Other than valuable wood and the actual nuts which are more of pain then a blessing, what would be reasons to keep walnut trees near a house and garden?  The property that I bought last year has them all over and while they are nice trees they are more of a hassle than anything.

One question I have is how valuable is the wood from a walnut tree?  Let's say I have a tree that is 20" in diameter, somewhere between 40-50 feet tall, very straight and the first major branch is at least 16 feet up.  I have no clue on pricing.  Is this tree worth $500, $1,000, $5,000?  I have no clue.  Considering the branches extend over the area where I park my vehicles, how many walnut dent repairs is the tree worth?

Here is the walnut tree by the house.  It is really in the way as well if I ever want to use the side door that is there on that wing of the house.



The best area in the yard for a garden has a walnut tree growing there.  Another 20" diameter or so.  All the Juglone tolerant plants seem to do fine but eating a few varieties of flowers and bushes doesn't seem appealing.  I would like to grow some actual vegetables.

The brush around the tree in the middle has been removed and if I trim up the limbs on the walnut would get direct sunlight almost all day long.  Even with the branches you can see the vegetation below it does very well.  




A lot of this is what I would like to have on the property.

Plants Sensitive to Juglone Vegetables asparagus, cabbage, eggplant, pepper, potato, rhubarb, tomato Flowers autumn crocus, chrysanthemum, forget-me-not, petunia, peonies Trees alder, apple and crabapple, basswood, pine, spruce, silver maple, white birch

As far as what you want to have on the property:

Why basswood? Up here, we consider it a weed. They grow big, tall fast, and they hollow out and fall down all the time and wreck stuff. I'm working on thinning my grove of that crap. Sure, they may be nice young, but its a tree removal project down the road (and in not too much time).

If you are thinking silver maple, what about sugar maple? Do you have sugar sap runs in your area? I also like the lovely colors in the fall from the sugar maple. 

Just random thoughts. 

I actually copied the table off plants off a site and should have cleaned it up by removing alder and basswood. Not too interested in those.  I like maples and the property has maples; however, the previous owner put them in the worst spot,southern and western sides of the gardens.   Plants don't need direct sunlight do they?  Now they are about 30 feet tall and shading everything.  I cut a large horizontal branch off one of the maples a month ago and sap started dripping out. That prompted me to purchased some taps and gave it a try.  The maples he planted were red maples.  I also read walnut syrup is a new niche market and tapped 2 of those trees as well.  

I don't just want to start cutting down mature trees but at the same time my options are pretty limited if I keep things as they are.  

How much a tree is worth all depends on the grade of lumber or veneer it will produce.  You should be able to find a local forester that can come out and take a look and will give you a better idea of what you have.  If it's just a few trees a lumber company really won't want to mess with it.  At that point you could cut them yourself and sell them to a sawmill.  Our property has a LOT of walnuts on it and we are about 10 years away from doing some timber management on it.  The lumber company we had look at it has a 50 tree minimum, 30 if they're all walnuts.  YMMV.


Lumber is sold by the board foot.  Here is a calculator for it.  Then figure $0.50 to $5.00 per board ft depending on size and grade 

Little More Info

As far as commercial logs go, may loggers don't want anything to do with yard trees.  To high a likelihood that they have nails, or something similar, in them that will dull up chains/blades.  Generally, growth isn't great around walnut trees, I think it has to do with them making the ground acidic, but I could be wrong.

Silver maples are regarded as junk trees by many arborists in my area.  About any other common maple species would come more highly recommended.

Personally if I had 20" or better trees I would hire a sawmill to cut boards for me but I have the equipment to get it to my sawyer a place to keep it for a few years to dry. That is one of the big things with making lumber and air-drying it - a place to keep it for the time necessary. Walnut is excellent wood for firewood too, splits nice and when dry makes almost as good kindling as cherry. You can make your own stain from the nut husks if you need it for anything.

I took down a huge black cherry last fall. It was 34" diameter.  Unfortunately it had old rot, new rot, holes, fungus, and termites in it.  I'm still going to see if anything can be done with part of it but my options are rather limited.  I have more than enough firewood at this point and at least a dozen dead trees that need to come out still.

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