It's a rather old tree, several decades old. So I have no idea how to look for a graft on it. It might be two trees since one side is a triple trunk cluster, and the other side is a double trunk cluster. But they are only a couple feet apart and when I asked the previous owners whos grandparents planted it, they said it was a tree, not a pair of trees. I thought perhaps it was on wide spaced root stock? The whole think looks all exactly the same- the leaves, they way it grows, the nut formation, it even gets those hairy threads all around. Maybe I just don't have a clue what I'm looking for, lol. I don't have seeds yet, they will probably start dropping sometime next month. That's why I wanted to ask now before they started dropping. But if they are likely viable, I will for sure collect some for trading :) I don't know if they are good yet. The first year we were here, I didn't realize it was an edible kind of tree, thought it was an inedible kind till the neighbors corrected me. Last year it was so dry what little nut set I left for the wildlife. So this fall is going to be the first chance we really get to try some.

Kimm, up until the last two years - I would have agreed with you on the areas that nutsedge frequents. Here in the middle of the US it has become the biggest problem that we face daily. I have a very lush, green thick back yard and just this year it is becoming infested with nutsedge. Garden ditto, all neighbors - ditto. Every property we maintain has the problem to some degree now. Most gardens and landscapes unless thoroughly mulched 2-4" thick - ditto. Downtown Ditto. Farmers fields - some but not to the degree we are seeing in the city and semi rural areas. I don't like spraying chemicals, but only have two that knock it down for the season, and even then it seems to return the next year with a vengeance. I have noticed that in the last two years, the "nuts or tubers" as some cal them, are 5-10 times more plentiful than when we first started treating this pest 6 or 7 years ago. I'm at a loss. TiMo

Very nice video Dax. I don't split everything along the suture before I start cracking though. I usually use the nibbler as more of a finishing tool by wedging the nut in certain positions and cutting away pieces of the shell cavity that trap bits of kernel. I would've mentioned the two point position holes at the main hinge point used for adjusting for wider nuts. It helps to get wider nuts further back in the hinge where most of the force and pressure is. I like the catch box you built, I need to make one of those too. The John Deere Colored cracker I gave to my father in law. He said its too pretty to use, lol. I told him Its supposed to be used just like he uses his tractors. I was going to make a video too but I think the picture will be smaller because I can only use my phone. Again, very nice production! Tyler

There is lots of anecdotal evidence (oxymoron?) to implicate drought in cone formation; and strangling, and root pruning, and good things like irrigation and fertilization, thinning...etc. That's why anecdotal ain't good enough. The idea that stress-induced coning is designed to get those genes out while there's a chance is undercut by the empirical observation that those "stress cones" are consistently described as undersized and highly visible in a thinning crown. This translates into cones that never mature due to loss of carbohydrate support from healthy needles --- not a very promising source of good seed. I think that all that is happening here is that the cones on dying trees are more visible because you can see right through the crown, so you see more of them than you would in a healthy tree. Perhaps also, the cones never mature, so they are not shed by the tree. Instead, they hang on for additional years and give the impression that only afflicted trees have a cone crop. IF this were truly the case, then those pathetic cones would be overwhelmingly self-pollinated, and therefore have very low seed set and lots of genetic inbreeding problems. There are lots of reasons to resist going with anecdotes.