #growingtrees
Squirrel found the buffet.. as expected I did hide a pile of nuts from him. So they will pull up plants to eat the nuts after germination, good to know. It's about time build up the some walls for our beds with oak and hazel and get them more squirrel proof. #nuttrees #growingtrees
Bur oak a few days after germination. I've noticed our oak and hazelnut trees are still germinating, we had frost in the first week of June and it seems to make them wait. I mulched our beds again today and reinstalled the squirrel deterrent hardware cloth. #acron #germination
Bur oak acorns planted in the fall are germinating. squirrel protection is holding up. I'll wait a few weeks then take the mesh off, not sure yet how long they're at risk from squirrel foraging #acorn #oaktree #acorns
American hazel are just starting to ripen. good to collect these before the squirrels #hazelnuts #americanhazelnut #foraging #foodforest
Bur oak over amanita
Fall
21 posts
Manitoba black walnut trees, year old trees in pots are ready to ship canada wide, or get fresh walnuts for seed to grow you own. most people on the prairies don't realize you can grow these large nut trees here, they're fully cold hardy in zone 3, and we've be searching for and collected seed from large heavy producing walnut trees around Manitoba to grow selections with the most cold hardy genetics. excellent shade trees, long lived, and they produce large crops of walnuts in the fall, mature trees can drop hundreds. It's the same tree that produces valuable walnut hardwood. black walnut has a thicker shell than english walnuts, so they need a good nut cracker. We have trees and seeds ready to ship, discounts in 5 packs. #blackwalnut
Black walnuts starting to fall on this tree, though I've heard from others their walnuts have all dropped
Black walnuts can grow in Manitoba, I've been collecting them from large trees around the province so we have the cold hardy genetics. I had no idea until a few years ago that you could grow walnuts here in zone 3 / -40. there are trees in small pots and even plugs in our fall sale, plenty of stock we had a bumper year for walnuts in 2024. butternuts too.
Butternut trees have these great compound leaves as long as my arm, great canopy
Acorns are available on our shop. I can ship them in small packs of 24 by letter mail worldwide, and we have a larger 100 pack inside canada that ships with tracking.
Packing black walnuts for the winter, first time trying this with pots. we're filling crates with the small pots then covering them in damp wood shavings, seems to work. by laying them down the crates can get stacked in our root cellar.
Butternuts. locally sourced in Manitoba. First time I've had them off the tree, the husk is much thinner than a black walnut. I'll husk them this week and get a count, might have enough to add to the seed shop along with the black walnuts. Mostly these are to grow in the spring. #butternut
Collecting black walnuts for seed next spring. finally got to try this wheel tool, I picked it up for acorns but it works better on walnuts.
Walnuts starting to drop in southern manitoba
Found a good acorn spot yesterday.
Acorns from last fall (left) and today, looks different right? same tree, same genetics. we had a mast year in 2023 and the oaks all over produced so the acorns were a mix of sizes with many smaller ones. this year's acorns are more average size for the 50 year old bur oak, they're dropping 2 weeks later and the caps are attached, probably weather related. I still have small acorns in stock for seed, but most of our reserves are sprouted now, so we'll be out until next year. I'm shipping small ones in packs of 30.
Black walnut seedling in a 3.5" pot. I found this pot size to work great for walnut and butternut, with our short growing season there's just the right amount of roots. Also growing in air prune beds so I'll be able to compare.
More photos of this black walnut growing at the local research station, large and full of nuts this year. If you read about black walnut growing in zone 3 /-40C you'll find either the trees are borderline hardy, or if they do grow they won't have nuts. I've found 3 large black walnut now growing in Brandon, Mb that fruit proving otherwise - but the trees are rare here and most people don't realize a walnut tree can grow in our climate. I sure didn't and I've lived here my whole life.
Acorns vacuum sealed are so cool. these are easy to put in a mailer and send out, vs just in a bag. #acorn #seedsaving
Zone 3 (-40F) black walnuts processed, I let most of the ripen before using a paint mixer to dehull. with some luck and caged in squirrel proof beds there will be walnut trees next year.
I have 2 sizes of black walnuts from different trees, which one is more common? or is it like apples and it varies year to year depending on fruit load? smaller nuts were from a tree having a mast year I think.. very new to walnuts (ref: "Walnuts tend to have two mast years over a five-year period.")
Excited to grow some walnut trees in the spring from locally sourced black walnuts. they are rare on the canadian prairies, until recently I had never seen one. if you google their cold hardiness you might find something like "borderline zone 3-4 and won't fruit in zone 3". A few trees in Brandon Mb prove otherwise, mature cold hardy trees full of black walnuts. Our winters are long and cold here and regularly hit lows from -35 to -40C #walnuts #walnuttrees #treenursery
I can pack 24 acorns into these seed packets and the mailers fit through a mail slot - so I ship them worldwide with a stamp. letter mail is so cool, breaking the rules a bit but who just ships paper anyway. #acrons
Bur Oak acorns are dropping, and it's a race with the squirrels to collect them. We have these available for seeds, something cool about planting a tree that can live for hundreds of years. #acorn #treeseeds
Bur oak acorns now available on our website, linked in our bio. They should be planted right away, and will germinate this fall if the weather is warm enough. We collected these from wild stands of local trees. www.oaksummitnursery.ca #treeseeds #acorns #buroak #whiteoak #backyardnursery #propagation
Shade cloth comes off the greenhouse this time of year works good to catch acorns. #foraging #acorn
Winter
6 posts
Bur oak acorn collect last fall, it was a mast year and every tree in our area was loaded. This one tree dropped a couple of crates. The acorns were more variable sized, often smaller than on a regular year. I have some left but will likely run out by march, screening out the largest ones and shipping bags of 100 has been fun to offer people.
Brought in some more butternuts from a US source. my cat Shmaven is super interested in all things seed related, also likes to chase around stray acorns. #butternut
Packing some bur oak acorns, these little seed packs of 24 are still in stock, but starting to get low. #acorns
Checking in on germination testing, after a few weeks most of the bur oak are waking up. This process would be more optimal in some soil with more heat etc I have them near a window and it's a bit chilly. I think expecting a few weeks to a month is about right. Usually I fall plant, this is the first year I've store them in poly bags in bulk. They're slowly losing some weight but viability seems good after 4 months in cold storage. Will hold onto my stock until may at the latest and then anything left will get planted, acorns are recalcitrant (need to be fresh and not dried) and have some limited shelf life. One year I froze them in bags just below freezing, about -3C and germination was good, I wonder if that would let you store them for a year or more. #acorn #germination
Excited to find another source of zone 3 manitoba **edited** nuts which I suspect may be butternut. they've been air dried since the fall, think they're still viable seed?
Germination testing our bur oak acorns after 3 months in cold storage, at about ten days the radicals are starting to emerge. We had a bumper year and I collected maybe fifty pounds for seed, it's more than I need so these have been available is 24 and 100 packs that ship worldwide by letter mail for around $4-6 shipping. It's cool to think that some of these little guys could go on to live for hundreds of years.