Black Walnut - What Plants Can Thrive with Them!?!?

[@lisahoche4017]

Spicebush seems to do exceptional co-existing along the Black walnut lined creek bed of our property. Also, I have Jerusalem Artichoke thriving in a sunny spot under the Black Walnut. Willows, wild grape and sumac are thriving. Oh, we put up a hoop house in the Black walnut vicinity. There are black walnuts spouting up amongst the peppers, chard and basil. It seems not to bother the trio.

[@edibleacres]

Very cool!

[@mybelovedchaos]

I can tell you for sure that poison ivy grows well under black walnut :)

[@sueyoung2115]

Goats will eat poison ivy.

[@suehogan901]

@@sueyoung2115llamas will, too, but they don’t like it as well as goats do

[@tinamohan8821]

Sassafras, Wild Grape, Jewelweed and Dayliles liked Black Walnut here in Zone 6b St. Louis.

[@13ccasto]

The main part of our garden is under an enormous ancient black walnut - I've added pawpaws, persimmon, and elderberries as future food forest elements but in the meantime most garden vegetables (I've read that corn, beans, and squash are particularly tolerant) seem perfectly content in our woodchip-based raised beds underneath the walnut as long as they can get enough sun

[@friendlylocal3731]

Can you describe what exactly a wood chip-based raised bed is? I have access to all the wood chips I could want and I'm curious what people do with them. Thank you.

[@13ccasto]

@@friendlylocal3731 Absolutely! Basically I was mimicking what could be described as a "deep mulch" bed. The wood chips we had access to were in varying states of decay, so we used as much of the decayed-into-compost kind as we could in the bottom of the beds and filled the top 4-6 inches with fresh chips. We'd make sure transplants would have their roots at least partially in the lower soil and we'd make a trench of compost if we were seeding. Over time the fresh chips on top start to break down (it's been three years for us now and the soil is beautiful - black, fluffy compost with a few remaining larger wood pieces for the entire foot or so of the beds) and now I'll reapply a couple inches of fresh chips every year or two just as a surface mulch. It certainly wouldn't be the most productive way to make garden beds in an open field, but in our context with about half a day of sun, I think the somewhat limited fertility of the soil matched the limited sunlight (in other words, we had no need for an extremely fertile bed of good compost because the plants were going to be limited by sunlight anyway) and I've really enjoyed watching the wood chips create soil over the years. I also liked this method because I was looking for something to smother the existing plants on our plot without plastic and it helped raise the annual crops' root zone away from the surrounding trees.

[@friendlylocal3731]

@@13ccasto Very interesting! Thanks for the detailed response. Another resource I have endless access to is wood shavings and sawdust. In fact I have my own sawmill. Perhaps I'd be able to do something similar with my sawdust.

[@13ccasto]

@@friendlylocal3731 Absolutely you could! I think sawdust takes a bit longer to break down than chips because the branches and bark found in wood chips are a bit more "green" so to speak but it would definitely still work. In my opinion there is no better use for sawdust than in composting toilets, although that may be a topic for another day.

[@matermangros]

Wild hydrangea, baneberry, indian turnip, ginseng, and toothache tree all grow with black walnuts around here in the smokies....along with all those you mentioned....it's very rare to see black walnut without locust too... Love your videos, keep up the good work!

[@suehogan901]

Sugar maples and silver maples are good buddies with black walnuts. Native grapes love them, too.

[@zb3948]

In addition to everyone's suggestions, I've noticed Staghorn Sumac around my parts here in 5b Michigan

[@suehogan901]

My sumacs stop abruptly about 15 ft out from the black walnuts on the north/road side of our property, but on the east and spreading westward, they seem to be quite compatible.

[@zb3948]

@@suehogan901 Interesting. I guess there's a tolerance by proximity.

[@Forest_ash]

I dumped a pile of compost under my old walnut trees and the tomato volunteers gave zero fs about the juglone. ✨️

[@Forest_ash]

@@hobogardenerben very good point. I didn't live at the property long enough to do a good study over time.

[@carolschedler3832]

interesting! my mom's tomatoes get a great start and then start looking poisoned.

