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PROJECT: WALNUT PLANTATION


 



Chestnut grove
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Walnut tree   (Nughèra)

How to plant land with walnut tree

By Serafino Vaninetti.

Origisi and History

The walnut tree was introduced in Europe from Turkey in ancient times: according to available informations, it dates back to Roman emperor Julius Caesar. There is no information on its origin in the Valtellina, therefore regarded as a tree that has always been there.

It’s a very sturdy plant that lives at considerable altitudes. In the municipality of Gerola (S), at 1050 meters above sea is growing a walnut tree with the diameter of trunk next to a meter.

The wood and fruit are among the most fine, especially the lower part of the trunk, called veining, and the root stump aree esteemed for furnishing that gives a quality of precious wood to carpenters to build true masterpieces.

The tradition

In food the kernel (seed) is a fruit for the production of essential oils and sweets.

In the past the fruit was crush by the oil mill to obtain a thick oil, at that time appeciated to power the wick of the popular "lum", lamp used to illuminate the houses of the valley, still in use at the beginning of Twentieth century.

Very useful is also the hull that covers the fruit, still today derives from it the walnut liqueur, sweet and fragrant.

Hull was always important for the coloring of tissues, it was used "teng cun la parascia dei nuus" (dye clothing with the hull) with a simple operation: it was put the parascia (name of the hull in the local dialect) to soak in a vessel, is was filtered and, after the maceration, was obtained a colored liquid where fibers were immersed to dye.

Hemp tissues, in cotton and traditional farmers sweaters in sheep wool, were colored of a beautiful and indelibly dark brown.

Concerning food the wallnut is known for an old saw, that leave aside any comment:

Pan e nuus, mangià de spuus
Bread and walnuts produce “stinks”
 

Also the Bisciòla, büscèla a Valtellina specialty without walnuts becomes a mixture of no particular taste that has made it known to gourmets.

Another disappeared pesant custom concerned in planting a walnut tree near by the house where was born a female baby.

The aim was to give it as dowry for her marriage to make fornitures in the new family.

The dried fruit lasts all year, something that in the past, when did not yet exists the refrigerator, the walnut was a food available at any time. A small bag of this fruit was never missing during the traditional celebrations of Christmas and Easter.

In the secular tradition the walnut was spoiled outdoor breaking it with a stone. Not infrequently, during the winter until spring, you could see under the trees people looking for the fruits slipped from the gathering and hidden under the grass.

Plant diseases

Unfortunately, in the area and elsewhere, around the '70s/'80s arrived a pestilential disease caused by a mite that damages the hull. This parasite lays its eggs on the flower and after the incubation goes into action chewing with incredible voracity the green and hard hull leaving around the shell such a putrid and black bunch to define this pestilence "black disease".

The invasion of this mite of unclear origin caused and quickened in the territory a lack of interest toward the walnut fruit once so loved by the people.

Project for industrial use

With the abandonment of agricultural areas by the valley people, dormice and squirrels has got the better and multiplying, plunder the fruits before ripening.

If this is a damage, not everything is lost. By nature the fruit transported by these animals in the vicinity of the plants germinate and give rise to new plants that become more numerous in the surrounding lands.

You can find the best plants in these lands for transplantation, without any cost and avoiding to buy them from the nurseryman.

A classic way to create seedlings of nuts for those who want to have a plant with high-quality fruit is the following: in August to search among the best varieties of the place a still green fruit. On moist and repaired soil cover with earth, the seedling that will born will retain the same qualities of mother plant.

Industrially, instead, always planting the fruit, the transplant can take place after 3 or 4 years.

Here comes my advice and project for a plantation in the area.

Therefore for a better quality of fruits, young plants must be absolutely planted at 2 / 2, 5 meters of distance one from each others.

This distance, considered by some too limited, is for the project a winning method of homogeneous development of the forest, as nature teaches.

The plants, in order to be commercial, must have the stretched trunk without knots, this happens only leaving the job of growth to nature. The close proximity of one to the other creates a component that makes the plantation system “enter the race”, where it tends to stretch up to receive the sunlight.

Of course during the first years we must help seedlings with stakes to keep them straight.

The growth will be the responsibility of farmers digging the plants less attractive without leaving empty spaces in the ground: that sacrifice will be rewarded with a better quality of plants.

Instead, more space between a plant and the other does develop horizontal branches, creating a greater need for pruning and jeopardizing the quality of the trunk for the production of furnitures.

Furthermore, in a walnut grove with rarefied plants, if a defective plant will fail it will leave an empty space with no possibility of transplantation because the shadow of the others will prevent growth.

The excavation and the first fertilization

It is advisable to dig an hole of 50x50 cm in a grassland because the roots of seedlings in the first two years do not require large areas of tilled land, by the fact that the roots are still underdeveloped and do not require large spaces.

The same goes for fertilization. By experience during early development, the roots do not have time to assimilate it and manure in the pit, when reached by the roots, has lost its nutritional value.

A plantation on grassland, for the first five or six years does not require a great fertilization, the only important thing is to mow the grass accumulating it at the foot of the seedlings.

After this period the grown plants, with their leaves do not let the sun go over the ground. From that moment will be right fertilize every year, to give the plants a fast growth, alternating the organic with the chemical.

 

Pruning

If the plants are close together, the walnut trees do not need pruning, the sap from the roots will go only to the highest branches reached by sunlight, the lowest, by nature, will dry up and will fall down on their own.

Otherwise, in during springtime just cut and then remove at the top of branch a ring of bark for few inches.

This is the only pruning that can be done on the walnut trunk, the missing branch of the bark is no longer fed by the sap, will die slowly and the node on the plant will be ejected without leaving a trace inside the trunk.

This factor will become important when in the saw-mill will be obtained axes whithout defects in he wood.

Cutting and use of logs

At Sacco lands, with these techniques, I experimented a plantation that even if followed with scarce plenty, gives the possibility to establish that the cut can be made after 25/35 years when the logs will reach 50/60 cm in diameter and a length of useful trunk whitout branches of 6/8 meters.

To debunk is the proverb which says: whoever plants a walnut tree, plants a cross, because once the walnut tree was planted over long distances on lands cultivated with hay, just to enjoy the fruits. This gave to the plant a huge space to develop horizontal branches load with fruits, compromising the lengths of the trunk.

In a modern plant aimed to produce timber, the proximity between one plant and the other with their thick foliage will not let pass in the ground any ray of sunlight, creating a moist habitat and rapid growth.

Generally everyone wants to act on his own, without following the experience gained by others and unfortunately… the results are known only after years and not always flattering

The experience and pratice of those who already realized a walnut plantation is almost certain but even if never will be perfect, contains itself the success.

 A proverb to listen to is the one that says: if you leave me my straw, keep your manure too. With that old saw of ancient wisdom, that in the past was note very folowed, the exploitation of land was total: together with the walnut tree grew the hay which was ut al least three times a year.

With the new plantation system there will be a perfect habitat, all the pertile land will be available to the walnut grove, and with the rain and the sun it will grow much faster than the past.
 
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