Growing Nuts in Your Backyard

Growing nut trees in your backyard is actually quite easy and you get the bonus of delicious fres nuts and an attractive landscape tree. However they do require regular maintenance, as outlined in the articles posted here.

Nut Trees - Growing Tips
Although written specifically for nut growers in Illinois, this is an excellent handbook on all facets of growing nuts: choosing, planting, pruning and protecting from pests.

Pecans - Growing Pecans
Pecans make an excellent landscaping tree. This fact sheet provides easy to follow planting and growing instructions with excellent diagrams.

Harvesting Timeline
Here's a general timeline for when to harvest nuts from trees. Keep in mind that times will vary by region. If this is your first year growing a nut tree, keep careful watch for squirrels and other raiders. They're not as patient as you.

Tree Nut ID
A quick photo guide to identifying common types of nuts, plus how and when to harvest them.

Nut Photo Gallery
Would you recognize an almond on the tree? How about a pistachio? Nuts have a lot of protective covering that never winds up in the grocery store. About.com's Guide to Trees and Shrubs has put together an interesting photo gallery of common nuts as they look while growing on the tree.

Early Nut Drop - Some Common Causes
Few things are as frustrating as watching a potential harvest fall and rot, before it is mature. There can be more than one cause and often there is nothing you can do to stop it. About.com's Guide to Forestry talks about the causes and what to look for.

Black Walnut Tree - What's Safe to Plant Under It?
Black walnut trees are beautiful and the nuts are delicious, but the trees themselves can be deadly to certain plants. Black walnuts contain a chemical called "juglone" which leeches into the soil and inhibits other plants. Here are some plants that can handle juglone and those to avoid planting.

Discuss in my forum