History of Black Walnut

Prime veneer-grade black walnut is our most valuable native hardwood. At the retail level, it usually sells for two to three times the price of oak and maple. In 1974, in northwest Ohio, $35,000 was paid for a 37-inch diameter tree, and ten years later, Marvin Myers of Cayuga, Indiana, received $20,000 for another black walnut tree. In 1985, the Exotic Veneer Company of Borden, Indiana, paid $90,000 for a single black walnut veneer log.

Trees such as these, which are often over a hundred years old, are becoming increasingly rare. The relatively few that are left may someday be protected. That, along with the virtual moratorium on tropical hardwoods, makes the future for plantation-grown black walnut very bright.

Ever since colonial times, Americans have unwittingly been practicing reverse genetic selection on natural stands of black walnut. We have been cutting down all the good trees and leaving the inferior ones to propagate. The effect on the gene pool has been disastrous. As a result, the overall form of the trees has deteriorated markedly. Veneer-grade trees have become extremely rare.

Thus, in 1968, Purdue University scientists launched a research project to develop a superior black walnut strain. They collected grafting wood of 400 superior specimens from all over the Midwest and cloned them in the research clone bank at Martell Forest, 10 miles west of the Purdue campus. By 1980, the 400 had been reduced to nine superior cultivars, which have since been patented.

After years of offering two of the patented trees, Purdue Number One and Tippecanoe Number One, American Forestry Technology (AFT) introduced the Successor GST genetically superior black walnut cultivars in 1995. Successor GST is a family of six genetically superior cultivars, which are enhanced varieties of the eastern black walnut tree (Juglans nigra). They are produced by grafting scion wood from superior second and third generation genetically-selected trees onto black walnut root stock.

The genetic characteristics of the Successor GST family of trees are superior in several ways to those of the original cultivars developed and patented by Purdue University. These characteristics have been enhanced through two and in some cases three successive generations of genetic selection. The results are trees with increased growth rate and improved vigor and vitality. The form is equal to that of the patented cultivars, Purdue Number One and Tippecanoe Number One.

AFT estimates that the Successor GST will be twice the size of average run-of-the-nursery black walnut seedlings by the 25th year.