Do you also have any self-seeded hickory trees? The squirrels are always planting black walnuts here. I would love the nuts, anyway. My trade list disappeared and I'm slowly replacing it, but it's not finished. Take a look and let me know. Phyllis

The hickories, and black walnuts,for that matter, have not received nearly so much study and research as their more economically-relevant relative, the pecan. You *might* get some nuts with a single, solitary tree, but extrapolating from the pecan data and some of the BW stuff I've read, you really need at least two selections; not sure how pronounced dichogamy is with the hickories, but it's pretty stark in the pecan. Have seensome claims that hickory pollen is self-incompatible - don't know if that's the case, or if the difference intiming beween catkin pollen-shed and nutlet flower receptivity is such that they are unlikely to self-pollenize. Pollen is wind-carried, so if there are other hickories in the area, they will get the job done. If you've got the space, I'd plant at least 2-3.

Here you go. A previous discussion about them from folks that use them that should answer your questions I think. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: Shagbark Hickory nuts

Hickories are in the same family as walnuts (the Juglandaceae family, I had to look up the actual name), so I figured the information on curing walnuts would be appropriate. But yeah, they are in different genuses, Juglans (walnuts) and Carya (hickories and pecans). And no, hickory husks don't stain like walnuts. I can attest to the staining qualities of walnut husks. I had on a pair of vinyl gloves and over them I had on gardening gloves when I was removing husks from some black walnuts about 2 weeks ago. Somehow the juice of the walnuts soaked through both pairs of gloves because when I took them off, my hands were stained. Most of the stains on my skin are gone but my right thumbnail and index fingernail are still stained a disgusting yellowy-brown. Pecans are way easier to crack than hickories. Last year I found about a dozen hickory nuts and I tried to crack one with a nutcracker. I kept squeezing harder and harder until all of a sudden pieces of shell and nut went flying and to my surprise, a few worms (yuck!). And this was after I did a float test on them. So I tossed the rest of them. I used a small c-clamp to crack the black walnuts I found this year and it worked well. The c-clamp applied an even pressure to the nut and cracked it easily. Or at least it did when they were still fresh. I'll have to try it again in 2-3 weeks. I think it would work well on hickories too. Rodney