[rainy32]

Hi mamas,

dh and I are looking to buy our first home, and one of our requirements is a huge yard with a space for a large garden. we've found 2 great houses in our price range, each on 1/2 an acre (in town!). One has an established garden and 6 mature apple trees, but is smaller (1100 sq feet); the other one is a bigger house(1500 sq feet), and has some nice features BUT the back yard is not gardened, because it has 6 huge black walnut trees. The owner says she has never tried gardening, because she's been told that you can't grow things near black walnut trees. Is this true??

If it is true, are there soil ammendments that can be made to balance what I believe she said was an acidic soil? Would hte amendments have to be major, since we're talking 6 trees? There is afull sun area abour 100 feet from the nearest tree - that's where we'd site the garden.

The garden is the most important thing to us - if we can' garden in this yard, we won't even consider the house. So please fill me in!

 

[RAF]

Hello,

I am not an expert by any means, but we do have one humongous black walnut tree way, way closer than 100 ft to our garden. Also, it does not cause acidic soil. Our soil is very alkaline. The problem is from the walnuts and the leaves dropping and decaying in the soil. They give off a certain toxin that kills seedlings and plants. It doesn't seem to kill any weeds though. lol. Anyway, I just try to make sure that the walnuts are not left on the ground where we plan to garden. Black walnut is used for deworming purposes in herbalism, and so I guess it has some sort of strong medicinal qualities that aren't good for soil organisms, etc. Anyway, we have been able to grow plenty of things near the trees, but if we get too close, it seems we have trouble keeping stuff alive. Right now, we have stuff growing just outside the dripline from our tree, and the stuff, mostly tomatoes, is doing great. Anyway, there may be other problems from the trees that I am not aware of, so maybe somebody else with more knowledge will reply.

 

[LindaCl]

Yes, black walnuts produce a natural chemical hydrojuglone which becomes toxic to underplantings.

 

[Triciabn]

HEre ya go... the only thing I can add to this list is that I have daisy's growing right beyond the drip line to my Walnut tree and they have come back every year.
http://www.skh.com/NurseryPdf/walnut.pdf

Tricia

 

[tboroson]

We have a ton of black walnut trees. I'd say that 100 feet is plenty far from them to be gardening

:

 

[StrawberryFields]

We have a black walnut tree less than 100 feet from our garden. This was our first summer in the house. The pepper plants did not produce at all, our pole beans died, and even though we planted twice the amount of tomatoes here than we did last year in a different house, we have less than half the crop. Cukes, zukes, melons, and acorn squash are doing fine.

We don't know whether this is due to the tree or because this was a first year garden so we haven't had time to work the soil.

Our neighbor's garden is under the canopy of our walnut tree and they say it is fine--but they have a raised bed.

We are considering cutting the walnut tree down.

 

[box_of_rain]

A good friend of mine has Black Walnut trees right over her garden. She built a raised bed and had soil brought in. She hasn't had any probelms with her garden this year. She also makes sure to pick up any "tree droppings".

 

[Jennisee]

Some species are more susceptible to the juglone than others, so you'd have to experiment to see what grew well for you. You could also try to minimize the effects of the juglone by creating raised beds and keeping them cleaned of debris from the trees.

http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/hortcult...s/blkwalnt.htm

Quote:

Gardens should be located away from black walnut trees to prevent damage to susceptible plants. If proximity to such trees is unavoidable, then raised beds afford a means of protection. However, the bed must be constructed in such a way as to minimize tree root penetration into the raised portion. Care must then be taken to keep the beds free of black walnut leaf litter or nuts.

There is also a table at the end of the link with juglone-susceptible and -tolerant species.

 

[rainy32]

thanks for the info ... my dh, who is the gardener, saw the yard yesterday and determined we could probably do a garden with raised beds -- but they'd be smaller than the space at the other house, given the shade put off by the gorgeous trees.