The Spruce / Evgeniya Vlasova
The butternut tree is one of the hardiestnut trees.
Its native range stretches from the entire northeastern United States into southeastern Canada.
Yellowish-green flowers appear in late spring, giving way to the fruits that ripen into nuts in fall.
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The reason for that is the susceptibility of the tree to a deadly fungal disease known as butternut canker.
The tree can be planted in the spring or fall.
The tree grows fairly slowly, adding less than 12 inches per year.
It can live up to 75 years.
In terms of maintenance, the butternut tree is easy to care for.
Pruning is essentialthe crown can hang quite low if the tree is not kept pruned.
Monitoring the tree for butternut canker is vital.
Light
Butternut trees need full sun; they do not tolerate shady conditions.
The tree is best grown in open spaces far away from other trees and plants.
Water
This tree does best with consistent moisture but established trees can tolerate some drought.
There are no named cultivars ofJ.
cinera,but there are hybrids with varying degrees of resistance to butternut canker.
Butternut trees have been crossed with Japanese walnut (J. ailantifolia) andheartnut(J. mandshuricavar.cordiformis).
Hybrids between butternut and heartnut are called Buartnut, or short, Buart.
A popular Buartnut cultivar is Mitchell, which is self-fertile.
Pruning opens up the center of the tree to light and air.
Dense foliage, especially in humid conditions, is a breeding ground for butternut canker and other diseases.
Keep the crown raised above the ground by pruning away downward-facing branches from the lower limbs.
Without such pruning, the crown may grow too low to walk beneath or mow around the tree.
The best time for pruning is towards the end of the dormant season in late winter.
Overwintering
Butternut is a hardy tree that does not need any winter protection.
Unfortunately, there is no cure for the disease.
Affected trees usually die within a few years.
Sometimes several infected areas grow together.
Smaller infected areas can form around scars, such as pruning cuts.
Look for sunken and black spots, with white margins and surrounded with what looks like crimped bark.
Eventually the branches with canker die because the canker cuts off the supply of nutrients and water.
Even after a branch has died, the spores are spread by rain to other parts of the tree.
The canker produces spores during the entire growing season.
The spores are transmitted from infected trees through rain splash, insects, and wind.
Thats why it is crucial that you plant a butternut tree as isolated as possible in the landscape.
Often, wounds, such as from pruning, serve as entry points for the fungus.
ensure to regularly inspect the tree and prune away any suspicious branches as soon as you spot them.
Dont forget to sanitize your tools to prevent spreading the spores from one branch to another.
To avoid problems, do not plant a butternut tree near other plantings.
Black walnut trees are a different species from a butternut tree.
Butternut looks a lot like its close relative, the black walnut, but it is smaller.
Butternut trees can be messy.
The compound leaves of the butternut tree are large, 10 to 20 inches long.
The dropped leaves in the fall, as well as the nut drop, can be messy.
These flowers are small and insignificant.
Butternuts are sweet and buttery and a delicacy, but they are work.
The nutshells are hard to crack; they require a special nutcracker for hard-shelled nuts.
Also, you will compete with deer, squirrels, and birds for the nuts.
Save Our Species: A Blueprint for Restoring Butternut (Juglans cinerea) across Eastern North America.Journal of Forestry.
North Carolina State University Extension.
