Walnut concern

treehugs

Hi there. So my my 2 walnut trees have some issues. The fruits are covered in black spots that increase the longer they stay on the tree and a lot of the branches have a yellowy moss on (we've also established the leaves have Gall Mite). I've picked a bucket full ready to pickle but I was wondering if the fruits are safe to eat and is there anything we can do to stop the problem? Also if the trees are in any danger?

We have 2 walnut trees next to each other, both suffering the same problem

Many thanks in anticipation!

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second-gen_monkey

no effin clue what that is (live too far towards the equator) but it doesn't look good. i'm just random guessing from the fruit spots and growth but the mites either introduced a fungus or bacterium, most likely fungus from the growth. that both trees are affected is not unusual if bugs did the transfer and the trees are close enough together, freely moving fungi (eg spooring fungus) tends to hit one tree spread once more spoors are produced but can hit both if they are very close together.

again, random guess. i'm relatively new as you can see here ---v

Brent Ferris

Whereabouts is albion?

The spots on the husks don't look serious. Once the walnuts are ripe (if you can keep squirrels away) the husk is discarded, and the shell of the nut inside contains the meat that is edible. Black walnut has a very high protein content in the nutmeat, but extracting the nut from the shell is a tedious ordeal (from what I have read). Most other walnut nuts are variously edible, but to identify which kind of walnut, need a picture of the leaf. Walnut leaves are compound leaves - Butternut has 11 to 19 leaflets, Black Walnut has 15 to 23 leaflets, English Walnut has 5 to 9 leaflets etc. More info can be provided once the kind of walnut is known.

Also take a small branch 1/4 to 1/2 " diameter, and split it lengthwise to expose the pith - it should have a chambered pith.

THe yellow growth looks more like lichen than moss, and is usually inconsequential unless it completely engulfs the branch/tree trunk.

treehugs

Albion is an old-world name for England!

dov

Could be something like Walnut husk maggot, but you didn't mention any obvious grubs present. The walnut tree where I live gets black spots on the fruit without obvious insect larvae or fungus, which seem to cause the nut itself to rot. Haven't yet figured out what it is, but am removing the tree soon because of draught damage.

Brent Ferris

Dov, does the husk and/or nut rot on the ground, or while still in the tree?

dov

We normally just pick them up after the Cockatoos strip the tree, so they're still a little bit unripe - but a lot of them already seem to have rot in them.

Hehe. Just spotted a typo in my posts above. Note: Drought damage. The tree went through 10-12yrs of extra dry weather, not extra dry lager hehe.