Edible Starchy Nut Tree - Update

Here’s an update to my earlier post, see link below, about a neighbors chestnut 🌰 tree -

Edible Starchy Nut Tree 

Here it is the end of September and the chestnuts 🌰 have started to turn, ripen, open and fall to the ground allowing me to make a definitive identification on the exact type of tree this is!

Survey says…a Chinese chestnut 🌰 tree

Otherwise known as a sweet chestnut 🌰 tree, which produce delicious, sweet, edible nuts - 

But beware, they’re protected by intensely sharp, needle-like prickles!

I’m not sure if the owners of this tree collect the nuts 🌰 or not. They’ve just started to turn and fall, so we’ll see.

I can’t say that I’ve ever roasted or even tasted a chestnut 🌰 but we’re coming into “chestnuts roasting by an open fire 🔥” season…

Edible Starchy Nut Tree

I haven’t seen one of these trees in a VERY long time!

Do you know what type of tree this is, HMMM?!

This brings me back to my childhood home, and back to Burgess Avenue, and stirs up some wonderful memories.

A neighbor, and close friend to the family, had one of these trees in their front yard and I was always intrigued by it. The nuts would litter the lawn and street when they began falling. I don’t recall if the homeowners ever collected these and ate them or not.

The spiny burrs on the outer husks of these nuts 🌰 are vicious, so care and gloves should be used when handling, for the weeny people anyway -

This is a chestnut 🌰 tree and it’s in the neighbors yard here in Limestone, directly across from the mailbox.

I’m not sure if this is a horse chestnut or a sweet chestnut tree. This will need some further investigation. I’ll need to grab and open one of these nuts to be able to be certain. Determining which type of chestnut is vitally important because horse chestnut are toxic to eat!

Aww Nuts

I’m not sure if there’s a way to determine the sex of Black Walnut trees, if that’s even a thing.

From what I can see, and I’m assuming here, but seems most of the walnut trees I’ve seen are male by virtue of their pair of “nuts” -

This one even did a bit of down under “manscaping” -

This male seems to have the rare anomaly polyorchidism (a third nut) -

Well, I did a bit of AI research after writing the above and it turns out the female trees are in fact the one that produce the actual walnuts.

You know what they say about assuming…

The more you know 🌈 

Hey "U" There!

Since moving in back in 2000, I've transformed the landscape and yard. Most of the trees, scrubs, flowers and plants in my yard, are ones I've planted over the years - a labor of love!

This tree pictured below, a Bradford Pear, I bought at the Home Depot in Norwood. I bought two at that time, the other is in line and behind the one pictured.  The trees themselves were no bigger around than your wrist, however, the root balls were BIG and HEAVY!  Home Depot loaded them in the back of my pickup with their fork lift, so no problem there.  The challenge was at home and getting them from point a, the driveway, to point b, the complete opposite side of the yard, UGH!

I was able to wrestle each, one at a time, and slid them off the tailgate and into a wheelbarrow! Fortunately, the wheelbarrow had two wheels, so balancing wasn't an issue, rather the weight was AND pushing it was, OMG!

Fast forward some 20 odd years and the trees are both doing great!  They've grown into mighty trees and look awesome when flowering in the spring. Although, flowering Bradford Pear trees release of sulfurous compounds odor, which is very unpleasant. Guess you gotta take the good with the bad.

This ended up being an awful long posting to point out the cool and unusual "U" shaped branch that grew.  I've been tempted over the years to cut that limb off, as more often than "knot", I'd run into it when mowing the lawn but glad I fought the urge. Even thought it's at just the right height to take you out when on the ride mower, it's unique.

Anyway, that's all, a long tangent post.

SO Many Colors!

My flowering trees are in full bloom, as are SO many others in the area, and they all look terrific!

Peach tree -

Bartlett pears -

Weeping cherry -

Although, not a tree rather a shrub, my Azalea -

My pink Dogwood -

Everything is coming alive with the warmer weather we've been having! Perennials are popping through the soil, trees are budding and things are greening up.

I'm Being A "Sapsucker"...

I have a Maple tree in my yard that has something wrong with it. It's stunted, as compared to the others it was planted with and has dead branches and limbs throughout, which brake and fall constantly.