[@HaphazardHomestead]

When I lived in Michigan, I specifically looked for Black Walnut when I was trying to find Wild Black Raspberries. They would be on the sunny side, just like you said. I would add Pokeweed to your list (Phytolacca americana), under a high canopy. That high, light shade from the Black Walnut keeps the poke plants in good shape for a longer season of great eating (properly prepared, of course). My dad in Arkansas specifically brought pokeweed into that situation, for the longer season to harvest the leaves for eating.

[@BroadShouldersFarm]

We also have mulberry near the drip line of our BW, and annual vegetables that are unbothered include corn, beans, alliums, garlic, squash and melons.

[@MelanchthonCreekFarm]

Thanks for your content!

[@matthew_joshua_knisley_jaguar]

I have American Hophornbeam growing as an understory tree in an American Beech, Sugar Maple and Black Walnut mesic forest.

[@alwayswanderingart]

We have most of the characters mentioned in the video under several large black walnut. The food forest is only about 3 years old but plants are developing well. One other that seems to be growing well for us under black walnut is American Wild Plum.

[@edibleacres]

Plum seems very very promising

[@jilarnzen490]

My gooseberries do great. All ribes should. Mulberries and all nightshades do very well too.

[@FolkRockFarm]

We harvest a lot of mulberries from under the dappled shade of massive walnuts

[@BroadShouldersFarm]

Lol, literally was looking at a bed near a black walnut and thinking, I need to revisit my appropriate plants list!

[@BroadShouldersFarm]

@Disabled.Megatron I don’t know, I’m sorry, but mint seems to be pretty metal as a survivor.

[@humicrobe4507]

My food forest is around/under a big black walnut like yours. I am growing many fruits such as Elderberry, currants, gooseberries, jostaberries, paw paws, mulberry, cultivar cornelian cherries (which are growing great right under the canopy). I also have guilds of blackcap raspberries, red raspberries, saskatoon berries, goumis, autumn olives and sea buckthorns all around/under the canopy. Things that dont work in known kill zones in my yard are the romance series sweet cherry bushes, blackberries, blueberries, haskaps and many annual veggies. I have ongoing experiments with many more types of fruit bushes and trees like asian pears, plumcots, peaches, nectarines, plums, crab apples, aronias, grapes, kiwis and chums.

[@edibleacres]

Great notes here, thank you for sharing, wow!

[@rosehavenfarm2969]

We have dozens of BW on our property; the front 2 acres, our zones 0-3, have probably 24. They ring the 2 acres. We just transplanted black locust seedlings about 3 feet from a row of them (along the north fence line because of the thorns) and they are growing like crazy. The elders planted in between the same row of BW's would be doing better if they hadn't been browsed heavily by deer. The new paw-paw is doing very well, in the afternoon shade of a big BW. But the question of BW is a [ahem] perennial question for us! Siberian Pea Shrub. Any menthe.

[@CharlesGann1]

Thank ,you for the insight on elderberry and papa doing well along with blackcap raspberry! Our wild gooseberries thrive at the base of black walnut we have an almost unkillable circle of them extending 5 feet out surronding one and have been for 20 years. Not sure if. Other currants would. Also observe in our woods hackberry trees always grow in close proximity as do elm if allowed.. agree that poison Ivy and Virginia creeper do well. This is a great guild to expand around black walnut. We have so many to dig up each year from the squirrels planting them in our flower beds. A great impromptu nursery! Appreciate these insights

[@edibleacres]

Good note, thanks!

[@HoldenCross_]

Additional comment on the benefits of black walnut - a tincture can be made from the green hulls and a grain alcohol which is useful for de-worming people and livestock.

[@maryhoffman9551]

Some juglone-tolerant plants in my experience: purple-flowring raspberry, angelica, sweet cicely, green and gold (groundcover), Egyptian walking onions, aronia, native strawberries, black raspberry, goumi, oregano, and bee balm. Some of these plants are in sunny spots near our black walnut and some are in shade very close to it. Black currant is seeming to do okay so far but not thriving.

