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Walnuts trees

• Message 1. 

  Posted by scammellgirl (U15169607) on Thursday, 1st March 2012

  Hi I'm new to this sort of thing so I hope I don't make a mess of asking about my problem. I'm hoping that someone out there may be able to advise me on something. I used to have a mature walnut tree that did give me nuts every year until it blew down in a storm. However, I now have three "squirrel sown" trees growing which is great. My problem is that they all seem to have more than one trunk! the largest is now about eight feet tall and has effectively no main trunk, it looks just as though the top of the tree has grown straight out of the ground. Should I have cut off branches or something as they were growing? Can I still do so, and if so when? I have heard that walnuts bleed if cut at the wrong time - but I don't know when that is. HELP!!

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by anothergardener (U14387447) on Thursday, 1st March 2012

  There is disagreement about pruning time, I've seen summer and winter recommended. I saw summer first so that's when we prune ours.
  
  You can start 'lifting the crown' by removing the lowest branches, but not too many at one time, the foliage is helping to grow the root system so you don't want to reduce it too much.
  
  Ours was about 20' tall when we moved here so I don't know what it would have looked like when it was small, but it has a sort of zigzag trunk rather than a vertical one, and had some large, low branches that we've removed over the years. It's a handsome tree so don't worry too much, I think yours will get there eventually.

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