I bought from the same nursery, along with (4) other Maple trees and all were planted at the same time.  The others are doing terrific and almost twice as big and tall as this sick one.

One thought, and the likely issue, is that the tree is suffering from 'girdling roots", where the roots grow in a circle around the trunk, essentially choking the tree by restricting water and nutrient flow.  Apparently, this is a known problem with Maple trees.

Now that the tree is sickly, it's a prime candidate to be taken advantage of and attacked.  For example, the picture below shows six perfect holes all lined up in a row on one side of the trunk.  I took this pic at one point this past summer and at the time assumed some sort of "borer" insect or a woodpecker had done this.

However, I recently came across the below Instagram video that explains what or who is the likely culprit making these holes.  The video shows similar holes and to my surprise it very likely was done by the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker!

Of course I've heard of the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker but thinking back I don't recall ever seeing one.  To be honest, until researching, I didn't know what one of these birds looked like.  Even now that I do, they look so similar to the Downey woodpecker that I don't know if I would have noticed the difference, until now.

According to the Google machine, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers are found across Canada, eastern Alaska and the northeastern United States with them wintering in the eastern United States.  So, just because I've not seen or noticed any, doesn't mean they're not here and very likely the critter responsible for the holes pictured above.

I'll be paying closer attention to the birds visiting my ole homestead.

My "Emilie" Tree

Emilie's Kousa Dogwood tree looked great this year!  It was loaded with flowers and has filled out nicely.

I planted this in honor of Emilie the year she was born.  It had a rough go early on, like Emilie did, but I've doted over it, keeping it watered and pruned, over the years, which has paid off as you can see.

It brings a smile to my face and fond memories whenever I look at it!

Timberrrrrrr!

It's done!

I cut down and cut up the two trees pictured below -

I cut the trunks up into ~3' length and have them stacked along the sidewalk with a free sign, hoping someone takes them all!  The limbs and all other pieces and parts, were loaded into the trailer and taken to the Franklin recycling center.

It's too bad really that these two died.  I planted them both years ago when they were no bigger around than my wrist.  The Hemlock stump won't be a problem since it's in the back corner where I dump my grass clippings and leaves.  However, the Weeping Cherry stump will bother me, as it's in my front yard and unsightly, to me anyway, but I'll worry about that project in the spring.

I'm happy that I got these two down, and other numerous limbs around my yard pruned back, and put to bed now versus the spring.

"Gummosis" Update

Here is an update to my "Gummosis" posting from Sunday, July 2 earlier this summer -

As you can see in the August 19th photo below, the weeping cherry tree has finally succumbed to it's disease, ALAS.

I'm constantly picking up dead branches that are breaking off.

Sadly, the time has come and I will be cutting this tree down in the coming weeks.

Gummosis?!

One of my weeping cherry trees isn't doing too well. My other cherry tree is so much fuller with leaves as compared to this one.  This tree had very few pink blossoms too.

It's looking like I'm going to have to cut it down this fall.

It's hard to see but there's crack in the bark that runs the entire length of the tree, see below.

There's also a spot on the opposite side that is and has been oozing some sort of very sticky sap.  Clearly there is something wrong and the tree is suffering from disease.

I'm make my final decision come the end of the summer.  It will depend on how the tree does and if it shows signs of recovery.

Fuzzy Floating Things

It's that time of the year when the poplar and cottonwood trees release their seeds.  They're released in what looks like fluffy pieces of cotton that float in the air similar to dandelions, which also looks like it's snowing.

The picture below kinda gives you a sense to what it looks like. Annoying really and messy. It's a terrible feeling when your out and about in the yard and inadvertently swallow or snort these things, YUK!

Fortunately, the pool is still covered but in years past with the cover was removed these cotton seeds would literally coat the top of the water.  What a pain in the tuchus too, as it clogs the skimmers and taxes the pump.  When using the hand skimmer, it clogs it too and gets super heavy.

Here's a short video I took that gives you a better idea of how crazy this is a times -

Good times!

What's Changed?

Can you spot the difference between the two pictures below?

This picture is from November 2021-

This picture is from November 2022 -

My neighbor finally took care of his leaning Beach tree this past Saturday.

