A fully grown walnut tree naturally provides shade in the hot, sunny summer months and produces delicious walnuts in autumn - good reasons to propagate the plant in your own garden if there is enough space. In this guide you will learn about and implement the two most important methods of propagation: first the (lengthy) method with fruits and then the faster version with seedlings.
How to propagate a walnut tree?
To propagate a walnut tree, you can either plant a fresh walnut in a pot with a sand-peat mixture and keep it constantly moist, or plant fresh shoots as cuttings in potting soil. In both cases, the young trees should initially grow in a pot and only become hardy after around two years.
Propagate the walnut tree through the fruits
All you need is a walnut. It is advisable to use fruit that is as fresh as possible, not older ones.
Note: The walnut tree that grows through propagation can differ significantly from the original tree, especially in terms of the nuts (can only be adjusted through grafting). In addition, it takes some time to train the walnut tree over the fruit.
- Pour a sand-peat mixture into a flower pot.
- Remove the fresh walnut from the green shell after harvesting.
- Put the nut in the pot.
- Place the pot in a bright, protected and frost-free location.
- Leave the pot until spring and keep the soil constantly moist.
- If it is a sprouting nut, the first shoots will now appear.
- Wait until the shoots are about 15 centimeters long.
- Divide the individual plants - i.e. put each one in its own pot. Fill all pots with high-quality, nutrient-rich potting soil (€6.00 on Amazon) to give the young trees a good start to growth.
- Place the pots outdoors in a sunny location in summer and make sure that the soil never dries out.
- Place the young trees in a frost-proof place towards winter. The plants are not yet hardy at this stage.
Propagate walnut tree through cuttings
This method of growing a walnut tree is easier and quicker than propagating the fruit.
- Prepare a large bucket of potting soil.
- Cut off several fresh shoots from your walnut tree. These should be around 15 centimeters long. However, it doesn't matter whether the shoots are still green or already have a slight woodiness.
- Put the cuttings in the pot.
- Water the soil vigorously.
- If new leaves form soon, the respective cutting has been taken care of. This means that the propagation is working.
- If several cuttings have sprouted, you must now place them in individual pots.
The further steps correspond to those of propagation via fruits (steps 4, 9 and 10).
Notes:
- Always put several cuttings in a pot - not every shoot necessarily develops roots.
- Remember that the cuttings are only hardy after a good two years. So don't release them into the garden prematurely.
