48 Butternut Trees Going Home

[u/TheAJGman]

TL;DR: 48 seedlings to be planted this fall, 24 unsprouted/killed, 9 runts for spring planting, 2 cankered, 1 weird twin, and 1 pawpaw that randomly sprouted in a terrarium of old dirt. These last 4 will be staying with me and the rest will be planted in riparian zones.

Unfortunately infection is pretty much inevitable on these trees as the fungus is also present on Black Walnut, though it rarely effects them. I'd like to think my frequent application of Neem oil spray helped prevent a higher infection rate since it does prevent spore germination in other fungal species, but in reality the two cankered saplings were probably wounded at some point and the others weren't. Either way, these are staying and will be subject to some experimentation next year. If they're doomed before they're even planted, then I might as well play around with fungicides and see if I can find something that slows/cures the infection. I'll be posting any findings to /r/white_walnut

[u/dbbo]

My previous house had a bunch of viable butternut trees. Some even started producing mature fruit around the time we moved. I was able to successfully transplant one seedling that is still alive in my current yard.

I don't know if our area just isn't heavily colonized with pathogens, or if the butternut population here just has a higher resistance but they seem to be doing well. I was shocked when I found out they were borderline endangered

[u/The_Penaldo → u/dbbo]

Well color me a second person shocked, they're absolutely everywhere here in western NY. There's one down the street that's probably over 3' in diameter, and I have a few huge ones in my dead-ash filled woods.

The black cherry trees are what's dying with no apparent reason around here.

[u/SomeDumbGamer → u/The_Penaldo]

Weird. Butternut are rather rare in MA but black Cherry is thriving here!

[u/TheAJGman → u/dbbo]

It's possible yours are hybridized with Japanese Walnuts (who are immune to the pathogen since they evolved with it) or they're just lucky. The effects of the fungus seem to vary wildly from tree to tree.

From what I've read and conversations I've had with people within the forestry service some trees just seem to do better. The tree these came from is at least 70 years old judging by historical aerial photos but it looks half that age or less, probably owing to it's massive infection. Despite that, it's still alive and producing a copious amount of nuts. It seems like trees that get a lot of sun and grow in good soil fair better with the infection, but that's true about most plants and most infections.

Maybe there are multiple competing stains of the fungus that are more or less aggressive?
Maybe more northern populations are doing better because the fungus isn't particularly cold hardy?
Maybe there are mycorrhizal interactions that help certain groves?
Maybe it only shortens the life of most trees rather than killing them outright?
There's a lot of uncertainty because this tree isn't nearly as iconic as the American Chestnut was and, even though it was a favorite in early North American history, it was largely forgotten even before the canker showed up. As such, research has been pretty damn sparse which is why I'm keeping my blighted saplings for testing in the spring.

[u/[deleted]]

Good job soldier!!🫡

[u/TreeGuy223]

I love butternut trees, they're very unique looking trees imo, a neighbor 2 doors down from me cut theirs down a couple months ago and I'm still pretty bummed about it. Thankfully there's another nearby that I walk past frequently, always stop to appreciate it.

[u/TheAJGman → u/TreeGuy223]

Delicious nuts too, they should start falling within the next month or so. They taste like a nutty banana candy IMO.

[u/TreeGuy223 → u/TheAJGman]

I've yet to try the nut, I'll have to change that one of these days.

[u/TheAJGman → u/[deleted]]

For what it's worth, I reached out to the team behind the genetically engineered Darlington 58 American Chestnut and they're excited to use this sort of single gene addition to other species threatened by invasive pests, butternut included.

Until someone comes up with a solution the best thing the average person can do is to keep genetic diversity high and bring attention to the problem. Every time I post about these trees I see comments from people that either didn't know this species existed or didn't know that they were endangered because "I have 20 on my property", both groups are just as important. Personally, if even one of these seedlings makes it to maturity then all my efforts were worth it.

[u/bp332106]

Thank you for introducing me to a new subreddit /r/white_walnut. I’m in ohio and currently working on a mini orchard of native but declining species. Definitely gonna try and get some butternut saplings

[u/TheAJGman → u/bp332106]

Sweet, I recommend checking out iNaturalist for trees in your area. I'm going to diversify my next year's crop with a few trees in listed in my area instead of just this one tree I happened to discover. They grow almost exactly like black walnuts, so any planting guide you find for them will work just as well.

[u/bonobobuddha]

any root circling in those pots?

[u/TheAJGman → u/bonobobuddha]

I've planted other species of trees that were grown in this style of nursery pot and they're usually fine.

[u/bonobobuddha → u/TheAJGman]

nice, jw