Other than being unsightly, it was fine.  Believe it or not the tree was still very much alive.  It was just caught up in the larger Boxelder tree.  I was hoping it would take a few of the Boxelder limbs off when they were bringing it down but unfortunately only one of the lower limbs snapped.

Looks much better, to me anyway, and I suppose safer and won't now drop on me when mowing.

 

Bark Bark! Get It? Dogwood...

Our dogwood tree looked terrific this spring!  Full of beautiful pink blossoms!  I love this time of the year.

Pinus Rigida

Pitch Pine.

I thought these were cool looking, so snapped a couple photos and I'm now sharing them with you.

Honestly, not sure if these things eventually turn into pine cones but this tree was loaded with cones this past fall, so could be.

Leaning Poplar Tree Of Ye Olde Homestead - Update

I posted back on Nov 27, 2021 about the neighbors Poplar tree leaning and looking like it was going to fall.  Here we are on the last day of April 2022 and it's still standing, although leaning considerably more. I was hoping a heavy wet snow storm and strong winds would take it down at some point over the winter but nope!

Technically, it would be down had it not got hung up in the neighboring Boxelder tree.  That is all that is keeping it up, UGH.  It concerns me that it could fall at any time really.  I'm always out in that area mowing, weed-whacking, etc. and not too happy about playing Russian roulette on when the tree decides to fall.  Suppose I need to talk to the neighbor and ask him what his plans are?!

Up Up And Away!

The neighbor had some tree work done this past Friday.  The crew was here for the whole day and they took down quite a few trees; some BIG ones too.  Looks like it opened things up nicely for them and removed any immediate threat of them falling onto their house.

It's was amazing watching the crew work, especially the crane operator and the dude who was being placed HIGH into the tops of the trees being cut.  

Watch this short vid on how they effortlessly move a large tree from behind the house to the where it was being put into the chipper.

Leaning Poplar Tree Of Ye Olde Homestead

A couple weeks ago we had a rain storm come through the area with super high winds.  Following that storm I noticed the neighbors Poplar tree, which is just over the property line, and had been 100% vertical is now leaning almost at a 45 degree angle.

I'm thankful that it's leaning in that direction versus over the chicken coop.  I suspect this dude will come down at some point during the winter, perhaps following a heavy wet snow fall.  Of course I would prefer it NOT fall on my property but it'll prolly get hung up in the neighboring Boxelder tree, which in essence will force it to fall my way.  Shouldn't hurt anything falling in that directions it's leaning and it sure would be nice that when it does come down it takes a bunch of the Boxelder tree limbs with it!

Stay tuned...

Shiver Me Timbers!

Whadda ya think of this bad Larry?!

I scored me this beautiful 18' white birch tree, oh yeah!

I noticed this a couple months ago down at the ball fields, when I would take my covid walks. Seems to have fallen at some point during a winter storm perhaps and was tossed in the ditch along the driveway.  Forgot all about it, then recently something made me remember, so with the help of my poison ivy scared neighbor we shot down to the park and loaded it into his truck.

The birch logs we had as eye candy in our fireplace for years were tiny.  They looked odd in the larger space, not to mention that they faded some over the years.  More noticeable when lying next to one of these newbies.  I cut this new tree into 27" lengths and was able to get (7) beautiful logs.  The eighth log is smaller but fits in nicely.

What a difference!

Bad Hemlock Woolly Adelgid, Bad!

Seems that our two Hemlock trees are infected with the hemlock woolly adelgid, which was first introduced in Massachusetts back in 1988, see pics below.  Without successful intervention, the hemlock woolly adelgid is likely to kill our hemlock trees.

Seems there are two treatment options: 1) spray foliage with insecticidal soap or horticultural oil at the proper times during the insects life cycle, or 2) use a systemic insecticide, applied to the base of the tree that is absorbed by the roots, that moves with the tree sap and is consumed by the adelgids as they feed.  

The second option seems more effective at being able to cover the entire tree versus spraying and a better option for us given the location and size of the trees.

She's A Bloom'n!

The spring pruning I gave this weeping cherry tree didn't seem to bother it too much as it's still blooming on the few pathetic weeping branches it has left.

Encouraging none the less for what's to come next year!

It's gonna be tremendous.  Tremendous!