Johndoug: Never buy trees online unless you are already familiar with the nursery you are dealing with, and are satisfied about their reputation. You could also mention the name of the nursery you are considering. Someone else may have had experience with them. If you have room for only two trees, nut trees may not be the best choice. Even the best grafted trees tend to become large specimens, and they take years to begin producing. They also require some processing off the tree, including curing and cracking, and the results can be disappointing. I had two grafted Carpathian Walnuts that grew over 30 feet tall before I realized they were wasting their space. Nuts were few and far between, and of poor quality, and the trees seemed subject to leaf diseases that made them unattractive. As far as I am concerned, nuts to the nuts unless you have a farm. A couple of semi-dwarf fruit trees would be a better choice for a limited space. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Marc, I know what you mean about hickories - once you've had a hickory nut pie, pecan just won't cut it anymore. Have grafted a few Carpathians onto black walnut, but the Easter freeze we had in 2007 killed all my Carpathians and heartnuts back to the rootstock. I've been playing at grafting pecans/hickories/walnuts for about 15 years now - and I'm still working on getting my success rate up to 50%. Apples and pears, they're not. No rhyme or reason, that I can ascertain, as to why some take and some don't, now that I've got the mechanics of it down pat. Generally, I graft dormant scions, collected in early March, onto actively growing seedling pecan rootstocks - any time after threat of frost is past, and on into early June, if it's not too hot by then. For larger-caliper scions, a 3 or 4-flap 'banana' graft works best(plenty of websites detailing how that one is done), but the vast majority of my successful grafts have been a modified bark graft - my variation of the 'Sap-stopper modification of the Gray graft - done just as a simple bark graft is done, and illustrated marvelously in our friend Joe Real's bark-grafting tutorial, linked below - but rather than completely beheading the rootstock, I just cut about 3/4 of the way through and break the top over, leaving it attached to act as a 'sap-drawer', to minimize flooding of the graft. Along the way, I've grafted a number of shellbark hickory selections, but unless they turn out a lot better than even some of the better local native shellbarks, I'm sticking mainly to shagbarks - easier cracking, and better flavor - at least in my estimation, though they are much smaller nuts. Here is a link that might be useful: Joe Real's Bark-Grafting tutorial

ken: I've been doing tons of research on this subject for weeks now. I know there are lots of issues to keep in mind for potted trees -- nutrition, frequent watering, protecting them from root freeze during the winter and using special pots for the walnuts so that the taproot doesn't get all curled up in the pot, etc. I know all about how apples don't breed true and will need to be grated to get good apples. I know that seed-grown trees will be huge at full size. When my husband and I move to our rural paradise in a few years, I want to plant these trees and have them grow into enormous giants that our children and their children can enjoy all their lives. Dwarf trees are cute, but I want majestic towering beauties. I want to grow from seed to get the full experience from start to finish in caring for trees. It all looks like a really fun process to me which is why I'm doing it the slow way. There's something really exciting about throwing a bunch of seeds in pots and just being surprised with what grows. I know I could get predictable results from nursery raising seedling in less time, but there's less adventure and discovery in that process. canadianplant: There are indeed named cultivars for black walnuts which were selected for superior nut production -- size, taste, meatiness and thinner shells. I might keep a couple of wild ones, but I want to practice grafting too. There are named cultivars that were selected for superior timber production too.

hey jim .. welcome ... do you literally mean grafting on what comes up in a few months??? most tree grafting.. involves an understock that is at least pencil thick ... which is about 2 to 4 years old .... i would suggest you get some cactus mix.. and some one gallon pots .. and try potting up your seedlings.. and learning how to grow trees in pots.. for a year or two.. to grow them to size.. so as to graft them ... in the future ... otherwise.. generally.. trees are grafted in winter .... and i bet you missed your window of opportunity.. but i dont know for sure... but fruit peeps do things much differently than tree peeps.. so who knows .... there is a fruit forum .... and some of those peeps do 'nuts' .... and i have never seen most of them here.. so you might want to try the same question there ... if you dont get an answer here .. good luck ken