Off the 101

A chance sighting while driving along the 101 freeway, this large Juglans Californica var. Hindsii was over 48” in diameter. the canopy over 80’ in diameter, and approximately 60’ high.

Hand sketches of details from the tree, studying the bark and leaves to determine species.

I have found the diamond shaped bark of the Walnut to resemble other trees such as the Chestnut, though not necessarily as pronounced. The variation in Walnut bark across species can be subtle or dramatic as well as the size and shape of the leaves and nuts.

I harvested nearly a dozen cuttings of various lengths from the tree using a new Felco (V39050) straight knife, ensuring that the cut was clean without tearing the fibers. This sometimes required cutting the end 2-3x. Some of the cuts were made 90-degrees to the length of the cutting while others closer to 60-degrees to allow more surface area for the rooting hormone to work its magic. The cuttings were then dipped in Olivia’s root hormone gel and placed in freshly made coconut coir within a single 5 gallon repurposed nursery pot. I used hardware cloth to form a structure to hang a reused plastic bag for a greenhouse effect. From my research, misting will help the success of the cuttings along with maintaining moist, but not damp soil. I am planning for several of these to fail which is why I didn’t mind placing them relatively close together. If by some luck many of them succeed in rooting, I will select the most vigorous growers.