Walnuts and branches falling from walnut tree

[jasonsykes]

Hello all. I have a walnut tree and lots of branches and walnuts are falling off right not. Any idea what the problem could be?

 

[NeTree]

Tornado?

 

[Old Monkey]

Where do you live and what kind of walnut is it? It could be something as simple as squirrels or something more dire like 1000 canker disease.

 

[NickfromWI]

The walnuts are supposed to fall off. That's what they do. The branches: my guess is they are all dead. I would find a good tree guy on this website and have them cut out the dead branches.

Good luck. Let us know if we can help with anything more specific.

love
nick

 

[stehansen]

Just guessing of course but sometimes walnuts can fall off from lack of pollination. We need to know the variety of walnut, or if it is a seedling also, the age, a description of the site and if the tree is irrigated. Worms (codling moth), blight, husk fly, and naval orange worm can all cause the nuts to fall off. Naval orange worm usually doesn't happen until about this time of year or later and the walnut tree doesn't know the nuts need to be shed until it is too late, and they will go in with the harvested nuts. The codling moth worms will bore into the nut and be inside eating the meat. Husk fly will be in the husk (go figure) and will turn it black and it will stick to the shell and usually sunburn really bad. The only time I have seen the limbs break is the first large crop in an orchard. This seemed to break all of the weak limbs and it wasn't a huge deal after that. My walnut experience is limited to a commercial situation in the Central Valley of California.

 

[sotc]

My walnut experience is limited to a commercial situation in the Central Valley of California.

Which gives it some authority imo

 

[Al Smith]

I suppose it depends on what type walnut .My big one in the woods tosses them every time a big wind comes up but usually they don't drop in full til after a killing frost which is in November .

By then they are so large and falling 65 -70 feet they would raise a lump the size of a baseball on your noggin if you got clobbered by one .Were talking big nuts here .

 

[FJR]

Just guessing of course but sometimes walnuts can fall off from lack of pollination. We need to know the variety of walnut, or if it is a seedling also, the age, a description of the site and if the tree is irrigated. Worms (codling moth), blight, husk fly, and naval orange worm can all cause the nuts to fall off. Naval orange worm usually doesn't happen until about this time of year or later and the walnut tree doesn't know the nuts need to be shed until it is too late, and they will go in with the harvested nuts. The codling moth worms will bore into the nut and be inside eating the meat. Husk fly will be in the husk (go figure) and will turn it black and it will stick to the shell and usually sunburn really bad. The only time I have seen the limbs break is the first large crop in an orchard. This seemed to break all of the weak limbs and it wasn't a huge deal after that. My walnut experience is limited to a commercial situation in the Central Valley of California.

Good info Steve