When is the best time to harvest the walnuts
As soon as the fruits of your walnut tree have a greenish-brown and cracked skin, they are (harvest) ripe. This is usually the case from the end of September - in short, the walnut harvest time begins in late summer or early autumn. Incidentally, ripe walnuts often fall from the tree by themselves. Otherwise, gentle shaking will help.
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Practical tips for walnut harvesting
In commercial cultivation, the walnuts are harvested using special vibrating and sweeping machines. To harvest the fruits in your own garden, however, you do not need any equipment, not even a ladder or a fishing net with an extendable telescopic handle. All you need is your hands and gardening gloves for protection. Wear the latter when you harvest your walnuts.
Do not knock the walnuts off the tree with force, otherwise you may damage the tree shoots and affect the harvest of the coming year. It is better to just wait until the nuts have dropped on their own. If you run out of patience, you can gently shake the tree to give a little help.
If the walnuts are lying in the grass, all you have to do is collect them. To make this act as uncomplicated as possible, it is advisable to mow the grass in good time (before harvesting the walnuts). Otherwise you have to look for the fruit in or between tall stalks - unnecessary effort. Of course, you should collect or enjoy intact walnuts without exception.
Here are some extra tips for walnut harvesting:
- Collect the fruit regularly - usually once a day, on rainy days even twice a day (morning and afternoon). This will keep uninvited guests away from the tree. Left-lying walnuts provide an ideal breeding ground for pests and invite them to multiply quickly.
- Humans aren't the only beings on planet earth who value walnuts; Mice and squirrels also love the closing fruits. So be altruistic and provide some of your nuts to the animals (especially if you have a very rich harvest yourself).
- If you don't want to eat your walnuts straight away, but want to keep them safe, you can't avoid drying the fruit immediately after harvesting - in a warm and dark room.