[@Quercusssss]

Fiddlehead ferns may be a promising option. I've seen a large stand of them doing well under the canopy of a few decent-sized walnut trees

[@edibleacres]

Thats a neat idea, they are so beautiful too

[@fredotto518]

Yes, my elderberry grove is doing very well under some bw that coppiced after I cut it. I have a pawpaw seedling looking for a home so near the bw it goes. thanks for that tip !!

[@khome707]

Shawn James mentioned you in one of his videos, so here I am. I've watched a couple of your other ones, good videos! :)

[@amyk6403]

In my yard: York Elderberry Gooseberry Mulberry Grapes (wild, maybe all cultivars) Nannyberry

[@gardenjoy9371]

I can add further evidence of elderberry under an established large walnut. A wild European variety self-seeded itself almost directly under the crown of our walnut. It has put on incredible growth in three years. We also have a mirabella at the north-west drip line that puts on an amazing crop for our chickens each year. Two years ago we planted a cultivar plum just at the drip line that is growing like crazy and looking very healthy. So maybe the plum species does okay in general. A hedge of forsythia that we also use as animal fodder stretches from under the walnut out past it into the full sun. We can‘t really see much difference between the growth along the hedge, although the part in full sun blooms better of course. Thanks for the tip about paw-paw and black raspberries.

[@edibleacres]

I've heard really promising things about Plum, so that is good to read. Forscythia makes sense, they grow well anywhere!

[@deborahgammack2438]

Living under a black walnut for over 20 years, we have learned much, first by learning what doesn't grow well. This season we are expanding our garden, focusing on the space near the drip line by adding cherries, pears, and elderberries, along side rugosa roses that have been growing for two years. In an effort to cover a large swath quickly, I have seeded in perrenial wildflowers and will soon plant day lilly bulbs. Eventually I would like to seed in creeping thyme as a ground cover. I will give thought to what could be planted to the north next year. Thank you for your helpful information. O, I am growing autumn olive, too, and added 2 new plants within the drip line, but have been concerned since reading that they do not do well. We shall see.

[@edibleacres]

Thank you for sharing your experience here, much appreciated!

[@Floral.Finesser]

Love your videos they always get ne motivated and inspired, I'm from WNY so always great to see what works well for you.

[@tiffanywilkerson5569]

This is great! I wouldn't dream of cutting my black walnuts down but there are lots on my property.. Thank you

[@edibleacres]

Happy to share

[@Ghost2743]

The native Red Mulberry is completely tolerant of BW, it's also the MOST shade tolerant tree I've ever seen. I don't even know if there are any productive varieties of Red Mulberry but I hope so.

[@jlandry117]

I would also look into Honeyberries/Haskaps if you're in the proper zone for them.

[@BroadShouldersFarm]

Have you actually tried this? I was researching on a Honeyberry supplier site and they said they were not, which really surprised me because we have its close relative, Japanese honeysuckle, very close to a BW growin’ gangbusters. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@jlandry117]

@@BroadShouldersFarm Google 'PW yezberry haskap pdf' and select the page from spring meadow nursery. It states on the product info sheet that it tolerates black walnut. I have not personally tried planting with black walnut, only recall reading this when researching haskap.

[@rosaliesemrau1293]

I have blackberries growing under my black walnut trees.

[@igrcic]

Tnx Shawn! What happened to the black currants? :)

[@edibleacres]

We aren't seeing great thriving with black currant in this context

[@gangofgreenhorns2672]

My friend has a massive patch of wild black caps growing beside a black walnut that's right next to his property.

[@NnJoGg]

Did you know black walnut trees can be tapped in the spring? The sap makes a delicious syrup. Another reason to not get out the chain saw!

[@edibleacres]

Great reminder, thank you

[@joshua511]

The quality of leaves, bark etc is soooo much better than on my property! :D

[@edibleacres]

Hmmm... Not sure why that is. Although these areas have gotten lots of mulch over the years which certainly doesn't hurt

[@LaFleur785]

My grandparents had a 30+ y/o walnut tree and in near proximity (6-8m) a black cherry tree of the same age. The cherry tree was not influenced by the walnut it seems.

