Hickory seed nuts

Hickory seed nuts available from a variety of sources with great genetics. Although these nuts are open-pollinated, they come from all-cultivar orchards. The traits these nuts have which make them so good are 1) crackability, 2) size, 3) productivity, and 4) flavor. Along with some of my nut-growing mentors, I’ve found that the seedling trees these nuts produce have a good likelihood of growing into excellent hickory varieties in their own right. It’s hard to put precise numbers to this without more rigorous study, but anecdotally, in the case of the Grainger cultivar specifically, it seems that there may be a nearly 1 out of 4 chance of growing a tree with nuts as good or sometimes better than the parent.

$10 for a dozen nuts, or $75 for 100.

The seed nut varieties available:

Grainger - shagbark hickory selection from John Hershey, Grainger county TN, 1936. One of the finest shagbarks. Weevil-resistant, thin shell, cracks usually into whole halves, very productive, excellent flavor. Grainger is known to produce very good seedlings at a high rate of success. It is the parent variety to Heisey, Lorane (which is better than Grainger), Curtis Grainger, and the Blankenship-Bernheim-Grainger series (where number #5 is also as good or better than Grainger). Carya ovata (or C. carolinae-septentrionalis, according to some).

Keystone - shellbark hickory selection from Fayette Etter, Franklin county PA, 1955. One of the finest shellbarks. Relatively thin shell, cracks out into whole halves, very productive, USDA zone 5 hardy, excellent flavor. It’s downside is that it doesn’t have great weevil-resistance. Carya laciniosa.

Henry - shellbark hickory selection from Fayette Etter, Franklin county PA, 1940s. One of the finest shellbarks. Incredibly productive, large size, cracks out into whole halves, USDA zone 5 hardy, excellent flavor, and weevil-resistant. Carya laciniosa.

Longenecker - shellbark hickory selection from Miles Nolt, Lancaster county PA, 1960s. Very productive shellbark with excellent cracking. One downside is it is susceptible to weevils. A single feral seedling of Longenecker in Parker Coble’s orchard bore its first crop of nuts in 7 years and was as good as its parent. Carya laciniosa.

Weschcke - hybrid shagbark hickory selection from Carl Weschcke, Fayette Iowa, 1926. Because Weschcke is a bitternut x shagbark hybrid, tree is pollen-sterile and therefore all nuts are pollinated by other trees. The chances of Weschcke seed nuts producing interesting and excellent trees is high as these nuts come open-pollinated from a cultivar orchard. Useful for breeding. Bill Thielenhaus used Weschcke in his pecan orchard to create the T-series hicans, for example. Fayette Etter used Weschcke to create complex hybrids, as did Phillip Rutter of Badgersett in the foundation of the “neo-hybrid hickory-pecan” program. On their own, Weschcke is an excellent cracking, moderately-sized shagbark, which is very northern hardy. Carya x laneyi.

Stauffer - excellent shellbark (some say shellbark x shagbark hybrid) from Fayette Etter, Franklin county PA, 1934. Cracks well, northern hardy, moderately large size, very productive, and weevil-resistant. Carya laciniosa (or Carya x dunbarii).

Fayette - shellbark from Fayette Etter, Franklin county PA, 1932. Rated “best cracking shellbark” (according to NNGA), with over 34% kernel by weight. Has been known to make excellent seedlings, such as the cultivar “Gordon Fayette” from Lucky Pittman.

Weschcke pollinated by McAllister (mostly) - Read the description of Weschcke above. These Weschcke nuts came from a tree planted next to and down wind of a very large McAllister hican tree (which is a hybrid of shellbark and pecan). This means that a large proportion of these nuts were pollinated by the McAllister. Planting out these nuts will reveal some seedlings that are complex hybrids, being amalgamations of the genes from four species of hickory: shagbark, shellbark, bitternut, and pecan.

Doghouse - from Richard Dravis, Beford county, PA. Tree appears as a shagbark with leaflets of five but is considered a shagbark x shellbark hybrid. The nut is large and plump, with a thin-shell and excellent cracking and flavor. This cultivar appears to have decent weevil-resistance. Carya x dunbarii.

Stephens - a very large shellbark selection originally from Missouri. This nut is over two inches across. It has a thick shell which means you will almost never see a weevil, yet it still cracks well, being filled with large nut meats that come out in halves. Carya laciniosa.

Dooley Burton - this is an f2 seedling of Burton hican, which is a natural f1 hybrid between shagbark and pecan. It was grown by Ken Dooley of Indiana. Dooley Burton is a medium-sized, beautifully shaped nut which cracks well, is northern-hardy, and highly weevil-resistant. Carya hybrid.

Burlington - this hican is a cross between shellbark and pecan originally found in Burlington, Iowa. It bears a nut resembling a moderately large pecan which cracks well with great flavor. It bears well in the north and is highly productive. Carya x nussbaumeri.