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Crop guide
Walnut (Akhrot)
1. Land Preparation Pits 3 x 3 x 3 ft, spacing 30 x 30 ft — walnut becomes a very large tree and close planting is regretted for fifty years. Deep soil is essential; the tap root goes down further than almost any other fruit. 2.
Land Preparation
Pits 3 x 3 x 3 ft, spacing 30 x 30 ft — walnut becomes a very large tree and close planting is regretted for fifty years. Deep soil is essential; the tap root goes down further than almost any other fruit.
Sowing Time & Method
Plant grafted plants in January–February while fully dormant. GRAFTED, not seedling: a seedling walnut takes 10–15 years to bear and the nut is usually small and hard-shelled, while a grafted plant of a named thin-shelled variety bears in 4–6 years. This one decision is worth more than everything else in this programme.
Seed Rate & Treatment
Buy grafted plants of a named thin-shelled (kaghzi) variety from a registered nursery.
Fertilizer
Per bearing tree per year: 40–50 kg farmyard manure in winter, 2 kg urea, 1.5 kg DAP and 1.5 kg SOP. Apply the whole ring out at the drip line, not against the trunk — walnut feeder roots are all at the canopy edge.
Irrigation
Every 15–20 days through the growing season. Walnut is deep-rooted and drought tolerant once established, but nut filling in August needs water — a dry August gives shrivelled kernels in an otherwise good crop.
Weed Control
Weed Damage Control Product
Bermuda Grass (Khabbal) Turfs over a young graft's basin and takes the channel water and nitrogen, so growth stalls. Hand hoe a clean basin around every young tree
Field Bindweed (Lehli) Winds up the young graft and bends the leader, spoiling the tree's shape for years. Unwind it off the sapling and pull the roots out
Stinging Nettle (Bicchu Booti) Stands thick in a young tree's basin and takes the manure and moisture meant for its new growth. Scythe it down before it seeds and keep the young tree's basin clean
Chulai (Amaranth) Shoots up fast in a young tree's basin in summer and takes the water and nitrogen the graft needs to put on growth. Uproot it young, before it runs up to seed
Bathu (Lambsquarters) Grows rank around young trees in spring, taking the moisture and nitrogen meant for new growth. Hoe the basin while the plants are small, before they seed
Keep basins clean. Nothing grows well under a mature walnut anyway — the roots release juglone, which is toxic to many plants, so do not intercrop tomato, potato or apple under it.
Insect Pests
Walnut fruit fly and codling moth attack the developing nut. Bark beetle and the bark-eating caterpillar tunnel in trunk and branches of neglected trees. Aphid causes sticky honeydew and sooty mould on the leaves.
Diseases
Walnut blight is the main disease — black spots on leaves, shoots and young nuts in a wet spring, and a bad year loses much of the crop. Anthracnose blackens husks. Crown and root rot follow poor drainage.
Crop Care
Prune only in late autumn or midwinter when fully dormant. Walnut bleeds sap heavily if cut in spring, which weakens the tree badly.
Harvesting
Harvest when the green husk splits and nuts begin to fall. Hull the same day — a nut left in its husk stains dark and loses grade immediately. Wash, then dry in shade with air moving, never in direct sun, until the kernel snaps rather than bends. Sun-dried walnut goes rancid in storage.
Expected Yield
A mature grafted tree gives 30–50 kg in shell, roughly 30–60 maund per acre.