[@sairuhtonin]

I wonder if a decaying black walnut stump is different than a healthy living tree. We had to take our walnut down a few years ago for safety reasons (it was healthy, but in the felling path of dead trees and it had to be sacrificed) and the only thing I can get to grow within 5 feet of it is mint. I've tried paw paw, elderberry, currants, native black raspberry, spicebush, seedling plum... the only thing besides the mint that seems to like the space are winter squash/ pumpkins. There are pawpaw and elderberry right about where the old drip line used to be, so I wonder if it's just the concentration from the stump, or maybe poorer soil there.

[@amandasue6500]

It takes a long time for the juglone to leave. Sometimes aeration in the soil helps to wash it away with rain, in time.

[@yougoman1]

From what I've heard the effects of the walnut are mainly pronounced when its stressed for self-preservation.

[@LittleJordanFarm]

Looks wonderful...I have very similar landscape. Question if I may ..I've been here 6 years. Creek plenty of flies and blooms. But I've never gotten any papaws. It's all native landscape. Any advice

[@carolschedler3832]

any luck this year? do we need two paw paws to get fruit?

[@katiepuckett573]

Does anyone have experience with Butternut tree (Juglans cinerea)? I am starting a second food forest area on my property with a Butternut tree (seedling planted 1 year ago, Illinois Everbearing Mullberry, two Paw Paw's, Serviceberry (Saskatoon). I will be adding BeeBalm, Balck Cap Raspberry, several types of Elderberry, and a Redbud Forest Pansy that I have ready to plant or move from other areas of my property.

[@ghettohomestead9254]

I often see maple trees intermingling with walnut in Windham County Connecticut.

[@edibleacres]

Great to know thank you for aharing

[@grumpioletroll6259]

Hack Berry and sassafras both do well

[@edibleacres]

Good to know!

[@nicholerichardson5336]

What are your thoughts or if anyone knows: apricot. My property is surrounded by 100 year old black walnut trees and have been working with them so far. Raised beds, paw paw etc. but want apricot. We put our pear trees in front yard which is furthest away from walnuts.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

That paw paw fruit set is nuts. Can the branches support that load? Some of them look really thin, will they not break? We're in the first year of our paw paw fruit set and I've got a few similar sized branches holding similar sized clusters, and I'm not sure if they will manage it okay.

[@edibleacres]

I've never thought about it or worried about it... Persimmon can break under a fruit load, but it doesn't care and it just grows more branches. I bet Paw Paw is the same. We never really put effort to pruning them much for actual shaping, but they're easy to cut and I can always clean up a torn branch from holding too much candy :) Definitely not a worry in my mind, hope yours just coast and crank fatty candies for you and yours :)

[@debbiehenri345]

I planted a walnut several years ago, and it has struggled ever since (Scotland, so it's probably a bit cold for it). I have, until now, kept the area clear of other plants, because I thought it wouldn't be worthwhile bothering. However, I have 4 Black Locust seedlings in pots and was wondering only yesterday 'where' I should plant them. Now I know. I have been trying to grow Pawpaws here, but they just die back, and the plants cost too much to keep replacing. Maybe I should wait until the Walnut grows a bit more, the Locusts are established, add some Elders - and only then have another go at planting Pawpaws.

[@edibleacres]

This all seems really reasonable to me!

[@MultiShaed]

Cherries, peaches, figs, mulberry, and willows have all done well in a walnut heavy context. Also hickory, redbud, hackberry

[@edibleacres]

Interesting you've experienced peaches and cherries doing ok... Never thought that would be the case!

[@MultiShaed]

From what I've read, all stone fruit are not affected by juglone. I will find out how Am. plum and hazelnuts do soon since I planted some under some walnuts and pecan

[@peterellis4262]

I wonder if the impact of the juglone in your context is mitigated by the tremendous diversity and overall health and fertility of your site?

[@Doombird]

These aren't all edible, but here's what's been growing under my walnut tree since long before I got here: Bloodroot Phlox Daylilies Blackcap raspberries Snowdrop Irises Some things I've planted, under a live walnut tree or in a spot where a largish walnut was taken down this year and the roots remain: American elder, pawpaw, black locust Hackberry Quince! Japanese maple Beach plum (needs a couple years before I know whether this worked well)

[@edibleacres]

Awesome notes of additional plants that work, thank you!

