Frist pass pruning on first planting of walnuts. Most of the emphasis is on removing double trees and removing non-dominant leaders so that a dominant leader can continue upwards. All without removing too much of the growth factory branches that provide the tree with energy to put on height and girth.
We planted the walnut (both seed and seedlings from Roland's personal nursery in River Falls) in 1997. Since most of the farm was then being rented out to a neighbor for corn production we started planting in land that was previously alternated between pasture land and alfalfa. We plowed furrwos aproximately 15 feet appart over an area of about 5 acres. This produced a total furrow lenght of nearly 5 miles.
The following year (1998) we transplanted Pine and Spruce obtained from the Wisconsin DNR Nursery in furrows plowed withing 5 feet of every other walnut row. The result of this - where the pine have prospered - is that the pine are beginning to crowd the walnuts growing next to them. In this case we are prunning to give the walnuts more light and to train the pine to extend themselves vertically instead of horizontally and add girth which will translate to marketable wood production (the agricultural commodity now produced on this farm).
This field (paasture) was planted first with walnuts (in a plowed furrow) then followed the next year with red and white pine transplants. In the rows where the translantes prospered they are now towering over the walnuts. Most of these walnuts seem to enjoy the protection from winter sun and wind and are doing just fine. We are prunning the pine up along with the walnut in order to give both the empitus to grow up and not out from now on.
In the parts of this field where the pine are prospering, the pine themselves are beginning to be at a point where they may be crowding each other. We are beginning to take out pine within the pine row where choices are easy due to deformed or severely crowded conditions (one tre groing right next to the other). We are also pruning for leader dominance where there has been crown damage.