At my farm home in the northwestern part of Hamilton County, Ohio, at
about 800 feet elevation, on clay soil, the Carpathian walnuts commence
growth too early in spring for their own good and my comfort, well
knowing what lurking Jack Frost can do to them. These Carpathian walnuts
are uninfluenced by their black walnut understocks, the Schafer variety
alone excepted. I also have two Schafer trees that came grafted
apparently on Carpathian understock; but these start as early as the
others.
The Schafer exception, to which I refer, is grafted on a native black
walnut stock to which the Broadview variety also had been grafted. (The
Schafer variety is patented. I had permission to use the graft as I
did.) With these two hardy varieties in the same tree, which itself is a
late starter in the spring, I unwittingly laid the foundation for an
unanticipated result. This became apparent after a severe early spring
frost in 1945 caused me to examine all my hardy (Persian) walnut trees
to note the effects of that freeze. The new growth of Broadview on the
same tree with the Schafer was frozen, while the Schafer with the rest
of the tree was dormant. The new growth of the other two Schafer trees;
of Breslau top-worked on two trees; of Broadview on another tree; of an
unknown variety on still another tree; all trees being native black
walnut, all were frozen. The same was true as to Breslau seedlings and
also a Kremenetz on Minnesota black walnut. Of course, all these trees
staged come-backs with no bad after effects.
In April, 1945, we had a severe hail storm that clipped clean the second
new growth from these trees. The topworked Schafer was still dormant,
while its companion Broadview in the same tree suffered like the rest.
The spring of 1946 showed the topworked Schafer still dormant, while all
the others were active. The Broadview on the same tree with the Schafer
was almost in full leaf before the Schafer and the rest of the
understock showed signs of growth. A number of persons thought the rest
of the tree was dead.