[@jacknorris9591]

I have a question about pawpaws. We have a lot of pawpaws on our land but not a lot of fruit. Does it help fruit production to thin out the smaller ones? They grow in thick thickets very quickly

[@edibleacres]

You can thin out some suckers and runners if they seem in the way or block access. I don't normally put effort into that since they seem fine either way, but certainly an option

[@nicoledoucet6125]

I planted a black walnut in my yard about 4 years ago, next to some of my fruit trees (plum, pear, grapes that are both very old). The plums died over this winter but so did many other peoples from our area... climate going from hot summer to winter to summer here in the interior of BC, Canada, we missed out on our springs (freezing to heat dome and vise versa. Climate crisis). There were a few factors involved in losing them. My question is how far apart from the black walnut tree/roots can you plant day a peach tree without it being affected by the juglion? And how long would it take to see the effects?

[@Mamaculture]

What about mushrooms? There a park here in california that has a bunch of walnut trees and I noticed alot of mushroom growth one spring, wasn't able to figure out what type of mushroom they were, but maybe you could grown wine caps near the trees?

[@edibleacres]

Great question!

[@FarmerJohnca]

Have you found any problems planting black walnut seeds in the middle of two garlic rows, which i've watched you talk about with peach seeds before, i'm going to try it this fall. Also any folks here know of any annuals not effected by the black walnut's root system

[@FarmerJohnca]

@EdibleAcres

[@bot-ip1lu]

What about Chesnut and beech tree ?

[@edibleacres]

Can't say, but it seems Chestnut maybe doesn't thrive with them

[@susancruz729]

Prunus

[@gardentours]

Good to know that pawpaw is one of the plants that don't mind to grow close to a walnut tree. Did you eat that bee balm? I just bought some of those plants and tried the blossoms as well.

[@edibleacres]

The petals are wonderful!

[@johnrackow7767]

Gooseberry

[@hilaryduffield2552]

Thank you for this video. Do you have any experience or knowledge concerning how much juglone comes from Pecans? I know it's less than black walnut but am wondering if it is so little that trees like apples and birches would have no trouble at all in their vicinity (especially with buffer plants like elder and mulberry), If so, it would make planning a bit easier: I've got my walnuts in one place, but want to plant pecans all over ;-).

[@edibleacres]

I really can't say for sure but it seems like Black Walnut is truly the champion of juglone and all the other characters are gentle in that regard. I bet there are charts out there but I think you can and should just go for it! Juglone influences plants negatively in direct proportion to how much they are already weakened. Ample mulch, deep compost, companions, etc etc and it shouldn't be a problem I think

[@hilaryduffield2552]

Thanks, Sean. I couldn't find much scientific data on this online or reports of gardeners' experience; so I will start my own experiment - probably with a small (potentially) sacrificial apple rootstock - and see what happens.

[@gardensforliferiverton]

Your nursery would make millions in NZ!!!. There are 2 tiny american paw paw seedlings on an online trade site which were at $60 NZ l(ast time I looked). I am tempted to bid on them as they look so productive in your landscape but their leaf shape looks different to yours (maybe an age related difference)?

[@edibleacres]

Could be a different plant is also called Paw Paw, pretty common... Hoping you find some great plants at reasonable prices!

[@lizgoebel5916]

Did you eat that bee balm!? CAN one eat bee balm!? Or were you munching on the raspberries 🧐

[@edibleacres]

Bee Balm is edible and medicinal. I was eating the flower petals, they are sweet and spicy and amazing. Like honey and oregano mixed

[@keyboard_g]

Persimmons are tolerant of juggalos. Interesting 😂

[@edibleacres]

Juggalo Context

[@debreher3204]

Day lilies and dames rocket if you want more flowers

[@edibleacres]

Great! Yes, I have definitely seen dames rocket doing well with them

[@debreher3204]

I've begin tapping my black walnut trees. Made my first batch of syrup. It's mighty good. Will be tapping more this winter.