I just bought a small Carpathian walnut tree, bare root. I got it home, unwrapped it, and it's not grafted.
The label claims it will bear nuts. So the question is: will I get nuts from an ungrafted Carpathian walnut tree?
Carpathians on own roots (this variety don't need a rootstock) start to bear from four to seven years after planting.
They growng fast! it's a very good nut. very cold hardy.
a nice addition.
...we do mean “English Walnuts?†
I grew up with them, and got the farm with a couple (since removed). One was apparently grafted and produced ‘full-sized’ nuts …for which the Silver Gray squirrels would strip before they’d hit the ground. The second tree was a confirmed ‘seedling,’ with smaller nuts and fewer of them…
A past friend who had a semi-commercial English walnut orchard (she dried and sold the nuts) had nuts of varying sizes. When I asked her why, she said it was because they were ‘seedlings,’ as opposed to grafted trees. Generally, English walnuts are/were grafted to black walnut rootstocks. If anyone’s been to Willamette Mission State Park (OR) their remaining orchard of ‘high grafted’ English walnuts on Black walnut ‘trunks’ are amazing!
…So if we’re talking about the same nut tree …I’d much prefer one that’s grafted. And, they’re not easy to graft. My Great Uncle, who turned me on to grafting, once ran the family walnut orchard and dryer. He’d plant black walnut seeds – then graft onto them ‘in place’ with proven English scions …
It's hard to know. Can walnuts be layered?
You could still have a superior variety, it depends on if it is a seedling, how true to seed walnuts are, and how it was propagated.